Visitors to Arlington National Cemetery may walk right past the row containing grave No. 1431 in Section 36.

Among the thousands and thousands of heroes buried at the cemetery, it blends in with all of the others.

Like so many markers at Arlington, grave No. 1431 marks the burial site of a great hero of our country. Medgar W. Evers’ grave is at home with other heroes in the gardens of stone.

But Evers, a World War II veteran, didn’t give his life on a wartime battlefield in a far away land, but in a peacetime war at home in an America divided by race.

Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary since Evers, a key Mississippi leader in the Civil Rights Movement, was gunned down outside his Jackson home.

The horror of such assassinations and other violence suffered by blacks — and whites that also stood up for civil rights — eventually led the country to take notice and forcefully end racist practices.

For that, our nation is forever indebted to men like Evers and the family he left behind.

Wednesday morning, leaders of Alcorn State University permanently and publicly will honor Evers’ legacy by dedicating a bronze statue of the fallen leader on the ASU campus in Lorman.

Evers’ brother Charles Evers put the honor in perspective.

“I think anyone would be proud — and he would be proud — that people are still remembering him and what he died for.”

Well said, Mr. Evers, and we pray none of us forgets the sacrifice your brother made to help our country correct decades of atrocious behavior and racist practices.