Lots of Indiana talk, but little action
— -- In Greenwood, Mississippi, Byron De La Beckwith Jr. was well known as a devout segregationist who hated Jews, Catholics and blacks.
One June morning in 1963, Beckwith drove his hatred 99 miles south to Jackson. There he waited under the cover of some honeysuckle vines near the home of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. And when Evers came home, Beckwith shot him in the back, killing him.
The state tried Beckwith twice for murder in 1964. Each time, the trial ended with a hung jury. Among his supporters was Gov. Ross Barnett, who made it a point to shake Beckwith's hand in front of the jury. That would be the same Gov. Barnett who defied a federal court order and futilely tried to stop the first black student -- James Meredith -- from enrolling at the University of Mississippi.
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