Myrlie Evers-Williams

Myrlie Evers and her children, Van, 9; Darrell, 16; and Rena, 9

June 1969, Claremont, CA, Associated Press

Quick Facts

Significance:

Civil rights activist and the first woman to head the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Place of Birth:

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Date of Birth:

March 17, 1933

Born on March 17^th, 1933 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams is a civil rights activist and journalist known for her ongoing community activism, and a resilient pursuit of justice following the murder of her late husband, Medgar Evers. Dr. Evers-Williams was born Myrlie Louise Beasley, the first child to her young mother and father. After graduating from Magnolia High School in 1950, she enrolled at Alcorn A&M College, now Alcorn State University, in Lorman, Mississippi, where she majored in education and became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. It was also during this time that she met Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran, who was eight years her senior. The couple married in 1951 and relocated to Mound Bayou before giving birth to their three children: Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van Dyke.

For several years, the Evers family was active in Mississippi’s NAACP chapter, organizing voter registration drives and civil rights demonstrations. Together, they campaigned against segregation, voter disenfranchisement and other anti-Black/racist policies that plagued their community. The family’s high-profile nature and community influence made them direct targets for white supremacist violence. After numerous death threats by the Ku Klux Klan  and other white supremacist hate groups, and by the local police force, the home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers was firebombed in 1962. Just a year later, on June 21 of 1963, Medgar Evers was assassinated while arriving home from a meeting with NAACP lawyers to discuss organizing action. After hearing the single gunshot, Myrlie rushed outside to find her husband fatally wounded on their front porch. Evers was transported to the local Jackson, Mississippi hospital where he was pronounced dead 50 minutes after his arrival.

Following Medgar’s death, Myrlie Evers endlessly advocated for the conviction of Byron De La Beckwith, the fertilizer salesman and Klansman responsible for her husband’s death. She relocated to Claremont, California with her three young children and began to pursue fervent civil rights activism. During this time, she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Pomona College before becoming the director of planning at the Center for Educational Opportunity for the Claremont College Consortium. Throughout the next few years, Myrlie Evers became a notable activist and eventually served as the national chairwoman for the NAACP. In 1998, she founded the Medgar Evers Institute with the goal of “preserving and advancing the legacy of Medgar Evers’ life’s work.” In 1996, Evers co-authored For Us, The Living, with William Peters, an author and documentarian. The book chronicled the life and advocacy works of her late husband. In 1999, her memoir was published. Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be which documents her life as a civil rights activist, her relationship with her late husband, and her life after his assassination.

Following the 50th anniversary of his assassination, the Medgar Evers Institute’s board decided to change the organization's name to the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, honoring Evers-Williams' relentless fight for African American Civil Rights. As an accomplished leader and advocate, Dr. Evers-Williams received several accolades including her “Woman of the Year” title by Ms. Magazine and becoming the first Black woman to serve as a commissioner on the Board of Public Works in Los Angeles. She remarried in 1976 to fellow activist Walter Williams and they were together until his death in 1995.

In 2017, The Medgar and Myrlie Evers House was designated as a National Historic Landmark. In 2019, it was added to the African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN), and in 2020, it became a unit of the National Park Service as a National Monument.