ASSASSIN'S DEATH GIVES US REASON TO THINK

A week ago, Byron De La Beckwith died while serving life in prison. In 1994, Beckwith was convicted for assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers, 30 years after pulling the trigger.

Why did it take so long to convict Beckwith? Two all-white juries deadlocked in trials in 1964, voting the wishes of much of Mississippi's ruling political establishment at the time.

Beckwith's death gives us pause to reflect upon the difficult and oftentimes tragic history for many blacks in America.

Medgar Evers was a decorated veteran of World War II, an insurance salesman and the first field secretary of the NAACP, where he organized voter-registration drives and economic boycotts to protest racial injustice. He was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

Evers was shot in the back while walking from his driveway to his home by Beckwith only hours after then-President Kennedy made a national televised address to the country about civil rights. Within the next decade other black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., would be murdered by other extremists.

Beckwith's death last week provides a poignant juxtaposition in our nation's history between so-called civil rights leaders and the issues of justice.

All groups within the United States can find hardships in their pasts. Evers was the type of leader, however, who sought to ennoble his fellow men to rise above hardship and grasp self-determination and personal responsibility.

Today, too often, those who most loudly proclaim themselves the successor to leaders like him and King seem more engaged with personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement, or causing conflict between races to perpetuate celebrity.

Too often, it is not racial harmony that is sought by these leaders, but a fund-raising issue.

Meanwhile, also last week, quietly and virtually unreported by the national media, the brother to Medgar Evers and his then-successor as NAACP field secretary, testified in favor of John Ashcroft for attorney general of the United States.

In a letter to the Senate, Charles Evers called the allegations of racism against Ashcroft "not supported by the facts."

Evers went on to say: "The charges seem to be nothing more than a political ploy to fan the flames of racial division in our country."

Our country's history is not perfect, and this should never be forgotten.

Medgar Evers paid the ultimate price for seeking to make the American dream real for many denied it. But our country's future will be better only if honesty and fairness guides us and if we choose our leaders wisely. The time of giving reverence to those who wrap themselves in the blood of others in order to personally enrich themselves and advance their own celebrity should end.