Byron De La Beckwith Jr. (November 9, 1920 – January 21, 2001) was an American white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi.

In January 1942, soon after the United States entered World War II, De La Beckwith enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.

After his return to the United States, De La Beckwith moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he married Mary Louise Williams.

[1] De La Beckwith worked as a salesman for most of his life, selling tobacco, fertilizer, wood stoves, and other goods.

On June 12, 1963, at age 42, De La Beckwith murdered NAACP and civil rights leader Medgar Evers shortly after the activist arrived home in Jackson.

During the second trial, Ross Barnett, Democratic governor of Mississippi at the time of the assassination, shook hands with De La Beckwith in the courtroom.

[2][page needed] In the following years, De La Beckwith became a leader in the segregationist Phineas Priesthood, an offshoot of the white supremacist Christian Identity movement.

According to Delmar Dennis, who acted as a key witness for the prosecution at the 1994 trial, De La Beckwith boasted of his role in the death of Medgar Evers at several Ku Klux Klan rallies and similar gatherings in the years following his mistrials.

Among the contents of his vehicle were several loaded firearms, a map with highlighted directions to Botnick's house, and a dynamite time bomb.

On August 1, 1975, De La Beckwith was convicted in Louisiana of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to five years in prison.

[2][8] Just before entering prison to serve his sentence, De La Beckwith was ordained by Reverend Dewey "Buddy" Tucker as a minister in the Temple Memorial Baptist Church, a Christian Identity congregation in Knoxville, Tennessee.

[1][2][page needed] These findings of illegality contributed to the state conducting a new trial of De La Beckwith in 1994.

In the 1980s, reporting by Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger about the earlier De La Beckwith trials resulted in the state's mounting a new investigation.

During this third trial, the murder weapon was presented, a “sporterized” Enfield .30-06 caliber rifle, with De La Beckwith's fingerprints.

[11] On February 5, 1994, a jury composed of eight African Americans and four whites convicted De La Beckwith of murder for killing Medgar Evers.

De La Beckwith sought judicial review in the United States Supreme Court, but his petition for certiorari was denied.