Civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams to deliver invocation at Presidential Inaurgural

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Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, will deliver the invocation at President Barack Obama’s inauguration later this month, organizers announced last Tuesday.

Evers-Williams, also a civil rights activist in her own right, is reportedly the first woman and non-clergy member to deliver a president’s inaugural invocation.

Evers-Williams, 79, is the former chairwoman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the founder of the Medgar Evers Institute in Jackson, Miss. Evers-Williams is the widow of Evers, who was murdered by a white supremacist in 1963. He was the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi and worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, among other causes.

“I am humbled to have been asked to deliver the invocation for the 57th inauguration of the President of the United States—especially in light of this historical time in America when we will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement,” Evers-Williams said in a statement.

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