The Law in Mississippi

Medgar W. Evers was murdered at the door of his home on June 12. The 37-year-old NAACP field secretary had been one of the leaders of the mass civil rights demonstrations that swept Jackson, Miss., this summer. On July 23, the FBI announced that Byron de la Beckworth had been taken into custody, and the next day the Jackson Police formally charged Beckworth with the murder of Evers.

Over 600 Negroes have been lynched in the State of Mississippi since 1982. Evers himself, at the age of fourteen, saw a friend of his father's lynched in Decatur, Miss., supposedly for insulting a white woman. Two Negroes who registered to vote, the Rev. George W. Lee of Belxoni, Miss., and Lamar Smith of Brookhaven, Miss., were shot to death in 1955. Emmett Till was killed that same year. During the spring of 1959, Mack Parker was dragged from his call in Poplarville and murdered. Not a single man has been brought to trial for any of these crimes.

It is with this history in mind that Roy Wilkins said are Evers' funeral, "The killer must have felt that he had, if not an immunity, then certainly a protection for whatever he chose to do, no matter how dastardly it might be."

But in 1963 racial demonstrations filled the streets of Jackson and the headlines of the nation. The death of a prominent civil rights leader and the threat of Negro violence could not be ignored; city, country, and state police joined the FBI in the hunt for the killer. Gov. Ross Barnett and Jackson's Mayor Allen C. Thompson, both members of the Citizens Council, offered rewards for the apprehension of the assassin. Fingerprints on the murder weapon led the federal detectives to Greenwood, Miss., where the first Citizens Council in Mississippi was founded, and to Beckworth. He was charged with murder, and District Attorney William L. Walker demanded the death penalty. It seemed as if the time had ended when Negroes could be murdered with impunity.

Yet Mississippi's heritage may still prevail, Half a year has passed since the death of Evers and still no one has been brought to trial for the crime. Beckworth is still charged with the killing, but the summer's sense of urgency has been lost, and a series of events have prevented the trial. Last month circuit Judge Lexon Hendrik of Haines County convened court for a hearing on the case. But the defendant did not appear. Apparently Sheriff Jonathan Edwards had received no notice that he was to bring the prisoner to court. On Nov. 25 Judge Hendrik called for a hearing to act a date for the trial. But no date has yet been set.

Whether or not Beckworth is guilty of the murder of Evers is not the issue at hand here. The real issue if whether or not Mississippi intends ever to bring him to trial or prefers instead to continue to make a farce of justice. Mississippi Negroes have made every attempt to use those legal paths open to them in their struggle. But if Beckworth is not tried, Mississippi will be once again assuring the Negro people that legal protection of life, property, and other rights is for whites only.