Charles Evers passes away at age 97

A brother of slain Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers and a longtime figure in Mississippi state politics has passed away today.

Charles Evers has died at the age of 97 in Brandon this morning. A coroner says he died of natural causes.

His younger brother Medgar Evers was a Mississippi NAACP leader who was assassinated outside his home in Jackson in 1963.

Charles Evers became the first black candidate to win a mayor’s race in Mississippi in 1969. Later he ran for governor in 1971 and the U.S. Senate in 1978.

He was later a Republican and publicly supported Barack Obama for president.