WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., today announced that the National Park Service will conduct a special resource study on the home of slain civil rights leader Medgar Wiley Evers to determine its potential for designation as a National Historic Landmark.

“I am pleased that the Medgar Wiley Evers home is officially under consideration to be a National Historic Landmark,” Wicker said. “Protecting this special place for future generations of Mississippians is a fitting way to honor his many contributions to freedom and equality. Medgar Evers left a legacy deserving of this national attention and remembrance.”

“As time passes, the preservation of Civil Rights Movement landmarks like the Medgar and Myrlie Evers home becomes more important. Historic landmark status for this site would be one of the appropriate ways to honor the Evers family’s sacrifice in the struggle for civil rights, and I am pleased the National Park Service is undertaking this review,” Cochran said.

The study will evaluate the national significance of the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Evers House in Jackson and determine the suitability and feasibility of designating it as a National Historic Landmark. These landmarks commemorate nationally significant places that illustrate important themes, persons, or events in American history. This designation would allow the Evers home to apply for grants and receive certain tax credits.

Wicker and Cochran introduced legislation in October to authorize a similar study to consider the Evers house as a unit of the National Park System. Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., introduced a companion measure in the House.

The Evers home, acquired by Tougaloo College in 1993 and labeled a museum in 1997, is currently a designated Mississippi landmark under the State Antiquity Law and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran and civil rights leader, was assassinated June 12, 1963, in the driveway of his home while his family was inside.