Byron De La Beckwith

Byron De La Beckwith, Jr. (November 9, 1920 – January 21, 2001) was an American white supremacist and Klansman from Greenwood, Mississippi who was convicted in the 1994 state trial of assassinating the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Two previous trials in 1964 on this charge had resulted in hung juries. De La Beckwith was born in Colusa, California, the son of Susan Southworth Yerger and Byron De La Beckwith, Sr., the town postmaster. His father died of pneumonia when he was five years old. One year later, De La Beckwith and his mother settled in Greenwood, Mississippi, to be near family. His mother died of lung cancer when he was 12 years old, and was raised by his uncle William Greene Yerger and his wife after...