The family of civil rights icon Medgar Evers is split over who should be the next president.
Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, on Monday endorsed former Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for president. Medgar Evers’ older brother, Charles Evers, said he is backing New York business mogul Donald Trump, a Republican.
“America needs a leader that will stand with communities of color to fight the injustices that still inundate our communities. Secretary Clinton is committed to fighting these battles,” Myrlie Evers-Williams wrote in her endorsement.
Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist who organized several boycotts across Mississippi in fighting for integration. He later became the first NAACP field secretary for the state, working to end segregation in schools. In 1963 Evers was assassinated in his driveway by a member of the White Citizens’ Council, who was convicted more than 30 years later based on new evidence.
Evers-Williams is an activist in her own right. She worked alongside her husband during the civil rights movement and became the chairperson of the NAACP in 1995.
But Evers’ brother Charles Evers, who also served as a field secretary for the NAACP, believes Trump should be the next leader in the Oval Office.
“I believe in him first of all because he’s a businessman. I think jobs are badly needed in Mississippi,” Evers told the Clarion-Ledger, a Mississippi publication.
He later appeared on MSNBC to say Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the nation and he hopes Trump can bring a new industry to the area.
“We need jobs here. And the main reason I like him is he shoots from the hip. He doesn’t have written speeches and all that kind of stuff,” Evers said. “I’d also like to see Donald Trump bring one of those casinos to Jackson.”
Charles Evers, 92, served two stints as mayor of Fayette, in southwest Mississippi.