Evers-Williams, Myrlie (1933-…), served as chairwoman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1995 to 1998. She won election to the position by defeating William F. Gibson, who had been board chairman since 1985. The election followed months of public disagreement over the NAACP’s financial and personnel practices under both Gibson and executive director Benjamin Chavis, who was dismissed in 1994. Evers-Williams did not seek reelection in 1998.
Evers-Williams was born Myrlie Louise Beasley on March 17, 1933, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1951, she married Medgar Evers, who later became the NAACP’s Mississippi field secretary. In 1963, Evers was assassinated. More than 30 years later, in 1994, Evers-Williams played a key role in winning the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the murder. After her husband’s assassination, Mrs. Evers moved to California, where she graduated from Pomona College in 1968. She then held a series of positions as a business executive. From 1987 to 1990, she was commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. In 1976, she married Walter Williams, a dockworker and civil rights worker. In 1998, Evers-Williams set up the Medgar Evers Institute to promote civil rights. That year, she won the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor given by the NAACP. See Evers, Medgar.
