Medgar Evers

The body of civil rights leader Medgar Evers was exhumed and transported here to be re-examined as part of a renewed inquiry into his slaying, officials confirmed Wednesday. Evers' body was exhumed Monday from Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, a U.S. Army spokeswoman said. She said the Jackson, Miss., district attorney's office, which has reopened an investigation into Evers' death, requested the exhumation. Evers was shot to death June 12, 1963, in front of his Jackson home.

The widow of Medgar Evers fought back tears as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a former Mississippi governor, announced he's naming a new Navy supply ship for the slain civil rights pioneer. "I think of those who will serve on this ship and those who will see it in different parts of the world. And perhaps they, too, will come to know who Medgar Evers was and what he stood for," Myrlie Evers-Williams said at Jackson State University, where Mabus made the announcement. Evers was Mississippi field secretary of the National Assn.

Showing how much times have changed, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers donated his papers to the state of Mississippi. "This is where they belong," Myrlie Evers-Williams told a racially mixed crowd Thursday as she gave Evers' letters, speeches and notes, as well as her own papers and photos, to the state Department of Archives and History. In all, she gave 55 boxes of materials that will become available to researchers next year. Evers, field secretary for the National Assn.

Fifty-four years ago today, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy visiting family in Mississippi, was abducted, mutilated and slain after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. Several days later, his horribly disfigured body was fished out of the Tallahatchie River. Many such tragedies had previously happened to black Americans and then been ignored. The Till case was different because of the efforts of a flamboyant and wealthy black planter and surgeon, T.R.M. Howard. Howard's place in history has been woefully slighted.

A man who faces his third trial in the 1963 slaying of civil rights leader Medgar Evers was freed Wednesday on bail. Byron De La Beckwith was released hours after Judge L. Breland Hilburn Jr. of Hinds County Circuit Court set $100,000 bail and ordered the Tennessee man to stay in Mississippi until his trial. A benefactor who did not want to be identified provided the cash needed for Beckwith to be freed, his attorney said.

Aging white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith should stand trial a third time for the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The 4-3 decision ends more than a year of legal wrangling over whether too much time had passed for Beckwith, 72, to be tried again. In 1964, all-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the case.

The third trial of a white supremacist in the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers will be moved to ensure an impartial jury, a judge in Jackson, Miss., ruled. But Hinds County Circuit Judge L. Breland Hilburn thwarted attempts by attorneys for Byron De La Beckwith, 71, a former Greenwood fertilizer salesman, to have the trial held in an area with fewer blacks. Hilburn said the trial must be held in a county with a similar racial makeup as Hinds County, which is 51% black.

The wife of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers confirmed Friday she has been asked to consider becoming chairwoman of the NAACP, which has been beleaguered by financial woes and power struggles. Myrlie Evers-Williams, 62, hasn't decided if she will run, but said she knew "Medgar would be in utter turmoil and disgust with the way things are going." "The association is in a precarious condition, and it has to be addressed soon," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Bend, Ore.

There was a time in the 1960s when the name of Byron De La Beckwith was briefly famous, even notorious. Beckwith, an active white supremacist, was charged with the assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, Miss., in 1963. The evidence against Beckwith included his rifle, found 150 feet from the murder scene with his fingerprint on its telescopic sight. But two trials in 1964 ended with juries unable to reach a verdict.

Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist convicted after three decades and three trials of assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers, has died while serving life in prison. Beckwith, 80, died Sunday night at University Medical Center, where he had been taken from his prison cell. Evers, a 37-year-old NAACP field secretary who pushed for an end to segregation, was shot in the back on June 12, 1963, after stepping out of his car to walk to his house.

Bob Dylan is many things to fans. He is multitudes, just as he's depicted in the film "I'm Not There," which delivered a collection of Dylans of different times and interpretations: as a simple troubadour, a young antihero, a family man, a sage. Some of those sides of Dylan appeared onstage Wednesday at the tribute concert "Like a Complete Unknown" at the Skirball Center, in connection with its detailed exhibit on Dylan's life -- his lyrics and image through the years, one of his old guitars, a handwritten high school essay on Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

Showing how much times have changed, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers donated his papers to the state of Mississippi. "This is where they belong," Myrlie Evers-Williams told a racially mixed crowd Thursday as she gave Evers' letters, speeches and notes, as well as her own papers and photos, to the state Department of Archives and History. In all, she gave 55 boxes of materials that will become available to researchers next year. Evers, field secretary for the National Assn.

Byron De La Beckwith, the white supremacist convicted after three decades and three trials of assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers, has died while serving life in prison. Beckwith, 80, died Sunday night at University Medical Center, where he had been taken from his prison cell. Evers, a 37-year-old NAACP field secretary who pushed for an end to segregation, was shot in the back on June 12, 1963, after stepping out of his car to walk to his house.

Byron De La Beckwith, convicted assassin of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, died Sunday night at University Medical Center. Barbara Austin, a hospital spokeswoman, said Beckwith entered the hospital at 12:07 p.m. PST. She could not elaborate on his ailment or the cause of death. "It's a matter for the coroner's office to determine," she said. Evers, 37, who as a field secretary for the National Assn.

I very much admire the work of Albert and David Maysles ("Sanctuary of 'Grey Gardens,' " by Kristine McKenna, Aug. 16). For years, however, journalists have used the murder they captured on film in "Gimme Shelter" as the moment when the '60s turned dark. McKenna repeats this bit of "Gimme Shelter" lore when she states, "In retrospect, this diabolical bacchanal seems to mark the moment when the utopian '60s began dissolving into darkness--and the brothers captured exactly that in this terrifying film."

Yolanda King sits in her stocking feet, sipping peppermint tea and passing on the gospel truth. "This old lady used to say, 'It's hard enough being who you is, let alone who you ain't.' " She smiles, and her warm laughter fills the hotel room. The old lesson guides her life these days. Growing up in Atlanta, people were always watching Yolanda King, reminding her that being herself was not enough. She had a legacy to live up to and a hero's torch to carry.

Byron De La Beckwith, convicted assassin of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, died Sunday night at University Medical Center. Barbara Austin, a hospital spokeswoman, said Beckwith entered the hospital at 12:07 p.m. PST. She could not elaborate on his ailment or the cause of death. "It's a matter for the coroner's office to determine," she said. Evers, 37, who as a field secretary for the National Assn.

As Van Evers squeezed beside the freshly unearthed casket for the six-hour ride, one thought consumed him: He was going to see his father. He never thought he'd have this chance. Three years old when his father, Medgar Evers, was killed, Van had only faint memories of a man leaving bubble gum cigars on his bunk bed. After the murder, he would pick up the phone and ask, "Have you seen my daddy?" Now, nearly 30 years later, the body was being brought to Albany, N.Y.