Mississippi: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument

Home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers located in Jackson, MS

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Jackson, Mississippi

Significance:

Commemorates the lives of civil rights activists Medgar Evers and Myrlie Evers-Williams

Designation:

National Monument; African American Civil Rights Network

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi is a unit of the National Park Service honoring the life and work of these two important civil rights figures. As the first National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) field secretary in Mississippi Medgar Evers (1925-1963) worked to end racial violence and improve the quality of life for black Mississippians. Evers and his wife Myrlie established the NAACP office in Jackson, Mississippi in the mid-1950s. Medgar tirelessly led marches, prayer vigils, voter registration drives and boycotts, and persistently appealed to blacks and whites to work together for a peaceful solution to social problems.

In the early 1960s Evers orchestrated a major boycott of white merchants which made him a target of the Ku Klux Klan, but he was undeterred and continued his efforts for racial justice. Backed by federal troops, he also led efforts to help James Meredith successfully integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962.

Despite threats against his life and property, Evers continued his work, but an assassin's bullet ended his life a few weeks later outside his home. After her husband’s death, Myrlie Evers (now Evers-Williams) emerged as a civil rights figure in her own through her work with the NAACP and later established the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1995, she became the national chairwoman of the NAACP, a position she held for nearly three years. 

Myrlie Evers-Williams worked tirelessly for decades to see her husband's killer brought to justice and in 1994 -- 31 years and three trials later -- the man who killed Medgar Evers, Byron De La Beckwith, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. 

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home was added to the African American Civil Rights Network in August 2018 and became a unit of the National Park Service in November 2020. 

The African American Civil Rights Network (AACRN) recognizes the civil rights movement in the United States and the sacrifices made by those who fought against discrimination and segregation. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017, and coordinated by the National Park Service, the Network tells the stories of the people, places, and events of the U.S. civil rights movement through a collection of public and private elements.