Widow works to preserve Evers’ civil-rights legacy
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Myrlie Evers-Williams acknowledges it would be easy to remain mired in bitterness and anger, 50 years after a sniper’s bullet made her a widow.
Instead, she’s determined to celebrate the legacy of her first husband, Medgar Evers – a civil rights figure often overshadowed by peers such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Events including a black-tie gala are being held this week to remember Evers, the first Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was 37 when he was assassinated on June 12, 1963.
Evers-Willliams moved back to Mississippi in 2012 and is treated with reverence by strangers who recognize her. She is teaching and writing at Alcorn State University, where she and Medgar Evers met as students.
