Evers, (James) Charles (1922- )

US civil-rights leader and mayor. He was field director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Mississippi and mayor of Fayette, Mississippi (1969), the first black mayor to be elected in a racially mixed southern town in the 20th century.

He was born in Decatur, Mississippi. After serving in the US Army during the Korean War, he moved to Chicago where he was a successful nightclub owner, estate agent, and disc jockey. He returned to Mississippi to become NAACP field director in 1963. He published his autobiography (1971) and was re-elected mayor (1973) after an unsuccessful attempt for the governorship on an independent ticket (1971). In 1978, he failed in his bid to become a US senator.