Myrlie Evers has returned to Alcorn State University as a distinguished scholar-in-residence. Widely known for her work on civil rights and racial justice throughout the United States and the world, Evers will spend her time at Alcorn engaged in offering seminars in the Department of Social Sciences, preparing her archival papers for library deposit and developing a research center focused on scholarship and events related to social justice and civic engagement. Additionally, Evers will travel throughout Mississippi and beyond offering lectures and public discussions on her portfolio of work.

A native of Vicksburg, Evers became a symbol of courage as well as tragedy in the civil rights movement, and went on to become a championed leader of civil rights herself. She was the first African American woman to head the Southern California Democratic Women’s Division and was co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Evers chronicled the life of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, and the civil rights struggle in Mississippi in a co-authored book, “For Us, the Living” and anchored a special HBO production, “Southern Justice, the Murder of Medgar Evers.” Other books include “Watch Me Fly: What I learned On the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be,” and most recently “The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches.”