Dispatches: Going the Last Mile with Medgar

As she sat on the witness stand, staring down at the small color photograph in her lap, Myrlie Evers' hands quivered slightly. The wood-paneled courtroom was silent. Mrs. Evers paused, drew in a breath and then spoke, her clear voice cracking for the first time that day. "Yes," she said, "this is Medgar in his casket." The photograph showed the exhumed body of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who had been shot and killed in 1963; even in his coffin he wore a gold N.A.A.C.P. pin on his lapel. Evers had been taken from his grave, and his widow had been...