Why should we still be discussing the 1963 assassination of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the 30-year quest to bring his killer to justice? Perhaps — even 61 years after his assassination — Medgar Evers’ life and legacy are more relevant than ever.

About the speaker

Reed Massengill is a widely published writer and photographer who was born in Knoxville and received his journalism degree from UT in 1984. The new University of Tennessee Press edition of his 1994 book Portrait of a Racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar Evers has been issued with a new afterword and revealing new material that helps put this 20th Century crime in a 21st Century context.