The brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers has endorsed Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

“I believe in him first of all because he’s a businessman. I think jobs are badly needed in Mississippi,” civil rights activist Charles Evers, 93, told the Clarion-Ledger.

He said he also aligns with Mr. Trump on issues like illegal immigration.

Mr. Evers’ brother, Medgar Evers, was the first field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi and a prominent desegregationist who was assassinated in front of his Jackson home in 1963.

After his brother’s death, Mr. Evers took over as the NAACP field secretary and became the first black mayor in Mississippi post-Reconstruction. In 1980, he switched to the Republican party, garnering national attention for his endorsement of Ronald Reagan, the Clarion-Ledger reported.

Mr. Evers said he hasn’t seen “any proof” of Mr. Trump being a racist, though he admitted “all of us have some racism in us. Even me.”

He said he plans to attend Mr. Trump’s rally Monday in Madison, hoping for the opportunity to speak with the candidate about the possibility of bringing a catfish processing plant to Mississippi.

“Our catfish is shipped to China and brought back for us to buy. Put a catfish farm here,” Mr. Evers told the Clarion-Ledger.

Mitch Tyner chairman of the Mississippi Donald Trump Committee in a news release Friday named Mr. Evers as a member of the candidate’s state campaign team, the Clarion-Ledger reported.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.