Byron De La Beckwith, Sr. Letters

Byron De La Beckwith was born on November 9, 1920 in Colusa, California. In 1926, his father passed away, and his mother decided to move back to her hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi. A few years later, his mother passed away, and he stayed in the area with relatives.

After a failed attempt at college, he decided to join the U.S. Marines during the Second World War. He fought in the South Pacific and was the recipient of a Purple Heart. He was married soon after the war ended and had a son the following year in 1946. He also joined the Ku Klux Klan and the Citizens’ Council.

Medgar Evers, a well-known spokesperson for racial equality and member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was one of Beckwith’s worst fears. On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was standing in his driveway with an arm full of “Jim Crow Must Go” t-shirts. Byron De La Beckwith, hiding behind some honey suckle vines, shot Medgar Evers in the back with high-powered hunting rifle. Evers managed to drag himself to the steps of the house where his wife, Myrlie Evers, found him severely wounded.

Mr. Beckwith was connected to the murder. The rifle was left at the scene, which had his fingerprints on it. Additionally, quite a few eyewitnesses saw a man that resembled Byron De La Beckwith, and his car, a white Plymouth Valiant, was also seen in the area, although Beckwith claimed that his rifle was stolen and two police officers saw him in Greenwood, approximately 95 miles away, the day of the killing. However, there was enough evidence to convict Beckwith, and he was arrested.

In 1964, Byron De La Beckwith went to trial. A verdict was not reached and a retrial was set for later in the year. Unfortunately, the jury was unable to reach a decision. Both trials consisted of an all-white man jury.

Three decades later Beckwith had another trial. With new prosecutors and investigators looking at old and new evidence, the jury of four whites and eight blacks found Byron De La Beckwith guilty on February 5, 1994.

On July 21, 2001, Byron De La Beckwith passed away at the age of 80 due to heart failure at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. On January 27, 2001, he was buried in Chattanooga, Tennessee at Memorial Park Cemetery.