Evers home now national monument

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Mississippi home of a slain civil rights leader is becoming a national monument.

President Donald Trump signed a bill Tuesday establishing the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson.

Medgar Evers was Mississippi’s first NAACP field secretary beginning in 1954. He led voter registration drives and boycotts to push for racial equality.

Evers was assassinated by a white supremacist outside his family’s Jackson home on June 12, 1963.

Myrlie Evers was national chairwoman of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998.

The federal government will take over the modest ranch-style home from Tougaloo College, bringing money for preservation. The college has owned the home since 1993 and operates a modest museum. Tougaloo supports the change.

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