Evers-Williams and ‘Dr. J' receive civil rights awards

National Freedom Award winner Myrlie Evers-Williams encouraged students Tuesday to hold on to their dreams and embrace life, while Legacy Award winner Julius "Dr.J" Erving encouraged them to "take heed" to youthful choices that could affect the rest of their lives.

The awards from the National Civil Rights Museum were given at Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ, where both award winners talked about early life experiences that changed their futures and helped turn them into role models.

For Evers-Williams, it was the 1963 murder of her husband, civil rights leader Medgar Evers. She had promised him before his death she would seek justice if he were murdered. It took 31 years and two mistrials, but Evers-Williams immersed herself in the civil rights movement while seeking a new trial for accused murderer Byron De La Beckwith. He finally was retried, convicted and given a life sentence at age 73 for shooting Evers in the back with a deer rifle. De La Beckwith died after seven years in prison.

The reopening of his case also led the Justice Department to reopen other cases around the country involving civil rights violations.

Evers-Williams, who said she had no career ambitions before her husband's death, suddenly became a motivational speaker who toured the nation for the NAACP after her husband's murder. It led her to serve on the NAACP board and to win an election as chairwoman. She became a civil rights heroine, credited with saving the NAACP by getting it out of debt and restoring its reputation.

She accepted her award and a $25,000 honorarium sponsored by International Paper, urging an audience made up primarily of students to borrow a phrase from Jesse Jackson and tell themselves, "I am somebody.

"I say grasp everything that is there for you," she said. Instead of dwelling on frivolity or on negativity, she encouraged: "Don't give up on your dreams. Embrace life."

Evers-Williams, now 76, once ran a losing campaign for Congress. After the awards ceremony, she said she would consider running again if she could run "on a platform of what is happening to the elderly" in the United States.

Erving, 59, who received the Legacy Award and a $25,000 honorarium sponsored by Nike, said his parents split up when he was 4, leaving his mother to raise him and two brothers. When he was 8, the Salvation Army opened a recreation center with an indoor basketball court within walking distance of his home. Erving said two adults there became mentors, inspiring him and helping establish "core values" that led him to philanthropy after his career in the ABA and the NBA.

His acceptance of advice from mentors was a lesson for students that their futures are shaped by their early years. "This is your time. This is your cue. Wake up. Take heed. You're going to have to make decisions during this time that are going to affect the rest of your lives."

It was his role as a philanthropist and in public service that led to his Legacy Award, but it is his role as a superstar basketball player that most fans remember. Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player awards and three scoring titles while playing with the ABA's Virginia Squires and New York Nets and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

Two years later he was inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. He has been national chairman of the Hemophilia Foundation, coach of the Special Olympics basketball program, adviser to the March of Dimes, spokesman for the Lupus Foundation (one of his brothers died of lupus), the American Dental Association and Philadelphia Police Athletic League.

Erving is president of The Erving Group, a private investment company, and serves on the boards of several companies including Saks Inc. and Fusion Telecommunications.

-- Michael Lollar: 529-2793