Journalist and civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams will take part in “Remembering Medgar Evers,” the opening program for the SPJ Regional Conference on Friday, April 5 at 5 p.m.
June marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader who sought to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizen’s Council, killed Evers in 1963 but was only convicted decades later.
Evers-Williams, who delivered the invocation at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, is also a former head of the NAACP.
She will be joined on the panel by Leslie McLemore, a political science professor from Jackson State University, and Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, whose cold case reporting has led to the arrests of several Klansmen and prompted authorities to reopen multiple civil rights murders.
The program is sponsored by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism & Politics and it is open to the public.
