Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), who began his grassroots political activism being a civil rights champion through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while a student at Tougaloo College, will receive the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) 2020 National Leadership Award.
Because of the work of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the Evers’ house at 2332 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, will now become a national historic landmark. The house where Medgar Evers’ was fatally shot was built in the first planned middle-class subdivision for African-Americans in Mississippi after World War II. Thompson has been working on the honor for Evers for over ten years.
During a call with reporters, NAACP officials announced that the civil rights group will transition from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(c)(4) designation.
The students attended the private Tougaloo College, just north of Jackson, when they staged a nonviolent sit-in at the city’s main library that was reserved for white people.