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Byron De La Beckwith

Also known as: Assassination of Medgar Evers, Murder of Medgar Evers

Active
1963–1963
Region
Jackson, Mississippi, USA
States
MS, VA
Kind
Single
Status
Convicted
Victims
1

In the early morning of June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers, the NAACP's field secretary in Mississippi, was shot in the back in the carport of his Jackson home as he stepped out of his car, and died at a Jackson hospital. Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist and member of the White Citizens' Council, was arrested days later, but two trials in 1964 ended with all-white juries deadlocked. After the Hinds County District Attorney reopened the case with new evidence, a racially mixed jury convicted Beckwith of murder on February 5, 1994, more than 30 years after the killing. He was sentenced to life and died in custody in 2001.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

  1. June 12, 1963
    Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument (Crime scene)

    Evers was shot in the carport of the family home as he returned late at night. The house is now a national monument run by the National Park Service.

  2. June 19, 1963
    Arlington National Cemetery (Other)

    Evers, an Army veteran, was buried at Arlington with full military honors on June 19, 1963.

  3. February 1964
    Hinds County trials, Jackson (Court / trial, approximate area)

    Beckwith's two 1964 trials ended in hung juries. At his third trial, a Hinds County jury convicted him of murder on February 5, 1994, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

  4. January 21, 2001
    University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson (Other)

    Beckwith died here on January 21, 2001, aged 80, after being brought from prison.

Watch, listen, read

Watch

  • Ghosts of Mississippi (film, 1996, Rob Reiner)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.