Saturday, October 10, 2009

U.S. Navy names ship for Medgar Evers

Long overdue.

Navy honors civil rights martyr Medgar Evers

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The widow of slain civil-rights pioneer Medgar Evers fought tears Friday as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a former Mississippi governor, announced he's naming a new Navy supply ship for Evers' late husband.

"I think of those who will serve on this ship and those who will see it in different parts of the world. And perhaps they, too, will come to know who Medgar Evers was and what he stood for," Myrlie Evers-Williams said at Jackson State University, where Mabus made the announcement.

Evers was Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People when he was assassinated outside his Jackson home on June 12, 1963. He was 37.

"He gave his life for his country," Mabus told an audience of about 200.
(more via the link)

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