By Cathy Hayden
Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer

Despite funeral stands of flowers placed at the Freedom Corner marker, dozens of parade-goers lining Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Jackson Saturday were celebrating, not mourning.

They cheered the accomplishments of slain Jackson civil rights leader Medgar Evers as part of the 38th annual Medgar Evers-B.B. King Mississippi Homecoming.

Evers' brother, Charles Evers of Fayette, said the purpose is to show "that progress has been made. There's no more violent racism. We still have racism, but not violent racism. We have come a long way. It's been black and white together, not a one-sided thing. That's what Medgar died for."

Evers was killed at his Jackson home on June 12, 1963. After two mistrials and 31 years, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of Evers' murder in 1994. Beckwith, 80, died Jan. 21 while serving a life sentence for the slaying.

After a prayer and placing of the two black and white funeral stands adorned with flowers in front of the marker, the parade kicked off to the music of B.B. King and others blasting from loudspeakers.

Mayor Harvey Johnson and other black city officials rode in cars, and a handful of groups marched through the Freedom Corner intersection.

Megar Evers' daughter Reena Evers Everette of Los Angeles paraded in a city bus with her daughter and other family members who came for the weekend's events.

Everette said she doesn't always come home for the annual event, but decided to this year.

"It's my heart. It's my country, my spirit, my family," she said, smiling.

New York Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, R-Syracuse, led a group of high school students, both black and white, who marched in red T-shirts. Hoffmann was a civil rights activist in Mississippi in the 1970s.

"We came down to study the civil rights movement," she said.

As they walked through the intersection, they attracted the attention of Shelton Gates, a disc jockey with WMPR radio station.

"You see all those different colors marching in red shirts? That's what it's all about. No black, no white," he said through a microphone.

Geraldine Funchess of Jackson came with her two grandchildren and her sister. She said she sang in the Medgar Evers Freedom Choir and sang the night Evers was shot.

She came "to watch the program and see that the dream is still alive with Medgar Evers. We've made a lot of progress," she said.

Jeremy Conerly, 12, of McComb was visiting in town with his family. With a little prompting from his mother, he recalled why it's important to remember Evers.

"He fought for civil rights," Conerly said.

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