Medgar Evers Research Paper

Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. In 1954, he was the first state field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. He organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations, and economic boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination. He also worked to investigate crimes perpetrated against blacks. On June 12, 1963, Evers was assassinated outside of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Growing up in a Mississippi farming family, Evers got into the U.S. Army in 1943. He fought in both France and Germany during World War II, and received an honorable discharge in 1946. In 1948, he entered Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University) in Lorman, Mississippi. During his senior year, Evers

Due to his high-profile position with the NAACP, Evers became a target for those who opposed racial equality and desegregation. He and his family were subjected to numerous threats and violent actions over the years, including a firebombing of their house in May 1963. At 12:40 a.m. on June 12, 1963, Evers was shot in the back in the driveway of his home in Jackson. He died less than a hour later at a nearby hospital.
Evers was buried with military in Arlington National Cemetery, and the NAACP awarded him their 1963 Spingarn Medal. The national outrage over Evers 's murder increased support for legislation that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Immediately after Evers 's death, the NAACP appointed his brother, Charles, to his position. Charles Evers went on to become a major political figure in the state; in 1969, he was elected the mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, becoming the first African-American mayor of a racially mixed Southern town since the Reconstruction. A police and FBI quickly found a suspect, Byron De La Beckwith, a white segregationist and founding member of Mississippi 's White Citizens Council. Evidence was there against him, a rifle was found on the scene was registered to Beckworths and had fingerprints on the the scope. Evers had several witnesses against him and Beckworth denied it. He said that the gun was stolen and produced several witnesses to testify that he was elsewhere on the night of the

After Beckwith 's second trial, Myrlie Evers moved with her children to California, where she earned a degree from Pomona College and was later named to the Los Angeles Commission of Public Works. Convinced that her husband 's killer had not been brought to justice, she continued to search for new evidence in the case. December 1990, Beckwith was again indicted for the murder of Medgar Evers. After a number of appeals, the Mississippi Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of a third trial in April 1993. Ten months later, testimony began before a racially mixed jury of eight blacks and four whites. In February 1994, nearly 31 years after Evers 's death, Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He died in January 2001 at the age of 80. In 1995, Myrlie Evers-Williams was elected chairwoman of the board of directors of the NAACP. She is currently a member of the board 's executive committee.
Every since his tragic death, Medgar Evers 's contributions to the civil rights movement have been honored in many ways.The City University of New York has named one of its campuses after the slain activist. In 2009, the U.S. Navy also bestowed his name on one of their vessels. If it wasn’t for him stepping up and doing what he did african americans wouldn 't be where