She also served as chairwoman of the NAACP, and has published several books on topics related to civil rights and her husband's legacy.

Evers-Williams was born Myrlie Louise Beasley on March 17, 1933, in her maternal grandmother's home in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

During her years in high school, Myrlie was also a member of the Chansonettes, a girls’ vocal group from Mount Heroden Baptist Church in Vicksburg.

On her first day of school Myrlie met and fell in love with Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran eight years her senior.

Domestic life was strained by her husband's formal application to law school as his parents were opposed, Myrlie was expecting her second child, the family was financially restricted and unprepared for the increasing public exposure on his stealthy voting rights activities in the Delta.

[6] When Medgar Evers became the Mississippi field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1954, Myrlie worked alongside him.

[4] She assisted him as he struggled to end the practice of racial segregation in schools and other public facilities, and as he campaigned for the voting rights many African Americans were denied in the South.

As prominent civil rights leaders in Mississippi, the Everses became high-profile targets for pro-segregationist violence and terrorism.

[10] In 1975, she moved to Los Angeles to become the national director for community affairs for the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).

She helped secure money for many organizations such as the National Woman's Educational Fund, and worked with a group that provided meals to the poor and homeless.

After leaving her post as chairwoman of the NAACP, Evers-Williams established the Medgar Evers Institute in Jackson, Mississippi,[4] She also wrote her autobiography, titled Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be (1999).

[1][13] She also served as editor on The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero's Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches (2005).

[15] In February 2012, Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi, announced that Evers-Williams would be serving as a distinguished scholar-in-residence.