February 5:

1994 : Beckwith convicted of killing Medgar Evers

On this day in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is
convicted in the murder of African-American civil rights leader Medgar
Evers, over 30 years after the crime occurred. Evers was gunned down
in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home on June 12, 1963,
while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's three small children were
inside.

Medgar Wiley Evers was born July 2, 1925, near Decatur, Mississippi,
and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After fighting for
his country, he returned home to experience discrimination in the
racially divided South, with its separate public facilities and
services for blacks and whites. Evers graduated from Alcorn College in
1952 and began organizing local chapters of the NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In 1954, after
being rejected for admission to then-segregated University of
Mississippi Law School, he became part of an NAACP campaign to
desegregate the school. Later that year, Evers was named the NAACP's
first field secretary in Mississippi. He moved with his family to
Jackson and worked to dismantle segregation, leading peaceful rallies,
economic boycotts and voter registration drives around the state. In
1962, he helped James Meredith become the first African American to
attend the University of Mississippi, a watershed event in the civil
rights movement. As a result of his work, Evers received numerous
threats and several attempts were made on his life before he was
murdered in 1963 at the age of 37.

Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and Ku Klux Klan member widely
believed to be the killer, was prosecuted for murder in 1964. However,
two all-white (and all-male) juries deadlocked and refused to convict
him. A second trial held in the same year resulted in a hung jury. The
matter was dropped when it appeared that a conviction would be
impossible. Myrlie Evers, who later became the first woman to chair
the NAACP, refused to give up, pressing authorities to re-open the
case. In 1989, documents came to light showing that jurors in the case
were illegally screened.

Prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter worked with Myrlie Evers to force another
prosecution of Beckwith. After four years of legal maneuvering, they
were finally successful. At the third trial they produced a riflescope
from the murder weapon with Beckwith's fingerprints, as well as new
witnesses who testified that Beckwith had bragged about committing the
crime. Justice was finally achieved when Beckwith was convicted and
given a life sentence by a racially diverse jury in 1994. He died in
prison in 2001 at the age of 80.

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General Interest
1994 : Beckwith convicted of killing Medgar Evers
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1631 : Roger Williams arrives in America
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1917 : Immigration act passed over Wilson's veto
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1917 : Mexican constitution proclaimed
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1937 : Roosevelt announces "court-packing" plan
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1974 : Patty Hearst kidnapped
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1988 : Noriega indicted on U.S. drug charges
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