Myrlie Evers-Williams
Evers-Williams at theMedgar Evers' christening, 2011
Chair of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People
In office 1995–1998
Preceded by	William Gibson
Succeeded by	Julian Bond
Personal details
Born	Myrlie Louise Beasley (1933-03-17)March 17, 1933 (age 92) Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Medgar Evers ​ ​ (m. 1951; died 1963)​ Walter Williams ​ ​ (m. 1976; died 1995)​
Children	3
Education	Alcorn State University Pomona College (BA)

Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams (néeBeasley; born March 17, 1933) is an American civil rights activist and journalist who worked for over three decades to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her husbandMedgar Evers, another civil rights activist. She also served as chairwoman of theNAACP, and has published several books on topics related tocivil rights and her husband's legacy. On January 21, 2013, she delivered the invocation at thesecond inauguration of Barack Obama.

External videos
“Eyes on the Prize; Interview with myrlie evers" conducted in 1985 for theEyes on the Prize documentary in which Evers discusses her childhood in Vicksburg and Tugaloo, MS, and her own experience of segregation.

Evers-Williams was born Myrlie Louise Beasley on March 17, 1933, in her maternal grandmother's home inVicksburg, Mississippi. She was the daughter of James Van Dyke Beasley, a delivery man, and Mildred Washington Beasley, who was 16 years old.^[1] Myrlie's parents separated when she was just a year old; her mother left Vicksburg but decided that Myrlie was too young to travel with her. Since her maternal grandmother worked all day in service, with no time to raise a child, Myrlie was raised by her paternal grandmother, Annie McCain Beasley, and an aunt, Myrlie Beasley Polk. Both women were respected school teachers and they inspired her to follow in their footsteps.^[2] Myrlie attended the Magnolia school, took piano lessons, and performed songs, piano pieces or recited poetry at school, in church, and at local clubs.

Myrlie graduated from Magnolia High School (Bowman High School) in 1950. During her years in high school, Myrlie was also a member of the Chansonettes, a girls’ vocal group from Mount Heroden Baptist Church in Vicksburg. In 1950, Myrlie enrolled atAlcorn A&M College, one of the few colleges in the state that acceptedAfrican-American students, as an education major intending to minor in music.^[1] Myrlie is also a member ofDelta Sigma Theta sorority. On her first day of school Myrlie met and fell in love withMedgar Evers, aWorld War II veteran eight years her senior.^[2] The meeting changed her college plans, and the couple later married onChristmas Eve of 1951.^[2] They later moved toMound Bayou, where they had their first child, Darrell Kenyatta, named for the imprisoned African leader,Jomo Kenyatta.^[3][4] In Mound Bayou, Myrlie worked as a secretary at the Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company. Domestic life was strained by her husband's formal application to law school as his parents were opposed, Myrlie was expecting her second child, the family was financially restricted and unprepared for the increasing public exposure on his stealthy voting rights activities in the Delta.^[5] Reena Denise was born on September 13, 1954, as Medgar was establishing the NAACP in the Delta.^[6]

When Medgar Evers became the Mississippi field secretary for theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1954, Myrlie worked alongside him.^[1] Myrlie became his secretary and together they organizedvoter registration drives and civil rights demonstrations.^[4] She assisted him as he struggled to end the practice ofracial segregation in schools and other public facilities, and as he campaigned for thevoting rights many African Americans were denied in the South.^[1] For more than a decade, the Everses fought for voting rights, equal access to public accommodations, the desegregation of theUniversity of Mississippi, and for equal rights in general for Mississippi's African-American population. As prominent civil rights leaders in Mississippi, the Everses became high-profile targets for pro-segregationist violence and terrorism.^[1] In 1962, their home inJackson, Mississippi, was firebombed in reaction to an organized boycott of downtown Jackson's white merchants.^[2] The family had been threatened, and Evers targeted by theKu Klux Klan.^[7] Evers was murdered in 1963 at his home in Jackson, Mississippi, now the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council in Jackson.

In 1964, a year beforeByron De La Beckwith's release, she moved with her children toClaremont, California,^[8] and emerged as a civil rights activist in her own right.^[2] She earned herBachelor of Arts insociology fromPomona College.^[1] She spoke on behalf of the NAACP and in 1967 she co-wroteFor Us, the Living, which chronicled her late husband's life and work.^[1] She also made two unsuccessful bids for U.S. Congress.^[4] From 1968 to 1970, Evers was the director of planning at the center for Educational Opportunity for theClaremont Colleges.^[9]

From 1973 to 1975, Evers was the vice-president for advertising and publicity at the New-York-based advertising firm Seligman and Lapz.^[10] In 1975, she moved toLos Angeles to become the national director for community affairs for theAtlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). At ARCO she was responsible for developing and managing all the corporate programs. This included overseeing funding for community projects, outreach programs, public and private partnership programs and staff development. She helped secure money for many organizations such as the National Woman's Educational Fund, and worked with a group that provided meals to the poor and homeless.

Myrlie Evers-Williams continued to explore ways to serve her community and to work with the NAACP. Los Angeles mayorTom Bradley appointed her to the Board of Public Works as a commissioner in 1987.^[2] Evers-Williams was the first black woman to serve as a commissioner on the board, a position she held for 8 years. Evers-Williams also joined the board of the NAACP. By the mid-1990s, the prestigious organization was going through a difficult period marked by scandal and economic problems. Evers-Williams decided that the best way to help the organization was to run for chairperson of the board of directors.^[4] She won the position in 1995, just after her second husband's death due to prostate cancer. As chairperson of the NAACP, Evers-Williams worked to restore the tarnished image of the organization. She also helped improve its financial status, raising enough funds to eliminate its debt.^[4] Evers-Williams received many honors for her work, including being named Woman of the Year byMs. Magazine.^[4] With the organization financially stable, she decided to not seek re-election as chairperson in 1998.^[4] In that same year, she was awarded the NAACP'sSpingarn Medal.^[11]

In 2017 theMedgar and Myrlie Evers House was named as aNational Historic Landmark,^[12] and in 2019 became a National Monument.

After leaving her post as chairwoman of the NAACP, Evers-Williams established the Medgar Evers Institute in Jackson, Mississippi,^[4] She also wrote her autobiography, titledWatch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be (1999).^[1][13] She also served as editor onThe Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches (2005).^[4]

In 2009, Evers-Williams received the National Freedom Award from theNational Civil Rights Museum inMemphis, Tennessee.^[14]

Ebony magazine named Evers-Williams as one of the "100 Most Fascinating Black Women of the 20th Century". She has received seven honorary doctorates.^[15]

In February 2012,Alcorn State University inLorman, Mississippi, announced that Evers-Williams would be serving as a distinguished scholar-in-residence.^[16][17]

On January 21, 2013, Evers-Williams delivered the invocation at thesecond inauguration of Barack Obama.^[18] She was the first woman and the first layperson to deliver the invocation at a presidential inauguration.^[19]

On December 24, 1951, she married classmateMedgar Evers.^[20] Together they had three children: Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van Dyke Evers.^[21] Evers was murdered in 1963 byByron De La Beckwith, a member of theWhite Citizens' Council.

In 1976, Evers married Walter Williams, astevedore and civil rights and union activist who had studied Evers and her work.^[2] They moved toBend, Oregon, in 1993. Walter Williams died of cancer in 1995.

• She was portrayed byIrene Cara in the 1983 television movieFor Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story.
• Whoopi Goldberg played Evers-Williams in the feature film historical dramaGhosts of Mississippi (1996).
• In 2013, she was portrayed byGloria Reuben in theLifetime movieBetty and Coretta (uncredited).
• Myrlie is the namesake of a song from American rapper Rapsody's 2019 album, "Eve (Rapsody album)".
• She was portrayed byJayme Lawson in the 2022 filmTill.

• African American Lives. Oxford University Press, USA. 2004.ISBN 1280838272.
• Finkelman, Paul, ed. (2007).Encyclopedia of African American history : 1896-2005; from the Age of Segregation to the twenty-first century. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.ISBN 9780195167795.
• Wright, Michele R., ed. (2009).Dear success seeker : wisdom from outstanding women (1st Atria Paperback ed.). New York: Atria Paperback.ISBN 978-1416570790.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMyrlie Evers-Williams.

• Myrlie Evers-Williams's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• "Pursuing the Past -- Myrlie Evers-Williams".Online NewsHour. PBS. April 23, 2002. Archived fromthe original on June 26, 2002. RetrievedJanuary 20, 2013.
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1933 births
• 20th-century African-American people
• 20th-century African-American women
• 21st-century African-American people
• 21st-century African-American women
• African-American civil rights activists
• African-American journalists
• African-American women journalists
• Alcorn State University alumni
• Delta Sigma Theta members
• Journalists from Mississippi
• Living people
• Mississippi Democrats
• NAACP activists
• People from Mound Bayou, Mississippi
• Pomona College alumni
• American women human rights activists

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