Brother of murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers says he's backing Donald Trump

published 5 March 2016

Charles Evers, the brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers and an activist in his own right, has endorsed Donald Trump for president.

Evers, 93, says he stands behind the Republican frontrunner because he's a "businessman" and "jobs are badly needed in Mississippi," The Clarion-Ledger reports. Evers said if he ever meets Trump, he'll ask him to bring a catfish processing plant to the state, claiming that "our catfish is shipped to China and brought back for us to buy." He also said he hasn't seen "any proof" of Trump being a racist, adding, "all of us have some racism in us. Even me."

Medgar Evers was assassinated in 1963 in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. After his brother's death, Charles Evers became the field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi, and in 1969, after being elected the mayor of Fayette, became the first black mayor of a town or city in the state since Reconstruction. On Friday, the Mississippi Donald Trump Committee announced Evers has been made a member of Trump's state campaign team.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.