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Medgar Evers' widow works to uphold his legacy

Events mark 50 years since rights activist's slaying.

At a ceremony for Medgar Evers at Arlington National Cemetery are former President Bill Clinton and widow Myrlie Evers-Williams. "There is something good and decent in each and every one of us," she says. Evers was assassinated June 12, 1963.
At a ceremony for Medgar Evers at Arlington National Cemetery are former President Bill Clinton and widow Myrlie Evers-Williams. "There is something good and decent in each and every one of us," she says. Evers was assassinated June 12, 1963.Read moreSUSAN WALSH / AP
    by By Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

JACKSON, Miss. - Myrlie Evers-Williams acknowledges it would be easy to stay mired in bitterness and anger, 50 years after a sniper's bullet made her a widow.

Instead, she's determined to celebrate the legacy of her first husband, Medgar Evers - a civil rights figure often overshadowed by peers such as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Events including a black-tie gala are being held this week to remember Evers, the first Mississippi field secretary of the NAACP. He was 37 when he was assassinated June 12, 1963.

"We are cursed as human beings with this element that's called hatred, prejudice, and racism," said Evers-Williams, now 80. "But it is my belief that, as it was Medgar's, that there is something good and decent in each and every one of us, and we have to call on that, and we have to find a way to work together."

Evers-Willliams, who moved back to Mississippi in 2012, is treated with reverence by strangers who recognize her these days. She recently went to downtown Jackson's King Edward Hotel to meet reporters from the Associated Press for an interview - a hotel, she notes, that was off limits to black people decades ago. A white man approached to shake her hand.

"I've always wanted to meet you," said Ron Walker, former mayor of tiny Taylorsville.

Evers-Williams smiled as Walker said he believed she and Medgar Evers had made Mississippi a better, more-open society.

Evers-Williams gave the invocation at President Obama's inauguration in January, and met

last Wednesday with the president at the White House. A ceremony of remembrance was held Thursday at Evers' gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery, attended by former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder.

What would Medgar Evers think about American society now?

"He would look at the landscape of this country and realize what so many of us have said: We have made progress," Evers-Williams said, "but there's still so much to be done, and if we don't guard the progress we've made, that, too, will slip away."