'It's about time': Civil rights icon Myrlie Evers reflects on Kamala Harris' campaign

Myrlie Evers isn't sure how she would have reacted back in the 1960s if someone had predicted she would live to see a Black woman seriously vying for the White House.

But the civil rights leader, who faced death threats when she and her husband tried to register Black voters in Mississippi back then, knows how she'll react if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency in November. I would say 'Hip! Hip! Hooray!'" she told USA TODAY. "'It's about time.'"

And if Harris loses to former president Donald Trump?

"It would be a sad day for me," she said after pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. "I'd have to say to myself: 'It's not over. It's just beginning.' It would be wake-up time."

Myrlie Evers, now 91 years old, has learned to take the long view.

On Friday, she plans to formally endorse Harris for president, saying the Democratic nominee "embodies the values that my husband Medgar Evers dedicated his life to − justice, equality, and the belief that America can and should be better."

In May, he was awarded posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Joe Biden.

"In spite of the immense cruelty of Jim Crow and constant threat of violence against his life and his family's, Medgar Evers exemplified the best in humanity," said Jasmine Harris, Black media director of the Democratic campaign. "As someone who grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights movement, Vice President Harris is humbled and honored to earn the support of the family of Medgar Evers."

Rising prospects for Black women in power

California Rep. Maxine Waters first introduced Evers to Kamala Harris when she was running for California attorney general in 2010. "I'm an admirer" of Harris, Evers said. "It takes a pretty strong person to step out into a crowd that may or may not be friendly and put yourself on the line for something that you believe in. I think she has done that."

Her endorsement is no surprise, but it is an affirmation of Harris' groundbreaking candidacy by one of the handful of surviving leaders of the civil rights movement of the '60s − a movement that didn't always fully acknowledge the contributions of women.

"I hear criticisms along the way, that women should not be involved in politics, this and the other," Evers said, noting she was speaking as "an old-timer." She has seen that attitude change − with the first woman of color nominated for the presidency, the first Black woman sitting on the Supreme Court, and two Black women favored to win Senate seats in November.

If Lisa Blunt Rochester wins in Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks wins in Maryland, the Senate for the first time would have two Black female members at the same time.

"I am simply pleased beyond control to see the number of women that are stepping out with no assurances that they will win but who … step out and say, 'I'm going to work for this democracy,'" Evers said in an interview on Zoom from her retirement community near Claremont, California. "We are living in a country that quite frankly needs all of the help that it can get, not only to survive but to grow, to keep our land free."

'Keep the fires burning!'

She was the young mother of three when her husband was shot in the back and killed by a white supremacist who targeted him for his work as the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. That was in 1963.

For three decades, she fought to bring his killer to justice. His killer was sentenced in 1994 to life in prison for the murder, where he died in 2001.

Evers also served as the first female chair of the NAACP. In 2013, as President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term, she became the first woman and first layperson to deliver the invocation at a presidential inauguration.

Age and health have slowed her down, but she's not quite ready to stop fighting.

"We'll have quite an election night on Nov. 5," she predicted at the end of the interview. Then, as a farewell, she declared, "Keep the fires burning!"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Civil rights icon Myrlie Evers, 91, on Kamala Harris' campaign