Received by Newsfinder from AP
By VALERIE BONK
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) _ Slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers was honored for paving the way for black leaders during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death.
Evers should be remembered as a pioneer who helped lay the foundation for much of the nation’s civil rights progress over the last five decades, said Eric Holder, the nation’s first African American attorney general.
“We pledge that we will never forget the man, the foundation that he laid, nor his broad shoulders that made possible the election of the first African American president and the selection of the first African American attorney general,” Holder said.
Former President Bill Clinton and Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, also spoke at the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former NAACP leader in Mississippi is buried.
