Jackson Free Press

The U.S. Navy is naming a ship in honor of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader who was assassinated outside his Jackson home in 1963. Navy Secretary and former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus is expected to announce the honor when he speaks at a Jackson State University luncheon today.

A native of Decatur, Miss., Evers organized boycotts and voter registration efforts and served as field secretary for the NAACP, working out of its Lynch Street office. Two all-white juries acquitted his assassin, Byron de la Beckwith, before a third jury finally convicted him in 1994.

The ship that will bear Evers' name is a 700-foot T-AKE 13 cargo and ammunition ship. It will transport food, ammunition and supplies to other Navy ships at sea.

The Navy's decision "honors the pioneering spirit of the late civil rights activist from Mississippi who forever changed the face of race relations in the South," the Navy said in a statement. "At a time when our country was wrestling with finally ending segregation and racial injustice, Evers led civil rights efforts to secure the right to vote for all African Americans and to integrate public facilities, schools and restaurants."