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Mississippi politico, civil rights figure Charles Evers dies

Mississippi politico, civil rights figure Charles Evers dies
Posted at 3:34 PM, Jul 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-22 15:34:24-04

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Charles Evers, the older brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers and a longtime figure in Mississippi politics, has died in Mississippi.

He was 97.

A coroner says Evers died of "natural causes" Wednesday in Brandon.

Medgar Evers was a Mississippi NAACP leader who was assassinated outside his Jackson home in 1963.

Charles Evers in 1969 became the first Black candidate since Reconstruction to win a mayor's race in any multiracial town in Mississippi.

He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1971 and for U.S. Senate in 1978, both times as an independent.

He was later a Republican but publicly supported Barack Obama for president.