Civil Rights Icon To Deliver Obama’s Inauguration Invocation
Long-time civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams will deliver the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration, the Presidential Inauguration Committee (PIC) announced Tuesday. We’ve also learned Beyonce will sing the National Anthem.
As the widow of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, who was killed in his driveway in a racially charged murder in June 1963 in Jackson, Miss., her participation is significant in the second inauguration of the first black president. His murder was one of several events that year that contributed to the launch of the civil rights movement, which turns 50 this year.
Evers-Williams said she is “humbled” to have been asked to participate. “It is indeed an exhilarating experience to have the distinct honor of representing that era,” she said in a statement released by the PIC.
After the death of her husband (seen below), Evers-Williams became prominent in the civil rights movement and politics, including a three-year stint running the NAACP in the late 1990s.
Additionally, Rev. Louie Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, will deliver the benediction.
GOOD MOVE….This announcement is very good news. I am glad that Pres. Obama is acknowledging the Civil Rights movement heroes and sheroes. He would not be in the White House had those people not fought the battles that they did. I hope he will follow up with more actions that help Blacks, women and minorities in concrete ways….appoint some to his cabinet, to the Courts, and other positions, etc. We need to have more Black folks in high level jobs…to bring another perspective to Gov’t.