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Edwin's Information Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi. In 1954, he became the first state field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. As such, he organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations, and economic boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination. He also worked to investigate crimes perpetrated against blacks. After growing up in a Mississippi farming family, Evers enlisted in the United States Army in 1943. He fought in both France and Germany during World War II before receiving an honorable discharge in 1946. In 1948, he entered Alcorn Agricutural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University) in Lorman, Mississippi. During his senior year, Evers married a fellow student, Myrlie Beasley; they later had three children: Darrell, Reena, and James. ("Medgar Evers Biography." //Bio.com//. A&E Networks Television)

Upon graduation from college in 1952, Evers moved to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where he began working as an insurance salesman. He and his older brother, Charles Evers, also worked on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), organizing local affiliates in Philadelphia. Between 1952 and 1963, Medgar Wiley Evers was one of the state’s most impassioned activist, orator, and visionary for change. He fought for equality and fought against brutality. On June 12, 1963, Evers was shot dead. (Davis, Dernoral. "Medgar Evers and the Origin of the Civil Rights Movement InÂ Mississippi.")

Kevin's Information Medgar Evers was born on July 2nd 1925. He was African-American civil rights activist from Decatur, Mississippi. His main goal was to integrate segregated white colleges. After the lynching of family and friends, Medgar Evers became determined to get the education he deserved and his people. He walked 12 miles to school everyday to earn his high school diploma. In 1943 Evers and his older brother Charlie were inducted into the army after the US entered World War II He was honorably discharged in 1945 as a Sergeant. In 1946, he, along with his brother and four friends, returned to his hometown. In 1948 he enrolled at Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University), a historically black college, majoring in business administration. In college, he was on the debate team, played football and ran track, sang in the school choir, and served as president of his junior class.

He married his classmate Myrlie Beasley on December 24, 1951, and received his BA degree the following year. They had three children together, two boys and a girl. Evers applied to the then-segregated University of Mississippi Law School in February 1954. When his application was rejected, Evers filed a lawsuit against the university, and became the focus of an NAACP campaign to desegregate the school. That same year, due to his involvement, the NAACP's National Office suggested Evers become Mississippi’s first field secretary for the NAACP. In the early morning of June 12, 1963, just hours after President John F. Kennedy's speech on national television in support of civil rights, Evers pulled into his driveway after returning from a meeting with NAACP lawyers. Byron De La Beckwith was the man who murdered Medgar Evers. This turned into a big case and later in a movie. Evers' legacy has been kept alive in a variety of ways.

Before going to work for the NAACP full time, Evers made his living as a businessman. A salesman for the Magnolia Mutual life insurance company, he sold NAACP memberships along with the life insurance policies. n the immediate aftermath of Evers’s murder, probably not even the most wild-eyed dreamer could have imagined that one day the administration of a black president of the United States would be naming a navy ship for Medgar Evers. It’s perhaps a sign of how far America has come that the ship’s christening wasn’t even that big a news story. The New York Times didn’t mention it. Medgar Evers would have been proud — all he ever wanted was full participation in America. His memory is an inspiration for all of us who believe both that America is pretty great to begin with and that it can get better over time thanks to the sacrifices of heroes.

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