• June 21, 1964 James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, civil rights activist, were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi while trying to investigate the burning of a church that supported civil rights activity. The FBI discovered their bodies on August 4, 1964. While searching for the three men’s bodies, the FBI also discovered the bodies of at least seven other black men whose disappearances over the past several years had not attracted attention outside of their local communities. The FBI arrested 18 men, but Mississippi officials refused to prosecute the men, therefore the United States Justice Department charged them with conspiring to deprive the three of their civil rights. Seven of the men were convicted and sentenced to three to ten years. None served more than six years. Books covering the murders include “Three Lives for Mississippi” (1965) and “Witness in Philadelphia” (1977). Several film dramatizations have been made of the events, including “Mississippi Burning” (1988) and “Murder in Mississippi” (1990).

>via: http://thewright.org/explore/blog/entry/today-in-black-history-6212012

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In 1964, a mob of Klansmen murdered three civil rights workers in the small Mississippi county of Neshoba - the infamous 'Mississippi Burning' murders. The young men, two Jews from New York and an African-American from Mississippi, were in the Deep South helping to register African-American voters during what came to be known as the Freedom Summer. Although the killers bragged about what they did, it took the State 40 years to indict the mastermind, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old Baptist preacher and notorious racist. Neshoba tells the story of these three American heroes and the long struggle to bring their killers to justice, in a place that is still dealing with the legacy of a violent and racist past.

 

Friday, August 13, 2010 

 

After Over Four Decades,

Justice Still Eludes Family of

3 Civil Rights Workers

Slain in

Mississippi Burning Killings

As the Justice Department announces it has closed nearly half of its investigations into unresolved killings from the civil rights era, we look back at the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, the subject of the new documentary Neshoba: The Price of Freedom. Although dozens of white men are believed to have been involved in the murders and cover-up, only one man, a Baptist preacher named Edgar Ray Killen, is behind bars today. Four suspects are still alive in the case. We play excerpts of Neshoba and speak with its co-director, Micki Dickoff. We’re also joined by the brothers of two of the victims, Ben Chaney and David Goodman. And we speak with award-winning Mississippi-based journalist Jerry Mitchell of the Clarion-Ledger, who’s spent the past twenty years investigating unresolved civil rights murder cases, as well as Bruce Watson, author of the new book Freedom Summer: The Savage Season that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy.

Guests:

Ben Chaney, brother of James Chaney, who was murdered in Mississippi in 1964.

David Goodman, brother of Andrew Goodman, who was murdered in Mississippi in 1964.

Micki Dickoff, co-director of Neshoba: The Price of Freedom. The film opens tonight in New York at Cinema Village.

Jerry Mitchell, award-winning investigative reporter for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi.

Bruce Watson, author of the new book Freedom Summer: The Savage Season that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy.