Scherrie Jones

61 years ago today, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated. His murderer was convicted 30 years later. June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers is assassinated. He was 37. Evers pulled into his driveway after returning from a meeting with NAACP lawyers. Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that read "Jim Crow Must Go," he was struck in the back with a bullet fired from an Enfield 1917 rifle; it ricocheted into his home. He staggered 9 meters before collapsing. Evers died at a local hospital 50 minutes later. Medgar Wiley Evers was a civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation. After returning from World War II and completing his secondary education, he became active in the civil rights movement. He became a field secretary for the NAACP. His assassination and the resulting trials inspired civil rights protests, as well as numerous works of art, music, and film. On June 21, 1963, Byron De La Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and member of the White Citizens' Council and the KKK was arrested for Evers' murder. Juries composed solely of white men twice that year deadlocked on De La Beckwith's guilt. 30 years later, De La Beckwith was brought to trial based on new evidence. He was convicted of murder on February 5, 1994. De La Beckwith appealed unsuccessfully, and died at age 80 in prison in January 2001.