LORMAN — The 50th anniversary of the June 12, 1963, assassination of Medgar Evers won’t be commemorated until next year, but Alcorn State University has begun its campaign to raise funds to build a statue honoring Evers, who graduated there in 1952.
John H. Jones, national chairman for the Medgar Evers Statue Campaign, tells The Clarion-Ledger the group hopes to raise $200,000-$250,000 by August so the statue can be finished in time for a Black History Month event in February 2013.
The statue is expected to be placed on campus outside the university’s new dormitories, the Medgar Wiley Evers Heritage Village.
Jones says he hopes the statue will bring attention to the work of both Evers and others in the civil rights movement.
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