Many Civil Rights Era Cold Cases are Warm Enough to Pursue, but Time is Running Out

Myrlie Evers-Williams, wife of slain civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers

There are more than 40 civil rights era cold cases pending in Mississippi. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports why it is so important to bring these cases to justice.

Civil rights pioneer, Medgar Evers was gunned down on the doorstep of his Jackson Home in 1963 by a white supremacist. But it took 30 years to bring his killer to justice. Even though it was a difficult time for his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, she says sitting through the trial that convicted her husband’s killer, helped to bring some relief.

“It wasn’t pleasant but when the trial ended I felt all of the ghost of the years just kind of disappear through every pour of my body. And it set me free, it helped to set my children free it helped to set Mississippi free from all of that. Let’s not give up. There’s no bitterness but there is justice.”

Since 1989, state and federal authorities have made about 2 dozen arrests, leading to 23 civil rights cold case convictions nationwide. According to Susan Glisson, Executive Director with the Winter institute for Racial Reconciliation, trying these cases allow us to better understand the system that enabled violence to occur.

“And how that system adapted itself over time and manifested itself in education, in school desegregation, and in equities in healthcare and housing and law enforcement, because we still deal with this legacy today. And if we don’t understand it we can’t do anything about it.”

Grisson says time is running out for the 40 cases that remain unsolved in Mississippi because many witness are too old to remember the events or won’t live long enough to testify. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.

Grisson says time is running out for the 40 cases that remain unsolved in Mississippi because many witness are too old to remember the events or wont live long enough to testify. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.