ANGUS S. HASTINGS issued the following announcement on July 22.
Charles Evers, the brother of civil rights icon Medgar Evers, was the first black elected mayor of a Mississippi city since the Reconstruction era.
Died: Wednesday July 22, 2020. (Who else died on July 22?)
Details of Death: Died at the age of 97.
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Civil Rights Leader
Charles Evers and his brother Medgar became involved in the civil rights movement in Mississippi after they returned from serving in World War II. Evers moved to Chicago where he later admitted he was involved in illegal activities including numbers running. His brother Medgar was the field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi when he was fatally shot in 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the KKK. Charles Evers came back to Mississippi and took over as field secretary of the state’s NAACP. He was the first black person elected to be the mayor of a city in Mississippi since Reconstruction in 1969 when he won in Fayette, a position he held for many terms. In 1980, Evers switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. He endorsed Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump during their Presidential campaigns.
Evers on disclosing his past illegal activities in 1971
“When a man changes and starts doing what’s right, he doesn’t want somebody else to find out about things like that. I’d rather tell about it myself.” – 1971 interview with Lawrence Journal-World
Original source here.
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