Wednesday, June 12, 1963: The death of Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers, the NAACP's field secretary in Mississippi and a leading figure in the civil rights movement, is shot and killed outside his home in Jackson. Within days, Byron De La Beckwith is arrested and charged with the killing. Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both trials ending in hung juries; he is eventually convicted in 1994.

The bullet that killed Evers then went through a window in his house. Photo by Flip Schulke.

Evers' casket at the train station in Meridian, Mississippi. His casket was taken to Washington, where Evers, an Army veteran who fought in World War II, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Photo by Flip Schulke.

Resources
* A Tribute to Medgar Evers (Mississippi Public Broadcasting): @

* "Mississippi Negro Leader Slain" (Miami News, June 12): @

* Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers Was Killed 40 Years Ago Today" (Associated Press, 2003): @

* "The Legacy of Medgar Evers" (Clarion-Ledger, Jackson): @

* Entry from NAACP: @

* Entry from Mississippi Writers Page (University of Mississippi): @

* Entry from Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute (Stanford University): @
* Entry from PBS: @
* "Fifty Years: Remembering Medgar Evers" (John R. Salter Jr.): @
* FBI files on Evers: @
* Speakers at funeral service and coverage of procession (June 15, Jackson; from archive.org): @
* Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute: @

Books
* "Ghosts of Mississippi: The Murder of Medgar Evers, the Trials of Byron De La Beckwith, and the Haunting of the New South" (Maryanne Vollers, 1995): @

* The Ghosts of Medgar Evers" (Willie Morris, 1998): @

* "Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers" (Adam Nossiter, 1994): @

* "The Autobiography of Medgar Evers" (2005): @
* "Mississippi Martyr" (Michael Vinson Williams, 2011): @

* "Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement" (Minrose Gwin, 2013): @. Video of Gwin reading from book: @
* "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth's Sit-in and the Movement it Inspired" (M.J. O'Brien, 2013): @

Magazines
* Life, June 21 ("A Trail of Blood -- A Negro Dies"): @
* Life, June 28 (cover story): @
* Jet, June 27: @
* The Crisis, June-July, 1973: @
* "Where Is The Voice Coming From?" (Eudora Welty, July 1963, The New Yorker): @
* Draft of Welty's story (Clarion-Ledger): @

Video
* "Justice Delayed" (Martin Kent Films): @ and @

Photos
* Slideshow (CBS News): @

Songs
* "Ballad of Medgar Evers" (SNCC Freedom Singers): @

* "Only a Pawn in Their Game" (Bob Dylan): @
* "Too Many Martyrs" (Phil Ochs): @

* "Medgar Evers Lullaby" (Judy Collins): @ 

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