OnPolitics: Civil rights icon Myrlie Evers continues to fight for justice

Sarah Elbeshbishi, USA TODAY
·1 min read
Myrlie Evers-Williams, the civil rights pioneer and wife of Medgar Evers who was assassinated in 1963.

Hi there, OnPolitics readers!

At 90 years old, civil rights pioneer Myrlie Evers is still organizing for justice.

After the icon's recent milestone birthday and with the 60th anniversary of civil rights organizer Medgar Evers' assassination approaching, Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page sat down in an exclusive interview with Myrlie Evers-Williams to talk the screening of the movie “Till," her husband's murder and her own crusade against racism.

“The Till case – all of that takes me right back to the time when the love of my life, the father of my children, my husband was shot down dead at our doorstep June the 12th, 1963,” she told USA TODAY, her anger still fresh six decades later.

Medgar Evers was targeted by white supremacists for his work as the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, including his investigation of the kidnapping and torture of Till after he was accused of whistling at a white woman.

Myrlie Evers continued to work for the NAACP after her husband's death, continuing her effort to achieve justice for Medgar Evers and fighting to bring his killer, Byron De La Beckwith, to justice even after two all-white juries elected not to convict him. He was convicted in 1994.

More recently, Evers organized a demonstration at her retirement home in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police to protest police brutality against Black men.

Her life story is a study of persistence.

🔎 Keep reading: America's 'nasty disease': At 90, civil rights icon Myrlie Evers still marches against racism

📖 For more: Civil rights activists Myrlie Evers-Williams and Fannie Lou Hamer among inspiring women on Mississippi list

📨 Get this newsletter in your inbox: Don't miss our politics coverage. Sign up for OnPolitics.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: OnPolitics: Civil rights icon Myrlie Evers still marches against racism

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