Myrlie Evers-Williams, a lifelong civil rights activist, gave the invocation at the 2013 inauguration of President Barack Obama. She was the first woman to give the invocation at a presidential inauguration, and she was also the first layperson to give that prayer.
Evers-Williams' husband, Medgar Evers, was assassinated in June, 1963, by a member of the White Citizens' Council who opposed the civil rights movement.
