JUNE 12, 1963

Hours after President John Kennedy told the nation that the grandchildren of those enslaved are “not yet freed from the bonds of injustice,” NAACP leader Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, and protests followed, including a march of 5,000 people with Martin Luther King Jr., after his funeral.

Hundreds of African Americans rushed to courthouses to register to vote, only to be arrested and jailed. As for Evers’ assassin, Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice by all-white juries in 1964, but each trial ended in a hung jury. In 1989, the case was reopened, and Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2001.

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On this day in 1963

by Debbie Skipper and Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
June 12, 2023

					<h1>On this day in 1963</h1>
<p class="byline">by Debbie Skipper and Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today <br />June 12, 2023</p>
					<br />
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/06130831/OnThisDay-FinalLogo_page-banner-2-1200x151.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1089732" /></figure>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-june-12-1963"><mark class="has-inline-color has-primary-color">JUNE 12, 1963</mark></h3>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/06104122/June12-FeatImage-MedgarEvers.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1098312" /></figure>
<p>Hours after President John Kennedy told the nation that the grandchildren of those enslaved are “not yet freed from the bonds of injustice,” NAACP leader Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, and protests followed, including a march of 5,000 people with Martin Luther King Jr., after his funeral.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Hundreds of African Americans rushed to courthouses to register to vote, only to be arrested and jailed. As for Evers’ assassin, Klansman Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice by all-white juries in 1964, but each trial ended in a hung jury. In 1989, the case was reopened, and Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2001.</p>

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On this day in 1963

JUNE 12, 1963

More on this day

On this day in 1956

On this day in 1955

Debbie Skipper

Jerry MitchellInvestigative Reporter