Civil Rights Leader Myrlie Evers-Williams to Speak at ASU

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – (February 1, 2008) – Myrlie Evers-Williams is perhaps best remembered as the widow of Medgar Evers, the Mississippi state field secretary for the NAACP who, in 1963, was gunned down in the driveway of his home in Jackson. In the years since the assassination and two hung juries that left the accused gunman, white supremacist Byron De la Beckwith, a free man, Evers-Williams has persevered to keep her husband’s memory and dreams alive and to bring his killer to justice.

Her diligence eventually paid off when Beckwith was brought to trial for a third time and finally, in 1994, was found guilty of the murder of Medgar Evers more than 30 years after the crime.

As the guest speaker at Alabama State University’s Black History Month Opening Convocation on February 5, Evers-Williams will share her thoughts on the last 30 years and her vision for the future. The Opening Convocation will begin at 11:00 a.m. in the Thelma Glass Auditorium.

 “We know this woman as a shining example of courage in the face of tribulation during this nation’s struggle for civil rights,” said Dr. Dorothy Autrey-Harris, acting chair of the Department of History and Political Science at ASU. “ASU itself is a fountainhead of the Civil Rights Movement, and we know that not only can Mrs. Evers-Williams relate to our history, we can all relate to her history as well.”

In 1995, Evers-Williams became the first woman to chair the NAACP, a position she held until 1998. In 1999, she published her memoirs, “Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be,” which charts her journey from being the wife of an activist to becoming a community leader in her own right.

The convocation is sponsored by ASU’s Black History Month Committee, the Department of History and Political Science, the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture and the Lyceum Committee.

For more information, call (334) 229-4876.

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