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        Widow of Slain Civil Rights Leader Delivers Inaugural Invocation

   by Chris Simkins

   Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain African-American civil rights
   leader Medgar Evers, delivered the invocation at President Obama's
   second Inauguration. Her spotlight at the historic event came as the
   nation honored the late Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, America's most
   famous and influential civil rights leader.  VOA's Chris Simkins
   reports on Evers-Williams' reflections during the presidential
   inauguration and how she continues her husband's legacy of civil rights
   activism.
   It was a shining moment for Evers-Williams, as she delivered the
   invocation at Barack Obama's second Inauguration.
   Fifty years ago, Evers-Williams' husband, Medgar Evers, was shot and
   killed by a white supremacist while fighting for equal rights for
   blacks in Mississippi. Now, decades later, she evoked the spirit of her
   husband and other civil rights leaders during the second inauguration
   of the nation's first African-American president.
   "The vision of those who came before us and dreamed of this day. They
   are a great cloud of witnesses unseen by the naked eye but all around
   us, thankful that their living was not in vain,"  she said.
   For years Evers-Williams has carried on the causes her husband fought
   and died for.  While she remains conscious of the past she also holds
   great hope for the future.
   "I think we have the challenge today of using all of the strengths that
   we have. It is about humanity its about giving, its about helping each
   other those were the things civil rights leaders fought for,"
   Evers-Williams said.
   Views of inauguration around US Capitol Building
   ''Evers-Williams says she takes away from the inauguration a sense of
   pride, justice and hope for a nation that's inclusive to all people.
   "There is so much we can do in reaching out to other people of getting
   issues on the table, and that is where my interest and that's where my
   desire is, at this point, to make a better world [and] to make a better
   America," Evers-Williams said.
   After her moment in the spotlight, Evers-Williams says she wants young
   people to learn about the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s
   and continue the struggle for equal rights.
   "It is time to utilize the brain power of our youth in a positive way,
   of going back into the community in working to change things. You don't
   have to be an old civil rights leader. You can be a new improved leader
   in your community," Evers-Willaisms said.
   Evers-Williams says she will continue to champion the cause of civil
   rights and do whatever she can to help America become an even stronger
   country.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/myrlie-evers-williams-medgar-evers-in
   auguration/1588259.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/myrlie-evers-williams-medgar-evers-inauguration/1588259.html