Just days after the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in June 1963, Jackson, Miss., police traced the murder weapon to white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. Bill Waller, then the Hinds County district attorney, tried Beckwith for murder, and when the all-white jury failed to reach a verdict, Waller did something unheard of in the old South--he tried Beckwith again, though with the same result. Waller, who died Nov. 30 at 85, went on to serve as governor of Mississippi from 1972 to 1976. A transformational figure, he appointed African Americans to top positions and recruited the first black...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
