UPDATED: 3:25 p.m. ET, June 12, 2020 —
Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers was a trailblazer for racial equality in the South — all while displaying a tireless dedication to self-improvement, education, and fair treatment for citizens in his native Mississippi and abroad.
Just a day prior to Evers’ tragic early morning death, President John F. Kennedy delivered an address focused squarely on the necessity of civil rights.
Watch Evers’ story here:
VIDEO
The act was committed by Byron De La Beckwith (pictured below), a white supremacist and Klansman who was also a member of the now-defunct White Citizens’ Council.
The nation mourned the death of Evers, and he was given a full military burial just two days before the arrest of De La Beckwith in 1963.
In 1969, Medgar Evers College was established in Brooklyn as part of the City University of New York system.
