Jessie James Shelby

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated a review of this matter based upon a referral from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in the form of a January 31, 1956 “partial report” form the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The report was signed by Medgar Evers, then the NAACP’s Mississippi Field Secretary. Mr. Evers stated that, on January 20, 1956, Jessie James Shelby, the African-American victim, was shot and fatally wounded by an unidentified officer in Yazoo City, Mississippi. The officer reportedly claimed that he shot the victim because the victim was resisting arrest. Mr. Evers reported that he had encountered the “usual ‘afraid to talk’ because of possible reprisals” in his investigation and that he planned to continue to search for information.