A special thanks

Jet, April 7, 2003

A SPECIAL THANKS: Myrlie Evers-Williams, 70, widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, thanks the Mississippi House and Senate for honoring her and her late husband at the state Capitol in Jackson, MS, as Mississippi state Reps. (l-r) Tom Wallace, Jim Evans Chester Masterson, and Mary Coleman look on.

"He proved to all of us his belief by putting his life on the line, defending justice, equality and opportunity for each and every one of us," said Evers-Williams of her late husband. On June 12, 1963, Evers, former field secretary for the NAACP, was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith in the driveway of his Jackson, MS, home. Currently Evers-Williams, a former NAACP chairwoman, is promoting discussion of civil rights issues with creation of the Medgar Evers Institute in Jackson. Later, on the campus of Alcorn State University in Lorman, MS, Evers-Williams and Charles Evers, Medgar Evers' brother and former mayor of Fayette, MS, listen to remarks during a dedication ceremony of the Medgar Evers Auditorium there. The late civil rights leader was an alumnus of Alcorn. The auditorium is located in the J.D. Boyd Library.