The Long Road to Justice: The Murder of Medgar Evers and the Conviction of Byron De La Beckwith

In 1964, civil rights leader Medgar Evers was brutally murdered in Mississippi. However, the road to justice was long and arduous. Two all-white, all-male juries refused to convict the killer, Byron De La Beckwith, a known white supremacist and Klansman. This allowed him to live freely for the next 30 years, even attempting to murder another civil rights leader while openly boasting about assassinating Evers.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s that a reporter discovered evidence revealing that the state of Mississippi had funded Beckwith’s defense with taxpayer money and that the jurors had been illegally screened by the defense. This compelling evidence led to the reopening of the murder case. Finally, in 1994, a jury convicted Beckwith for his heinous crime.

The story took another turn on January 21, 2001, when Beckwith passed away at the age of 80. He had been transferred from prison to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, due to his deteriorating health. Beckwith had suffered from heart disease, high blood pressure, and other ailments for some time.

One individual, Randy Adams, had a personal encounter with Beckwith in the late 1990s. Adams described him as a small man filled with hatred, who hid behind the memories of the KKK. Although Beckwith did not mention the Medgar Evers incident during their conversation, he focused on racial injustices and the minorities in the country.

Adams left that encounter with a glimpse of a frail old man who had seemingly escaped the clutches of justice. Little did he or anyone else know that, four years later, Beckwith would be tried, convicted, and sentenced by his peers for the very crime he had bragged about over three decades prior.

The story of Medgar Evers’ murder and the subsequent conviction of Byron De La Beckwith sheds light on the racial tensions and injustices prevalent in the Southern United States before the 1970s. It was a time when any white man could mistreat a black person without fear of arrest or retribution. Shockingly, there were states where no white person had been convicted of murdering a black person for over a century, despite numerous lynchings.

Harry Ellis recommends Taylor Branch’s comprehensive trilogy, “THE KING YEARS,” which covers the civil rights movement with the first volume titled “Parting the Waters.” These books provide a painful yet essential understanding of the experiences of black individuals in the South during that era, particularly for white individuals who grew up in that region.

The story of Medgar Evers and Byron De La Beckwith serves as a reminder that justice may take time, but it eventually prevails. The American justice system, though flawed, can bring perpetrators to account for their crimes. The journey to justice may be long and challenging, but it is essential in the pursuit of equality and a more just society.