JACKSON, Miss. — The Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport Celebrated its 50th Anniversary Wednesday.
Ever’s widow Myrlie Evers had a few words to say about her husband who was a martyr for civil rights along with her daughter Reena Evers-Everette.
“For it stands as a monument not only to a man of peace, but it stands as a monument of peace to the people of this state, and of this nation,” said Myrlie Evers.
After arriving at his Jackson home after midnight back on June 12, 1963, Byron De La Beckwith shot and killed him in his driveway. Beckwith was tried twice in 1964 for murder and walked free after two all-white juries deadlocked. He was eventually convicted in 1994.
The event ended without he unveiling for “A Place Where You Now Stand,” a photomontage by Artist Randy Hayes, which shows this history of the airport throughout the decades.
