Medgar Evers (1925-1963)

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Civil Rights activist. Born July 2, 1925 in Decator, Mississippi. In 1954, the year the momentous Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, which purportedly ended segregation of schools, Medgar quit the insurance business; he subsequently applied and was denied admission to the University of Mississippi Law School. His unsuccessful effort to integrate the state's oldest public educational institution attracted the NAACP's national office. Later that year, Evers moved to the state capital of Jackson and became the first state field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. Evers recruited members throughout Mississippi and organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations, and economic boycotts of white-owned companies.