Evers-Williams, Myrlie

Evers-Williams, Myrlie
1996

      In a dramatic illustration of how every vote does indeed count, on Feb. 18, 1995, Myrlie Evers-Williams was elected chairperson of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) by the closest of margins, 30 to 29. Plagued with accusations of impropriety, the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the U.S., hoped that Evers-Williams would be able to give it a shot of new life. Reluctant to run because of her second husband's battle with cancer, she eventually acquiesced, admitting, "I just could not imagine us as a people, as a country, not having the NAACP as a strong and viable organization."

      Myrlie Louise Beasley was born on March 17, 1933, in Vicksburg, Miss. Her parents separated shortly afterward, and she was reared by her grandmother and an aunt. In 1950 Myrlie Beasley entered Alcorn A & M College in Lorman, Miss., to major in education. She met upperclassman Medgar Evers, and they married the following year. In 1952 Medgar Evers accepted a job as an insurance agent in a depressed area of the Mississippi Delta. So disgusted was the couple by the poor conditions in which some of the local African-Americans had to live that they became active in the NAACP in order to make a change. Resistance to the then-young civil rights movement was especially virulent in the South, however, and the Evers family, which by 1960 included three children, began to receive death threats. In the early hours of the morning of June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was fatally shot on his front porch as he returned from an NAACP meeting. Segregationist Byron De La Beckwith was tried for the murder but was set free when a jury failed to reach a verdict. (Not until February 1994 was Beckwith convicted and sentenced to life in prison.) In 1964 Myrlie Evers moved her family to California.

      Vowing not to become a "professional widow," Evers continued the fight for equality. In 1967 her book, For Us, the Living, (written with William Peters), chronicled her husband's life; it was later made into a television movie. She earned a degree in sociology in 1968, and in 1970 she ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress. She served as commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. In 1976 she married another civil rights activist, Walter Williams.

      A longtime board member of the NAACP, Evers-Williams watched support for the organization wane as the leadership of the organization was rocked by a series of financial scandals. Following a vote of no confidence for the incumbent leadership, elections were held and Evers-Williams emerged the victor. Walter Williams died four days later. (ANTHONY L. GREEN)

* * *

American civil rights activist
original name  Myrlie Louise Beasley 
born March 17, 1933, Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S.

      African American activist and the wife of civil rights leader Medgar Evers (Evers, Medgar), whose racially motivated murder in 1963 made him a national icon. In 199598 Evers-Williams was the first woman to head the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

      In 1950 she enrolled at Alcorn A&M College, where she met Medgar Evers, whom she married in 1951. The couple became active in the NAACP in the Mississippi Delta region near their home in Jackson, Mississippi, outside of which Evers was murdered in June 1963. Segregationist Byron De La Beckwith was initially tried for the murder but was released as a result of hung juries; however, three decades later, in 1994, after being retried a third time, De La Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

      Left a widow with three children, Myrlie Evers relocated to California. She published the memoir For Us, the Living (1967), earned a degree in sociology at Pomona College (1968), and made an unsuccessful bid for election to the U.S. Congress (1970). She married Walter Williams in 1976. In 1988 she was named to the Los Angeles Board of Public Works by Mayor Tom Bradley (Bradley, Tom). Evers-Williams remained active on the NAACP board, rising to chairman in 1995. Her autobiography, Watch Me Fly, was published in 1999.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Myrlie Evers-Williams — Born Myrlie Beasley March 17, 1933 (1933 03 17) (age 78) Vicksburg, Mississippi USA Nationality American Ethnicity African American …   Wikipedia

  • Evers, Medgar — ▪ American civil rights activist in full  Medgar Wiley Evers  born July 2, 1925, Decatur, Miss., U.S. died June 12, 1963, Jackson, Miss.  American black civil rights activist, whose murder received national attention and made him a martyr to the… …   Universalium

  • Evers, Medgar (Wiley) — born July 2, 1925, Decatur, Miss., U.S. died June 12, 1963, Philadelphia, Miss. African American civil rights activist. After serving in World War II he entered business in Mississippi. He and his elder brother, Charles, began organizing local… …   Universalium

  • Evers, Medgar (Wiley) — (2 jul. 1925, Decatur, Miss., EE.UU.–12 jun. 1963, Filadelfia, Miss.). Activista afroamericano de los derechos civiles. Prestó servicios en la segunda guerra mundial y luego se dedicó al comercio en Mississippi. Con su hermano mayor, Charles,… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Medgar Evers — Born Medgar Wiley Evers July 2, 1925(1925 07 02) Decatur, Mississippi U.S. Died June 12, 1963(1963 …   Wikipedia

  • Medgar Evers — Medgar Wiley Evers (* 2. Juli 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi; † 12. Juni 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi) war ein afroamerikanischer Bürgerrechtsaktivist aus Mississippi. Die Affäre Medgar Evers ist eines der prominentesten Ereignisse während der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Population and Human Relations — ▪ 1996 Introduction DEMOGRAPHY       At midyear 1995, world population stood at 5,702,000,000, according to estimates prepared by the Population Reference Bureau. The 1995 figure was about 700 million higher than in 1987, when world population… …   Universalium

  • Clennon Washington King, Jr. — Clennon Washington King, Jr. (July 18, 1920 – February 12, 2000) was the first African American man to run for the office of President of the United States, and whose attempts at civil rights actions and running for office as a perennial… …   Wikipedia

  • Betty Shabazz — Born Betty Dean Sanders May 28, 1934(1934 05 28) Pinehurst, Georgia, or Detroit, Michigan, U.S …   Wikipedia

  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — Abbreviation NAACP …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
https://universalium.en-academic.com/250492/Evers-Williams%2C_Myrlie Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”