Received by Newsfinder from APDec 23, 2004 1:04 Eastern Time JACKSON, Miss. (AP) _ Mississippi’s largest commercial airport will now be known as Jackson-Evers International Airport to honor slain civil rights figure Medgar Evers. The Jackson City Council voted 6-0 on Tuesday for the name change, amending an original proposal to rename the airport Medgar Evers International Airport. Evers was field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP when he was assassinated June 12, 1963, in the driveway of his Jackson home. White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, after two mistrials in 1964, was convicted of the killing on Feb. 5, 1994. Beckwith died in prison in 2001. “We appreciate this and thank everyone who was involved in making the name change a success,” Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers and chairman emeritus of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told The Clarion-Ledger in a telephone interview. “The city of Jackson and the state of Mississippi will benefit from this. It sends a clear signal internationally that Mississippi continues to make progress.” Jackson resident Ineva May-Pittman requested the city rename the airport. “I will not believe that this is a reality until I see the name on the marker in Rankin County,” Pittman said. Airport officials wanted to keep Jackson in the name. They plan to create an exhibit honoring Evers in the terminal. In Jackson, the downtown post office, a major thoroughfare and a library bear Evers’ name.
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