Medgar Evers' Life and Activism

July 2, 1925: Medgar Wiley Evers is born to Jesse and James Evers in Decatur, Mississippi.

1948: Medgar Evers attends Alcorn State University.

December 24, 1951Medgar Evers marries Myrlie Beasley, his classmate.

May 17, 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. Medgar Evers applies for the all-white University of Mississippi Law School and is rejected.

November 24, 1954: Medgar Evers becomes the NAACP's first field officer based in Mississippi.

August 28, 1955: Emmett Till, an African-American boy, is lynched for speaking to a white woman at 14 years old in Money, Mississippi. Medgar Evers calls for an investigation on his death.

June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers emerges from the NAACP office in Jackson, Mississippi and is almost run over.

May 20, 1963: Medgar Evers presents a 17-minute speech on WLBT. He describes life in Mississippi from the perspective of a black man. He calls for desegregation and equal opportunities for black people.

May 28, 1963: Someone throws a molotov cocktail into the carport of Medgar Evers' home.

1962: After years of Medgar Evers' work in desegregating Mississippi, the University of Mississippi enrolls its first black student, James Meredith.

1960: Clyde Kennard, a civil rights activist, is framed for theft. Medgar Evers protests the conviction.

1939: At 14 years old, Medgar Evers witnesses an attack on Willie Tingle, a black man who was a friend of Evers' father. Tingle is shot and hanged. After Tingle's death, Evers passes by his bloody clothes everyday on his way to school.

June 12, 1963: After coming home from an NAACP meeting, Medgar Evers is murdered by Bryon De La Beckwith, a Ku Klux Klan member.