Medgar Evers will receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

At her husband’s funeral in 1963, Myrlie Evers heard NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins declare, “Medgar Evers believed in his country. It remains to be seen if his country believes in him.”Later today, his country will declare its belief in him when the family of the slain Mississippi NAACP leader receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.But Medgar Evers was more than a civilian. He fought the Nazis in World War II, only to return home and figh