THE ASSASSINATION OF MEDGAR EVERS
Episode 211 | Historical Events
In this History episode we focus on the assassination of Medgar Evers — the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, shot in his driveway on June 12th, 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith. Two all-white juries deadlocked in 1964. Beckwith walked free. He bragged about the killing at Klan rallies for thirty-one years. And then a reporter at the Clarion-Ledger found records showing the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission had actively screened the juries that tried him.
We follow Jerry Mitchell's investigative journalism through the sealed Sovereignty Commission files, Myrlie Evers's three-decade fight for accountability, and the 1994 trial at which an integrated jury finally convicted Beckwith — who was 73 years old. His defense of speedy trial violation failed. He died in prison in 2001. The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument was established in 2020. The state apparatus that protected his killer for thirty-one years is part of the record.
This podcast features narration with a synthetic AI voice.
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