Mississippi civil rights worker murders
Encyclopedia
The Mississippi civil rights workers murders involved the lynching
of three political activists in Neshoba County, Mississippi
on June 21, 1964, during the American Civil Rights Movement.
The murders of James Chaney
, a 21-year-old black
man from Meridian
, Mississippi
; Andrew Goodman
, a 20-year-old white
Jewish anthropology
student from New York; and Michael Schwerner
, a 24-year-old white Jewish CORE
organizer and former social worker also from New York, demonstrated the dangers faced by civil rights workers in the South, especially during what became known as "Freedom Summer
", dedicated to voter education and registration. Blacks had been essentially disfranchised in Mississippi since 1890 and passage of a new constitution, and lived under racial segregation
and Jim Crow laws.
activities in the South since after World War II. Sit-ins, non-violent demonstrations, and Freedom Rides were among the actions that had been taken by the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), and other organizations. White volunteers also helped with organizing and supported actions, many of them from northern states.
In 1964, the Council of Federated Organizations
(COFO) a coalition of SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and SCLC in Mississippi planned a summer of voter education and registrations in that state, which had essentially disfranchised black and Native American voters since passage of a new constitution in 1890. They organized volunteers and local activists to work on these issues. Michael Schwerner
and his wife Rita were in Meridian
as CORE organizers. He and James Earl Chaney, a local young man, had returned from training in Ohio with Andrew Goodman
, a 20-year-old volunteer from New York. Officials of the state of Mississippi and local groups such as the Ku Klux Klan
resented these efforts to change their society of white supremacy, and activists worked at high risk.
Since May 2, 1964, two young black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee, a civil rights activist, and his friend Charles Eddie Moore had been missing from Roxie
. Their beaten bodies were found months later, bound to an engine block and railroad rails in a river in Warren County
. Most suspected the Klan. (In 2007, James Ford Seale
was tried and convicted of the kidnapping of the two men. They were beaten by several Klansmen and drowned in the river.)
. James Chaney was a local Freedom Movement activist in Meridian, Mississippi; Michael Schwerner was a CORE
organizer there from New York
; and Andrew Goodman, also from New York, was a Freedom Summer
volunteer. The three men had just finished week-long training on the campus of Western College for Women (now part of Miami University
), in Oxford, Ohio
, regarding strategies on how to register blacks in the South to vote.
Local Klansmen were resentful of the activities of Schwerner and other workers. Schwerner, called "Goatee" by the Klansmen, had been based in Meridian since January 1964. His activities included setting up a black community center in the town, organizing a black boycott of a white-owned variety store that refused to hire a black shop assistant, and educating African Americans to register to vote, as they had to deal with discriminatory rules and officials. Sam Bowers
, the Imperial Wizard of the KKK splinter group White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
, had issued an order to kill the civil rights worker.
The morning after they returned to Meridian, the three men headed to Longdale, Mississippi, 50 miles away in Neshoba County, in order to inspect the ruins of Mount Zion United Methodist Church. The church, a meeting place for civil rights groups, had been burned just five days earlier. Neshoba County was known as a dangerous area for civil rights workers. The County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price
were found to be members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
, as were many other residents.
Aware that their station wagon's license number had been given to members of the White Citizens' Council
and the Ku Klux Klan
, before leaving Meridian they informed other Council of Federated Organizations
(COFO) workers of their plans and set check-in times, part of standard security procedures. Late that afternoon, Price, the county deputy, stopped the blue Ford carrying the trio. He arrested Chaney for allegedly driving 35 miles per hour over the speed limit. He also booked Goodman and Schwerner "for investigation" when he took them back to the county jail.
Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were each denied telephone calls during their time at the jail. COFO workers made attempts to find the three men, but when they called the Neshoba County jail, the secretary followed instructions to deny that the workers were being held there. During the hours they were held incommunicado in jail, Price notified his Klan associate Edgar Ray Killen
, who assembled fellow Klan members and planned how to kill the three workers.
After the Klan ambush was set up on the road back to Meridian, Chaney was fined $20, and the three men were ordered to leave the county. Price followed them to the edge of town, where he pulled them over, sounding his police siren. He held them until the Klan murder squad arrived. The KKK took the three men to an isolated spot where they shot Schwerner and Goodman, and beat Chaney before shooting him to death. The Klan drove the CORE car into Bogue Chitto swamp
and set it on fire. They buried the bodies in an earthen dam, using a bulldozer to cover them.
On June 4, 2000, the journalist Jerry Mitchell
, who had been reporting on the case, published data from the autopsy report. It had been withheld from the 1967 trial as the county pathologist had contended that the injuries to Chaney's body had happened during excavation of the grave, which the FBI denied. The report stated Chaney's left arm was broken in one place, his right arm was broken in two places, there was "a marked disruption" of the left elbow joint, and he may also have suffered trauma to the groin area. A pathologist who examined the bodies at the families' request following their autopsies noted Chaney had suffered "an extreme beating with either a blunt instrument or a chain." As the autopsy photographs and x-rays have been destroyed, the injuries could not be confirmed by additional study.
to force J. Edgar Hoover
and the FBI to investigate the case. Hoover's antipathy to civil rights groups caused him to resist until Johnson used indirect threats of political reprisals. One hundred and fifty FBI agents including Major Case Inspector Joseph Sullivan
were sent to Neshoba county to investigate. During the investigation, searchers including Navy divers and the FBI discovered the bodies of at least seven other Mississippi blacks, whose disappearances over the past several years had not attracted attention outside of their local communities.
The disappearance of the three activists captured national attention; it took 44 days for investigators to discover where they had been buried. Johnson and civil rights activists used the outrage over their deaths in their efforts to bring about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
, signed July 2, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Mississippi officials resented the outside attention. The Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey said, "They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state." The Mississippi governor Paul Johnson
dismissed concern by stating that "they could be in Cuba".
. Schwerner and Goodman had each been shot once in the heart; Chaney, a black man, had been beaten and shot three times.
Known as "Mr. X", the identity of the informant was a closely held secret by the government for 40 years. In the process of studying the case, journalist Jerry Mitchell and teacher Barry Bradford uncovered his identity: Maynard King, a highway patrolman who had been tipped off by Klansman Pete Jordan.
, a capo in the Colombo crime family
, had been recruited by the FBI to help find the civil rights workers' bodies. She said that she had been with Scarpa in Mississippi at the time and had witnessed his being given a gun, and later a cash payment, by FBI agents. She testified he told her he had threatened a Klansman
by placing a gun in his mouth, forcing him to reveal the location of the bodies. Similar stories of mafia involvement in the case had been circulating for years, and had been previously published in the New York Daily News, but had never before been introduced in court.
, charged 18 individuals under the 1870 US Force Act
with conspiring to deprive the three of their civil rights (by murder). They indicted Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Price and 16 other men.
Those found guilty on October 20, 1967, were Cecil Price, Klan Imperial Wizard Samuel Bowers, Alton Wayne Roberts
, Jimmy Snowden
, Billey Wayne Posey, Horace Barnett, and Jimmy Arledge. Sentences ranged from 3 to 10 years. After exhausting their appeals, the seven began serving their sentences in March 1970. None served more than six years. Sheriff Rainey was among those acquitted. Two of the defendants, E.G. Barnett, a candidate for sheriff, and Edgar Ray Killen
, a local minister, had been strongly implicated in the murders by witnesses, but the jury came to a deadlock on their charges and the Federal prosecutor decided not to retry them. On May 7, 2000, the jury revealed that in the case of Killen, they deadlocked after a lone juror stated she "could never convict a preacher".
For much of the next four decades, no legal action was taken on the murders.
The journalist Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter for the Jackson
Clarion-Ledger, wrote extensively about the case for six years. Mitchell had earned fame for helping secure convictions in several other high-profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the murders of Medgar Evers
and Vernon Dahmer
, and the Birmingham Church Bombing
.
In the case of the civil rights workers, Mitchell developed new evidence, found new witnesses, and pressured the state to take action. Barry Bradford, a high school teacher at Adlai E. Stevenson High School
in Lincolnshire, Illinois, and three of his students, Allison Nichols, Sarah Siegel, and Brittany Saltiel, joined Mitchell's efforts. Bradford later achieved recognition for helping clear the name of the civil rights martyr Clyde Kennard
.
Together the student-teacher team produced a documentary for the National History Day contest. It presented important new evidence and compelling reasons to reopen the case. The team also obtained an interview with Edgar Ray Killen
, which helped convince the state to investigate. Partially by using evidence developed by Bradford and the students, Mitchell was able to determine the identity of "Mr. X", the mystery informer who had helped the FBI discover the bodies and end the conspiracy of the Klan in 1964.
Mitchell's investigation and the high school students' work in creating Congressional pressure, national media attention and a taped conversation with Killen prompted action. In 2004, on the 40th anniversary of the murders, a multi-ethnic group of citizens in Philadelphia, Mississippi
, issued a call for justice. More than 1,500 people, including civil rights leaders and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
, joined them to voice their desire to revisit the case.
on three counts of murder. When Mississippi Attorney General prosecuted the case, it was the first time the state took action against the perpetrators. Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner's widow, testified in the trial. Afterward she said to the press,
On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter
; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers. Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison. He appealed, claiming that no jury of his peers would have convicted him at the time on the evidence presented. The Mississippi Supreme Court confirmed the verdict in 2007.
, co-starring Wayne Rogers
and Ned Beatty
. This was followed in 1988 by Mississippi Burning
, with Willem Dafoe
and Gene Hackman
; and in 1990 by Murder in Mississippi
, starring Tom Hulce
, Blair Underwood
and Josh Charles. The sympathetic portrayal of FBI agents in the first two movies angered civil rights activists, who believed the Bureau received too much credit for solving the case and too little condemnation for their previous lack of action in regards to civil rights abuses.
A 2008 documentary entitled Neshoba
details the murders, the investigation, and the 2005 trial of Edgar Ray Killen. The documentary features statements by many surviving relatives of the victims, other residents of Neshoba county, and other people connected to the civil rights movement. The film also contains footage from the 2005 trial.
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
of three political activists in Neshoba County, Mississippi
Neshoba County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 28,684 people, 10,694 households, and 7,742 families residing in the county. The population density was 50 people per square mile . There were 11,980 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...
on June 21, 1964, during the American Civil Rights Movement.
The murders of James Chaney
James Chaney
James Earl "J.E." Chaney , from Meridian, Mississippi, was one of three American civil rights workers who were murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia...
, a 21-year-old black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
man from Meridian
Meridian, Mississippi
Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
; Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life and education:...
, a 20-year-old white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
Jewish anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
student from New York; and Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner
Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...
, a 24-year-old white Jewish CORE
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
organizer and former social worker also from New York, demonstrated the dangers faced by civil rights workers in the South, especially during what became known as "Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
", dedicated to voter education and registration. Blacks had been essentially disfranchised in Mississippi since 1890 and passage of a new constitution, and lived under racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
and Jim Crow laws.
Background
Blacks had led an increasing series of civil rightsCivil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activities in the South since after World War II. Sit-ins, non-violent demonstrations, and Freedom Rides were among the actions that had been taken by the Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
(CORE), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP), Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
(SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC), and other organizations. White volunteers also helped with organizing and supported actions, many of them from northern states.
In 1964, the Council of Federated Organizations
Council of Federated Organizations
The Council of Federated Organizations was formed in Mississippi in 1962.A coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi, COFO was formed to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the state and oversee the distribution of...
(COFO) a coalition of SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and SCLC in Mississippi planned a summer of voter education and registrations in that state, which had essentially disfranchised black and Native American voters since passage of a new constitution in 1890. They organized volunteers and local activists to work on these issues. Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner
Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...
and his wife Rita were in Meridian
Meridian, Mississippi
Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area...
as CORE organizers. He and James Earl Chaney, a local young man, had returned from training in Ohio with Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life and education:...
, a 20-year-old volunteer from New York. Officials of the state of Mississippi and local groups such as the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
resented these efforts to change their society of white supremacy, and activists worked at high risk.
Since May 2, 1964, two young black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee, a civil rights activist, and his friend Charles Eddie Moore had been missing from Roxie
Roxie, Mississippi
Roxie is a town in Franklin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 569 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Roxie is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
. Their beaten bodies were found months later, bound to an engine block and railroad rails in a river in Warren County
Warren County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:* Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge * Vicksburg National Military Park -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 49,644 people, 18,756 households, and 13,222 families residing in the county. The population density was 85 people per square mile...
. Most suspected the Klan. (In 2007, James Ford Seale
James Ford Seale
James Ford Seale was a Ku Klux Klan member charged by the U.S. Justice Department on January 24, 2007, and subsequently convicted on June 14, 2007, for the May 1964 kidnapping of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, two African-American young men in Meadville, Mississippi...
was tried and convicted of the kidnapping of the two men. They were beaten by several Klansmen and drowned in the river.)
The lynching
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were lynched shortly after midnight on June 21, 1964, after they had investigated the burning of a church that had agreed to support a Freedom SchoolFreedom School
The Freedom School was located in Colorado, United States, offering a series of lectures by libertarian theorist Robert LeFevre from 1957 to 1968. LeFevre extended this work to the related Rampart College, an unaccredited four-year school, in 1963. Both shared the same campus...
. James Chaney was a local Freedom Movement activist in Meridian, Mississippi; Michael Schwerner was a CORE
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
organizer there from New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; and Andrew Goodman, also from New York, was a Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi which had historically excluded most blacks from voting...
volunteer. The three men had just finished week-long training on the campus of Western College for Women (now part of Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
), in Oxford, Ohio
Oxford, Ohio
Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States, in the southwestern portion of the state. It lies in Oxford Township, originally called the College Township. The population was 21,943 at the 2000 census. This college town was founded as a home for Miami University. Oxford...
, regarding strategies on how to register blacks in the South to vote.
Local Klansmen were resentful of the activities of Schwerner and other workers. Schwerner, called "Goatee" by the Klansmen, had been based in Meridian since January 1964. His activities included setting up a black community center in the town, organizing a black boycott of a white-owned variety store that refused to hire a black shop assistant, and educating African Americans to register to vote, as they had to deal with discriminatory rules and officials. Sam Bowers
Sam Bowers
Samuel Kenneth Bowers , was a leader of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life:Bowers was born on August 25, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Sam Bowers Sr., a salesman, and Evangeline Peyton, daughter of a well-to-do planter...
, the Imperial Wizard of the KKK splinter group White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was considered the most militant as well as the most violent Ku Klux Klan in history. They originated in Mississippi in the early 1960s under the leadership of Samuel Bowers, its first Grand Wizard. The White Knights of Mississippi was formed in 1964, and it...
, had issued an order to kill the civil rights worker.
The morning after they returned to Meridian, the three men headed to Longdale, Mississippi, 50 miles away in Neshoba County, in order to inspect the ruins of Mount Zion United Methodist Church. The church, a meeting place for civil rights groups, had been burned just five days earlier. Neshoba County was known as a dangerous area for civil rights workers. The County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price
Cecil Price
Cecil Ray Price was linked to the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. At the time of the murders, he was 26 years old and a deputy sheriff in Neshoba County, Mississippi...
were found to be members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was considered the most militant as well as the most violent Ku Klux Klan in history. They originated in Mississippi in the early 1960s under the leadership of Samuel Bowers, its first Grand Wizard. The White Knights of Mississippi was formed in 1964, and it...
, as were many other residents.
Aware that their station wagon's license number had been given to members of the White Citizens' Council
White Citizens' Council
The White Citizens' Council was an American white supremacist organization formed on July 11, 1954. After 1956, it was known as the Citizens' Councils of America...
and the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, before leaving Meridian they informed other Council of Federated Organizations
Council of Federated Organizations
The Council of Federated Organizations was formed in Mississippi in 1962.A coalition of the major Civil Rights Movement organizations operating in Mississippi, COFO was formed to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the state and oversee the distribution of...
(COFO) workers of their plans and set check-in times, part of standard security procedures. Late that afternoon, Price, the county deputy, stopped the blue Ford carrying the trio. He arrested Chaney for allegedly driving 35 miles per hour over the speed limit. He also booked Goodman and Schwerner "for investigation" when he took them back to the county jail.
Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were each denied telephone calls during their time at the jail. COFO workers made attempts to find the three men, but when they called the Neshoba County jail, the secretary followed instructions to deny that the workers were being held there. During the hours they were held incommunicado in jail, Price notified his Klan associate Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen is a former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired in the murders of three civil rights activists—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—in 1964....
, who assembled fellow Klan members and planned how to kill the three workers.
After the Klan ambush was set up on the road back to Meridian, Chaney was fined $20, and the three men were ordered to leave the county. Price followed them to the edge of town, where he pulled them over, sounding his police siren. He held them until the Klan murder squad arrived. The KKK took the three men to an isolated spot where they shot Schwerner and Goodman, and beat Chaney before shooting him to death. The Klan drove the CORE car into Bogue Chitto swamp
Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge
Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge is located northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana and encompasses of Pearl River Basin swampland.-History:...
and set it on fire. They buried the bodies in an earthen dam, using a bulldozer to cover them.
On June 4, 2000, the journalist Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Mitchell is an American theatre director and choreographer.-Early life and education:Born in Paw Paw, Michigan, Mitchell later moved to St. Louis where he pursued his acting, dancing and directing career in theatre. He graduated from the Fine Arts college at Webster University in St. Louis. ...
, who had been reporting on the case, published data from the autopsy report. It had been withheld from the 1967 trial as the county pathologist had contended that the injuries to Chaney's body had happened during excavation of the grave, which the FBI denied. The report stated Chaney's left arm was broken in one place, his right arm was broken in two places, there was "a marked disruption" of the left elbow joint, and he may also have suffered trauma to the groin area. A pathologist who examined the bodies at the families' request following their autopsies noted Chaney had suffered "an extreme beating with either a blunt instrument or a chain." As the autopsy photographs and x-rays have been destroyed, the injuries could not be confirmed by additional study.
Reaction
The national uproar caused by the disappearance of the civil rights workers led President Lyndon JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
to force J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
and the FBI to investigate the case. Hoover's antipathy to civil rights groups caused him to resist until Johnson used indirect threats of political reprisals. One hundred and fifty FBI agents including Major Case Inspector Joseph Sullivan
Joseph Sullivan (FBI)
Joseph Aloysius Sullivan was a Major Case Inspector for the FBI. Born in Montreal, Wisconsin, he grew up in Hurley, Wisconsin. He was involved in a number of highly publicized cases in the sixties and seventies including the Martin Luther King, Jr...
were sent to Neshoba county to investigate. During the investigation, searchers including Navy divers and the FBI discovered the bodies of at least seven other Mississippi blacks, whose disappearances over the past several years had not attracted attention outside of their local communities.
The disappearance of the three activists captured national attention; it took 44 days for investigators to discover where they had been buried. Johnson and civil rights activists used the outrage over their deaths in their efforts to bring about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, signed July 2, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Mississippi officials resented the outside attention. The Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey said, "They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state." The Mississippi governor Paul Johnson
Paul B. Johnson, Jr.
Paul Burney Johnson, Jr. was a United States Democratic Mississippi politician and son of former Mississippi Governor Paul B. Johnson, Sr.....
dismissed concern by stating that "they could be in Cuba".
Investigation
For a while, the trail went cold. When the FBI offered a $25,000 reward for news of the workers' whereabouts, a break came in the case. After paying at least one participant in the crime for details, the FBI found the men's bodies on August 4. They were buried in an earthen dam on Olen Burrage's Old Jolly Farm, six miles southwest of Philadelphia, MississippiPhiladelphia, Mississippi
Philadelphia is a city in and the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,303 at the 2000 census.- History :...
. Schwerner and Goodman had each been shot once in the heart; Chaney, a black man, had been beaten and shot three times.
Known as "Mr. X", the identity of the informant was a closely held secret by the government for 40 years. In the process of studying the case, journalist Jerry Mitchell and teacher Barry Bradford uncovered his identity: Maynard King, a highway patrolman who had been tipped off by Klansman Pete Jordan.
Mafia assistance
In 2007, Linda Schiro testified in an unrelated court case that her late boyfriend, Gregory Scarpa Sr.Gregory Scarpa Sr.
Gregory Scarpa, Sr. also known as "The Grim Reaper" and "The Mad Hatter", was a capo for the Colombo crime family and an informant for the FBI. During the 1970s and 80s, Scarpa was the chief enforcer for Colombo boss Carmine Persico...
, a capo in the Colombo crime family
Colombo crime family
The Colombo crime family is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
, had been recruited by the FBI to help find the civil rights workers' bodies. She said that she had been with Scarpa in Mississippi at the time and had witnessed his being given a gun, and later a cash payment, by FBI agents. She testified he told her he had threatened a Klansman
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
by placing a gun in his mouth, forcing him to reveal the location of the bodies. Similar stories of mafia involvement in the case had been circulating for years, and had been previously published in the New York Daily News, but had never before been introduced in court.
Trial
Because Mississippi officials refused to prosecute the killers for murder, a state crime, the US Justice Department, led by prosecutor John DoarJohn Doar
John Michael Doar is an American lawyer and currently senior counsel with the law firm Doar Rieck Kaley & Mack in New York....
, charged 18 individuals under the 1870 US Force Act
Force Acts
Force Acts can refer to several groups of acts passed by the United States Congress. The term usually refers to the events after the American Civil War.-Andrew Jackson's Tariff Enforcement :The Force Bill, 4 Stat...
with conspiring to deprive the three of their civil rights (by murder). They indicted Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Price and 16 other men.
Those found guilty on October 20, 1967, were Cecil Price, Klan Imperial Wizard Samuel Bowers, Alton Wayne Roberts
Alton Wayne Roberts
Alton Wayne Roberts was a Klansman convicted of depriving slain activists Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney of their civil rights in 1964. He personally shot two of the three civil rights workers before his accomplices buried their bodies in a dam.-External links:...
, Jimmy Snowden
Jimmy Snowden
Jimmy Snowden, of Lauderdale County, Mississippi, was a conspirator and participant in the notorious murder of three civil rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964...
, Billey Wayne Posey, Horace Barnett, and Jimmy Arledge. Sentences ranged from 3 to 10 years. After exhausting their appeals, the seven began serving their sentences in March 1970. None served more than six years. Sheriff Rainey was among those acquitted. Two of the defendants, E.G. Barnett, a candidate for sheriff, and Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen is a former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired in the murders of three civil rights activists—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—in 1964....
, a local minister, had been strongly implicated in the murders by witnesses, but the jury came to a deadlock on their charges and the Federal prosecutor decided not to retry them. On May 7, 2000, the jury revealed that in the case of Killen, they deadlocked after a lone juror stated she "could never convict a preacher".
Aftermath
The journalist Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter for the Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
Clarion-Ledger, wrote extensively about the case for six years. Mitchell had earned fame for helping secure convictions in several other high-profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the murders of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi...
and Vernon Dahmer
Vernon Dahmer
Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer, Sr. was an American civil rights leader and president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.-Early life:...
, and the Birmingham Church Bombing
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963. The explosion at the African-American church, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in the U.S...
.
In the case of the civil rights workers, Mitchell developed new evidence, found new witnesses, and pressured the state to take action. Barry Bradford, a high school teacher at Adlai E. Stevenson High School
Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Lincolnshire, Illinois)
Adlai E. Stevenson High School , commonly called Stevenson High School , is a public four-year high school located 3/4 of a mile west of the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Half Day Road in Lincolnshire, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, serving Lincolnshire, Long Grove, larger portions of...
in Lincolnshire, Illinois, and three of his students, Allison Nichols, Sarah Siegel, and Brittany Saltiel, joined Mitchell's efforts. Bradford later achieved recognition for helping clear the name of the civil rights martyr Clyde Kennard
Clyde Kennard
Clyde Kennard was a Civil Rights pioneer and martyr, born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In the 1950s, he attempted several times to enroll at Mississippi Southern College to complete his undergraduate degree started at University of Chicago...
.
Together the student-teacher team produced a documentary for the National History Day contest. It presented important new evidence and compelling reasons to reopen the case. The team also obtained an interview with Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen is a former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired in the murders of three civil rights activists—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—in 1964....
, which helped convince the state to investigate. Partially by using evidence developed by Bradford and the students, Mitchell was able to determine the identity of "Mr. X", the mystery informer who had helped the FBI discover the bodies and end the conspiracy of the Klan in 1964.
Mitchell's investigation and the high school students' work in creating Congressional pressure, national media attention and a taped conversation with Killen prompted action. In 2004, on the 40th anniversary of the murders, a multi-ethnic group of citizens in Philadelphia, Mississippi
Philadelphia, Mississippi
Philadelphia is a city in and the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,303 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, issued a call for justice. More than 1,500 people, including civil rights leaders and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
Haley Barbour
Haley Reeves Barbour is an American Republican politician currently serving as the 63rd Governor of Mississippi. He gained a national spotlight in August 2005 after Mississippi was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Barbour won re-election as Governor in 2007...
, joined them to voice their desire to revisit the case.
2005 trial, verdict and appeal
On January 6, 2005, a Neshoba County grand jury indicted Edgar Ray KillenEdgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen is a former Ku Klux Klan organizer who conspired in the murders of three civil rights activists—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—in 1964....
on three counts of murder. When Mississippi Attorney General prosecuted the case, it was the first time the state took action against the perpetrators. Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner's widow, testified in the trial. Afterward she said to the press,
"You're treating this trial as the most important trial of the civil rights movement because two of these three men were white," she said. "That means we all have a discussion about racism in this country that has to continue. And if this trial is a way for you to all acknowledge that, for us to all acknowledge that and to have that discussion openly, then this trial has meaning."
On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers. Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison. He appealed, claiming that no jury of his peers would have convicted him at the time on the evidence presented. The Mississippi Supreme Court confirmed the verdict in 2007.
Legacy
- Outrage at the murders aided passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.
- Numerous memorials have been erected to the three civil rights activists.
- 1989, on the 25th anniversary of the murders, Congress passed a non-binding resolution honoring the three men; Senator Trent LottTrent LottChester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
and the rest of the Mississippi delegation refused to vote for it. - Along with the trial and conviction of Edgar Killen in 2005, journalists and investigators in Mississippi continue to work to solve other murders associated with the civil rights years, as in the 2007 trial and conviction of James Ford SealeJames Ford SealeJames Ford Seale was a Ku Klux Klan member charged by the U.S. Justice Department on January 24, 2007, and subsequently convicted on June 14, 2007, for the May 1964 kidnapping of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, two African-American young men in Meadville, Mississippi...
for the 1964 kidnapping and deaths of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore.
In film
Several films dramatized the events of that summer. In 1974, a CBS made-for-television movie aired, Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux KlanAttack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan is a 1975 two-part television movie, which dramatised the events following the 1964 disappearance and murder of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi...
, co-starring Wayne Rogers
Wayne Rogers
William Wayne McMillan Rogers III is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the U.S...
and Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty
Ned Thomas Beatty is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and a Golden Globe Award; won a Drama Desk Award....
. This was followed in 1988 by Mississippi Burning
Mississippi Burning
Mississippi Burning is a 1988 American crime drama film loosely based on the FBI investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in the U.S. state of Mississippi in 1964. The film focuses on two fictional FBI agents who investigate the murders...
, with Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
and Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
; and in 1990 by Murder in Mississippi
Murder in Mississippi
Murder in Mississippi is a 1990 television movie which dramatized the last weeks of civil rights activists Michael "Mickey" Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, and the events leading up to their disappearance and subsequent murder in the summer of 1964. It starred Tom Hulce as Schwerner,...
, starring Tom Hulce
Tom Hulce
Thomas Edward "Tom" Hulce is an American actor and theater producer. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Mozart in the movie Amadeus and his role as "Pinto" in National Lampoon's Animal House. Additional acting awards included a total of four Golden Globe...
, Blair Underwood
Blair Underwood
Blair Underwood is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known as headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins from the NBC legal drama L.A. Law, a role he portrayed for seven years. He has gained critical acclaim throughout his career, receiving numerous Golden Globe Award...
and Josh Charles. The sympathetic portrayal of FBI agents in the first two movies angered civil rights activists, who believed the Bureau received too much credit for solving the case and too little condemnation for their previous lack of action in regards to civil rights abuses.
A 2008 documentary entitled Neshoba
Neshoba (film)
Neshoba is an award winning documentary film about events and attitudes in Neshoba County, Mississippi, 40 years after the 1964 Mississippi civil rights workers murders.- Synopsis:...
details the murders, the investigation, and the 2005 trial of Edgar Ray Killen. The documentary features statements by many surviving relatives of the victims, other residents of Neshoba county, and other people connected to the civil rights movement. The film also contains footage from the 2005 trial.
In other media
- Phil Ochs wrote his song, "Here's to the State of Mississippi," about these events.
- Tom PaxtonTom PaxtonThomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
included the tribute song, "Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney", on his 1965 album, Ain't That News. - Simon & Garfunkel's song, "He Was My Brother," was dedicated to Andrew Goodman, who was their friend and a classmate of Simon's at Queens College.
- In Song of SusannahSong of SusannahSong of Susannah is the sixth novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2005.-Plot summary:...
by Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, Susannah DeanSusannah DeanSusannah Odetta Holmes Dean is a fictional character from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series...
reminisces about her time in Mississippi as a civil rights activist. She thinks about making love to James Chaney and singing the song "Man of Constant SorrowMan of Constant Sorrow"Man of Constant Sorrow" is a traditional American folk song first recorded by Dick Burnett, a partially blind fiddler from Kentucky. The song was originally recorded by Burnett as "Farewell Song" printed in a Richard Burnett songbook, c. 1913. An early version was recorded by Emry Arthur in 1928...
". - The murders were depicted by Norman RockwellNorman RockwellNorman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
in an illustration titled Southern Justice (Murder in Mississippi) published in LookLook (American magazine)Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
in June 1965 as part of a series on civil rights. - In the first episode of Season 4 of Mad MenMad MenMad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
, Don DraperDon DraperDonald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper...
dates a girl who mentions knowing Andrew Goodman, which is the first indication of what year Season 4 takes place. - Richard FarinaRichard FariñaRichard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.-Early years and education:Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Cuban and Irish descent. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School...
's song, "Michael, Andrew and James", was included in his first Vanguard album, "Celebrations For a Grey Day", released in 1965.
Further reading
- Three Lives for Mississippi, by William Bradford Huie. University Press of Mississippi, 1965. ISBN 978-1578062478
- Mississippi Burning, by Joel Norst. New American Library, 1988. ISBN 978-0-451-16049-2
- The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: A Headline Court Case, by Harvey Fireside. Enslow Publishers. 2002. ISBN 978-0-7660-1762-7
- The Mississippi Burning Trial: A Primary Source Account, by Bill Scheppler. The Rosen Publishing Group. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8239-3972-5
- Witness in Philadelphia, by Florence Mars. Louisiana State University Press. 1977. ISBN 978-0-8071-0265-7
External links
- "The Mississippi Burning Trial" by Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri–Kansas CityUniversity of Missouri–Kansas CityThe University of Missouri–Kansas City is a public university located in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It is a branch of the University of Missouri System. Its main campus is in Kansas City's Rockhill neighborhood east of the Country Club Plaza...
- "After Over Four Decades, Justice Still Eludes Family" – video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- FBI file on the case