Mississippi Civil Rights Murder: The Medgar Evers Case Explained
10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories
Joe
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In June 1963, NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was shot in the back outside his Jackson, Mississippi home by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. The assassination triggered a 31-year investigation involving forensic evidence, FBI fingerprint analysis, two hung jury trials, and shocking interference by Mississippi's governor and a state-funded spy agency called the Sovereignty Commission that actively worked to protect the suspect from conviction.
While Medgar was bleeding out in his driveway at 12:30 in the morning, his wife and children heard him trying to reach their door. Two trials in the 1960s ended without convictions, even though Beckwith's fingerprint was on the murder weapon. And right now in February 2026, the National Park Service has temporarily pulled visitor brochures from the Medgar Evers National Monument because of plans to remove words like "racist" when describing his convicted killer. This is a story about how justice can be delayed for decades, and how the fight to tell the truth about what happened continues even today.
#MedgarEvers #ByronDeLaBeckwith #CivilRightsHistory #TrueCrimePodcast #MississippiMurder #ColdCase #JusticeDelayed
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers pulled into his driveway after midnight, carrying t-shirts |
| 0:07.5 | that said, Jim Crow must go. Across the street, hidden in honeysuckle vines, Byron |
| 0:13.6 | Dela Beckwith looked through a rifle scope. One shot, 31 years, three trials, and today, more than six decades later, there's a fight |
| 0:23.4 | happening over whether we can even call the man who killed him a racist. |
| 0:28.4 | This is the story of Medgar Evers, and I know you've probably heard the name before, |
| 0:58.1 | but I really don't think most people understand what happened to him, or more importantly, what happened after. |
| 1:04.6 | June 12, 1963, Jackson, Mississippi. |
| 1:08.3 | Shortly after midnight, and Medgar Evers is coming home from an N-W-A-C-P meeting. He's the field secretary for Mississippi. Shortly after midnight, and Medgar Evers is coming home from an N-WACP meeting. |
| 1:13.4 | He's the field secretary for Mississippi, which basically means he's the guy on the ground |
| 1:17.6 | doing the most dangerous work imaginable during the height of the civil rights movement. |
| 1:22.8 | Everyone knows his life is in danger. His name is on multiple death lists. The family has already survived |
| 1:29.2 | a fire bombing. They practice crawling on the floor to stay low below the window line in case |
| 1:34.0 | someone shoots at them. The kids sleep on mattresses on the ground. This is their normal. |
| 1:41.4 | That night, President Kennedy had just given a televised address about civil rights |
| 1:46.1 | being a moral issue. Medgar had stayed late at the meeting, probably discussing what Kennedy's |
| 1:51.4 | speech might mean for their work. When he pulls up to his home at 12.30 a.m., he's carrying a stack |
| 1:57.6 | of t-shirts that say, Jim Crow must go. He gets out of his Oldsmobile. |
| 2:03.0 | Across the street, Byron Dela Beckwith has been waiting in a thicket of honeysuckle vines. |
| 2:08.7 | He's got a 1917 infield rifle with a Golden Hawk telescope site. He's been positioned there |
| 2:14.9 | for hours, about 150 feet away from the driveway. |
| 2:19.1 | And when Medgar steps out of his car, Beckwith fires one shot. |
| 2:23.4 | The bullet hits Medgar in the upper back, goes straight through his heart, exits his chest, |
... |
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