Medgar Evers' home established as a national monument in Jackson

The Mississippi home of a slain civil rights leader became a national monument Tuesday as President Donald Trump signed a bill establishing the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson.

Medgar Evers was a World War II veteran who fought in Europe and returned to his native Mississippi, where he again faced harsh segregation. As the first field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP beginning in 1954, he led voter registration drives and boycotts to push for racial equality. He was assassinated June 12, 1963, outside the family’s modest ranch-style home.

Myrlie Evers was national chairwoman of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998. After living in Mississippi in recent years, she moved back to California, where she raised her three children after their father’s death.

“Medgar and Myrlie Evers are heroes whose contributions to the advancement of civil rights in Mississippi and our nation cannot be overstated,” U.S. Sen Roger Wicker said in a statement. He and fellow Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith co-sponsored the proposal.