James Charles Evers (September 11, 1922 – July 22, 2020) was an American civil rights activist, businessman, radio personality, and politician.

This diversity in party affiliations throughout his life was reflected in his fostering of friendships with people from a variety of backgrounds, as well as his advising of politicians from across the political spectrum.

He attended segregated public schools, which were typically underfunded in Mississippi following the exclusion of African Americans from the political system by disenfranchisement after 1890.

Low on money, he began working as a meatpacker in stockyards during the day and as an attendant for the men's restroom at the Conrad Hilton Hotel at nights.

[2] Along with his brother, Charles became active in the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civil rights organization that promoted self-help and business ownership.

[11] Between 1952 and 1955, Evers often spoke at the RCNL's annual conferences in Mound Bayou, a town founded by freedmen, on such issues as voting rights.

[13] His brother Medgar continued to be involved in civil rights, becoming field secretary and head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Mississippi.

[11] On June 12, 1963, Byron De La Beckwith, a member of a Ku Klux Klan chapter, fatally shot Evers's brother, Medgar, in Mississippi as he arrived home from work.

King created the Medgar Evers Homecoming Festival, an annual three-day event held the first week of June in Mississippi.

[17] Often accompanied by a group of 65 male followers, he would pressure local blacks in small towns to avoid stores under boycott and directly challenge white business leaders.

[20] Evers moved the NAACP's Mississippi field office from Jackson to Fayette to take advantage of the potential of the black majority and achieve political influence in Jefferson and two adjacent counties.

[19] That year he made a bid for the open seat of the 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, facing six white opponents in the Democratic primary.

The Mississippi Legislature responded by passing a law mandating a runoff primary in the event of no absolute majority in the initial contest, which Evers lost.

[28] To celebrate his victory, he hosted an inaugural ball in Natchez, which was widely attended by black Mississippians, reporters from around the country, and prominent national liberals including Ramsey Clark, Ted Sorensen, Whitney Young, Julian Bond, Shirley MacLaine, and Paul O'Dwyer.

Repulsed by the behavior of poor blacks in the town, he ordered the police force to enforce a 25-mile per hour speed limit on local roads, banned cursing in public, and cracked down on truancy.

[30] He argued with the county board of supervisors over his plan to erect busts of his brother, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Kennedys on the courthouse square.

[24] Evers' moralistic style began to create discontent; in early 1970, most of Fayette's police department resigned, saying the mayor had treated them "like dogs".

[35] During Evers' tenure, Fayette benefitted from several federal grants, and ITT Inc. built an assembly plant in the town, but the region's economy largely remained depressed.

This problem ballooned when in 1974 the Internal Revenue Service arranged for him to be indicted for tax evasion by failing to report $156,000 in income he garnered in the late 1960s.

He campaigned on a platform of reduced taxes—particularly for lower property taxes on the elderly, improved healthcare, and legalizing gambling along the Gulf Coast.

To gain attention, he unexpectedly gatecrashed the annual Fisherman's Rodeo in Pascagoula and stopped and spoke to people on the streets of Jackson during their morning commute.

[41] A total of 269 other black candidates were running for office in Mississippi that year, and many of them complained that Evers was self-absorbed and hoarding resources, despite his slim chances of winning.

[44] In the general election, Evers faced Democratic nominee Bill Waller and independent segregationist Thomas Pickens Brady.

[42][45] Despite the fears of public observers, the campaign was largely devoid of overt racist appeals and Evers and Waller avoided negative tactics.

[47] The night of the election, Evers shook the hands of Waller supporters in Jackson and then went to a local television station where his opponent was delivering a victory speech.

With the shift in white voters moving into the Republican Party in the state (and the rest of the South), Cochran was continuously re-elected to his Senate seat.

[51] Evers later attracted controversy for his support of judicial nominee Charles W. Pickering, a Republican, who was nominated by President George H. W. Bush for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

[53] Evers criticized the NAACP and other organizations for opposing Pickering, as he said the candidate had a record of supporting the civil rights movement in Mississippi.

[2] Evers severely criticized such national leaders as Roy Wilkins, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and Louis Farrakhan over various issues.

[2] Evers was a member of the Republican Party for 30 years when he spoke warmly of the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States.