Mississippi will celebrate the centennial birthdays of B.B. King and Medgar Evers throughout 2025.
The joint celebration kicked off this week at the state capitol as part of a partnership between the B.B. King Museum, the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute and the National Parks Service Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument.
“I’m thrilled that we get to play a significant role in celebrating what would be the 100th birthdays of Mr. King and Mr. Evers,” B.B. King Museum Executive Director Malika Polk-Lee said in a release last week ahead of this past Tuesday’s ceremony. “Through the museum’s programming and events for the year, we want to ensure that Mr. King’s contributions to music and humanity are long remembered.”
Evers was born on July 2, 1925, and King was born on September 16, 1925.
State Senator John Horhn, flanked by dozens of elected officials and state leaders, presented Polk-Lee with a proclamation from Gov. Tate Reeves, recognizing this past Tuesday as the centennial celebration day.
“B.B. King is probably one of the only artists where all you have to do is hear one note, and you know that is B.B. King and Lucille,” Horhn said of King and his famous guitar.
King passed away in May 2015 at the age of 89.
Evers, a veteran of both the U.S. Army during World War II and of the Civil Rights movement, was assassinated outside of his Jackson home in June 1963 at the age of 37.
Byron De La Beckwith walked free after two mistrials but was eventually convicted of murdering Evers decades later.
Horhn noted Evers’ continuing impact on the world. The Jackson-Evers International Airport is named after him, as well as a post office, a military supply ship and other prominent buildings.
“His voice resonates throughout the world as a voice of reason, humility and as a freedom fighter,” Horhn said.
District 31 Rep. Otis Anthony said during Tuesday’s presentation that King and Evers were “two towering figures” in the state’s history who not only changed their respective worlds, but they also inspired others throughout the world to fight and to never give up.
“B.B. King carried the soul of Indianola and the Mississippi Delta in every note he played,” Anthony said, adding that King “bridged cultures and healed wounds” with his music.
Of Evers, he said that “he paid the ultimate price to ensure that freedom and dignity weren’t just words and reality for a few but a reality for all.”
District 13 Sen. Sarita Simmons said that King’s music was more than that.
“It was a movement, filled with emotion that lifted spirits during times of hardships,” she said.
She called Evers a “true champion of justice.”
