CRIMINAL COLD CASES-FUGITIVES FINALLY BROUGHT TO JUSTICE-13-MEDGAR EVERS

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CRIMINAL COLD CASES-FUGITIVES FINALLY BROUGHT TO JUSTICE-13
MEDGAR EVERS:
THE RACE CASE
THE CASE OF MEDGAR EVERS IS ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY IN AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY. AFTER HIS MURDER IN 1963, IT TOOK ALMOST THREE DECADES FOR JUSTICE TO BE DONE: BUT EVENTUALLY, BY A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE, IT WAS DONE, AND HIS NAME IS NOW REMEMBERED WITH PRIDE AS ONE OF THE MAJOR PIONEERS OF AMERICA's CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

Political activism
Evers was born in Decatur, Mississippi on 2 July 1925. As a young man he served in the United States army during the Second World War, and went on to enrol in business studies at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi. He was a keen student, involved with many activities, including playing team sports, singing in the college choir, taking part in the debating society, and editing the college newspaper. In fact, he was so successful that he was listed in the 'Who's Who' of American colleges.

At college, Evers met his wife, Myrlie Beasley, and the pair married in December 1951. After receiving his degree, the newly wed couple moved to Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Evers was a bright, ambitious young man, who was determined to combat the racism of the Mississippi establishment so that he could follow his career path and raise his family in peace in the place where he had grown up.

Grief and defiance: mourners march and sing through Jackson, Mississippi, in a funeral procession for slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers

His first job after leaving college was as an insurance salesman, travelling round the South. On his travels, he saw for himself the abject poverty in which many black families lived, and was determined to do something about it. He became more active in politics, joining the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and helping to organize boycotts of gasoline stations that were refusing to allow black people to use the restroom facilities. He also helped to set up local chapters of the NAACP around the Mississippi delta.

In 1952, in recognition of his efforts, Evers was appointed the first full-time field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. His job was to collect and disseminate information about civil rights violations. He also organized non-violent protests against segregation, for which he was imprisoned. He was badly beaten several times, but he refused to be intimidated and carried on with his political activism.

Fresh fingerprints on the gun
In 1954, Evers applied to the University of Mississippi to study law. At that time the university was segregated, but Evers cited the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Brown v. Board of Education which ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. When his application was rejected, Evers campaigned for the desegregation of the university. In 1962, the campaign finally bore fruit when it enrolled its first black student, James Meredith. This triumph was at a cost, however: it sparked riots that left two people dead. In some quarters, Evers was blamed for inciting the violence, although he had always stated that 'violence is not the way' and had supported civil disobedience as a way of bringing about real change.

The face of African America's despair: Medgar Evers' son and widow attend his funeral in June 1968
Medgar Evers (left), as the President of the Mississippi NAACP, was with James H Meredith – the first African American to go to the University of Mississippi – when Meredith announced he would be returning to the college, despite protest riots

On 12 June 1963, Evers pulled into his driveway after a meeting and was brutally shot as he stepped out of his car, right outside his home. When the police were called, a gun was found in the bushes nearby, covered in fresh fingerprints. After analysis, there was no doubt who they belonged to: Byron de la Beckwith, a well-known figure in the local white segregationist movement. De la Beckwith had been heard to say that he wanted to kill Evers. After the murder, de la Beckwith was immediately arrested and charged, but despite the evidence, he was never convicted.

On two separate occasions, all-white juries failed to agree that de la Beckwith was guilty as charged. However, many years later, in 1989, new evidence came to light that the jury in both trials had been pressurized not to convict. There was also evidence of statements that de la Beckwith had made about the case, implying that he had committed the murder.

Body exhumed
In 1994, a new trial commenced, during which Evers' body had to be exhumed. It was found to be in a good enough state of preservation to corroborate the information. Byron de la Beckwith was finally convicted of the murder on 5 February 1994. He appealed against the verdict, but his appeal was rejected, and he went on to serve his sentence, dying in prison in 2001.

This was no ordinary cold case, however, in which new evidence alone resulted in a conviction. The years after Evers' death had seen a fundamental change in attitudes in the United States, as people began to realize the injustices of racism, prompted by the campaigns of the civil rights movement and the passing of a civil rights bill that enshrined the principles of equal rights in law. Over the years, it had become clear that segregation, and the violence involved in implementing it, was no longer excusable or acceptable in modern America.

As part of this process, the reputation of Medgar Evers grew. Immediately after his death, he was mourned nationally, and buried with honours at Arlington Cemetery. Nina Simone composed a song as a tribute to him ( Mississippi Goddamn), as did Bob Dylan ( Only a Pawn in their Game), which helped to establish him as a legendary figure. He became known as one of the earliest civil rights pioneers, whose courage and vision had been instrumental in kicking off the civil rights movement in the United States. Thus, pressure to convict his murderer, and to overturn the biased decisions of the past trials, also grew. In a sense, the final Medgar Evers trial, decades after his death, was not just a trial of his murderer, but of the racist attitudes that had allowed his murder to take place, and to go unpunished for so many years.

The cold face of a killer: Byron de la Beckwith (right) is shown conferring with his attorney at Jackson police station after his arrest for the murder of civil rights leader, Medgar Evers