Bennie Thompson applauds posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Medgar Evers

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) was just a boy when civil rights leader Medgar Evers was gunned down in front of his Mississippi home in 1963. But Evers’s legacy left a lasting impact on the 13-term congressman.

“I was very young when he died in his driveway, killed by a fellow who somehow saw him as upsetting the Mississippi way of life,” Thompson told The Hill. 

“But for him and what he stood for, it's kind of been a guiding light for a lot of people my age who grew up around that time,” he added.