Fifty-Four years ago this week, NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers was assassinated in the driveway of his home in Jackson, MS. Two trials of Evers' assassin, Byron De La Beckwith, ended in hung juries in 1964. Beckwith was convicted of the murder in 1994, thirty years later. Weeks before Medgar Evers was killed, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from a Birmingham, AL. jail that "justice too long delayed, is justice denied."

Today, these examples of injustice are still reality. Violent terrorist attacks and high-profiled police shootings against African-Americans with no convictions have created fear and distrust of the justice system and law enforcement. With police violence against unarmed African Americans going viral on social media, there is a heightened sensitivity. What can now be done to ensure equal justice for all Americans? 

We must be informed of the judicial system. We need to know  the process in which a grand jury operates when it receives a case and understand how one jury and one judge decide a case until the verdict.  We can partner with the local police force on ways all citizens can be equally protected, avoid conflicts and take responsibility for their neighborhoods. With a full understanding of these preliminary actions, we as people can unite to ensure liberty and justice for all.