The FBI eventually identified Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist, as the suspect in Evers's murder. Beckwith was tried twice for the crime, but the all-white juries failed to reach a verdict in either case. It wasn't until 1994, after the Mississippi state legislature passed a law allowing the reopening of cold cases, that Beckwith was finally brought to justice. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2001.
The Medgar Evers case was a landmark event in the civil rights movement, and it helped highlight the dangers faced by activists working for racial equality. Evers's assassination also served as a reminder of the long and difficult struggle that African Americans faced in their quest for justice and equality.