Via The Newseum
By Dinah Douglas, assistant Web writer
WASHINGTON — On June 5, 2013, the Newseum hosted the panel discussion "The Legacy of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers." Evers was a civil rights icon who in 1954 became the first NAACP field secretary in Mississippi. Evers spearheaded demonstrations and boycotts of businesses that practiced racial discrimination and organized voter registrations for African Americans. He was assassinated in the driveway of his home 50 years ago on June 12, 1963.
Evers's widow, Myrlie Evers, headed a panel that included former NAACP chairman Julian Bond and Jerry Mitchell, a reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, whose work helped convict the man who assassinated Evers. Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent for "PBS NewsHour," moderated the discussion.
The event was one in a series related to a new exhibit at the Newseum titled "Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement," which will open Aug. 2, 2013. The exhibit coincides with the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and will explore the new generation of student leaders in the early 1960s who fought systematic discrimination by exercising their First Amendment rights.
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