Evers-Williams worked with her husband as his secretary when he became the NAACP’s Mississippi field secretary in 1954. Together they organized voter registration drives and civil rights demonstrations. White supremacists became increasingly violent to the Evers family, firebombing their house in 1962. On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was gunned down in front of his home.

All-white juries failed to reach a verdict at two trials in the 1960s, allowing Evers’ assassin, Byron De La Beckwith, to remain free. In 1967, she wrote a book about her husband, For Us, the Living, and made numerous appearances on behalf of the NAACP. At the same time, she continued to press prosecutors to retry De La Beckwith. Finally, thanks in large part to Myrlie’s persistent efforts, De La Beckwith was convicted in 1994 and spent the remainder of his life in prison.

Evers-Williams served as chairwoman of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998. In 1999 she published her memoirs, Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be.

Source: http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/evers_myrlie/