In June 1964, Michael Schwerner (from NY) and James Chaney (from MS) worked for the Congress of Racial Equality in Philadelphia MS; Andrew Goodman (from NY) was one of the hundreds of college students from across the country who volunteered to work on voter registration and Civil Rights in Mississippi’s Summer Project 1964. The 3 men knew their work was dangerous but necessary, given that the local KKK membership was soaring.
Goodman 20, Chaney 21, Schwerner 24
June 1964
Schwerner had organised local boycotts of biased businesses and helped with black voter registration in MS. So the KKK was furious, using violence to fight Civil Rights men. Klan members targeted and burned 20 black Mississippi churches in June 1964, including Neshoba County's Mt Zion Baptist Church. A mob of armed KKK members descended on a local church meeting looking for Schwerner, but fortunately he’d gone to Oxford Ohio that day, to train a group of Freedom Summer volunteers. Instead the KKK torched the church and thumped the churchgoers.
The Klan had missed Schwerner, but their trap was set: Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman soon headed south, investigating the fire, interviewing witnesses and meeting fellow campaigners. After driving to Philadelphia, the 3 men drove towards Meridian in a station-wagon, to visit the burned Mt Zion. En route, their Congress of Racial Equality/CORE station wagon was stopped and police arrested them: Chaney was charged with speeding, while Schwerner and Goodman were held for investigation. Then Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price took them to Philadelphia gaol!
Price told the 3 men to remain in gaol until a Justice of the Peace calculated their fines. Schwerner asked to make a phone call, but Price denied him and left. Price returned at 10pm, collected Chaney’s fine and told the men to leave the county. They were never seen again
FBI
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Deputy Sheriff Price and Sheriff Rainey at arraignment hearing in 1964
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Edgar Killen (L) and Cecil Price (R) happily awaited their verdicts
After years of court battles, 7 of the 18 defendants were found guilty in Oct 1967 including Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price and Samuel Bowers, Imperial Wizard of Mississippi’s White Knights of the KKK, but none on murder charges. One major conspirator, Rev Edgar Killen, went free after a juror could NOT convict any Baptist preacher. But in the long run, the Klan’s homicidal ways were less successful. The murders galvanised the nation and provided impetus for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 in July. In 1970 the convicted men each received a sentence of 3-10 years.
Was it true that in 1980 Ronald Reagan launched his election campaign lauding States’ Rights near Philadelphia MS, within walking distance from where the 3 bodies had been buried?
In 1998 a reporter for a Jackson newspaper published excerpts from a 1984 interview with Imperial Wizard Bowers where he spoke proudly about the 3 murders and Rev Killen’s responsibility. This interview, sealed till Bowers’ death, is now freely available.
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Historical marker at Mt Zion Church in Neshoba County MI
CBS
The case drew national attention, in part because Schwerner and Goodman were white Northerners. But authorities claimed that the disappearance of the 3 workers could have been a Civil Rights Movement publicity stunt. Worst still, in 1964 Mississippi was the only state without a central FBI office, so in June, 200+ agents had to travel from the New Orleans office instead! These agents found the destroyed CORE station wagon!!
After 6 weeks searching for the 3 bodies, a Highway Patrol officer sent investigators to a deep earthen dam on a Philadelphia farm where the FBI found them. Throughout 1964, state and local law enforcement did not pursue the crime, claiming insufficient evidence, but the FBI continued. In June 1964, Klansman James Jordan tortured-shot Chaney and Klansman Wayne Roberts tortured-shot Schwerner & Goodman. The killers loaded the bodies into the CORE station-wagon, then buried the bodies in the earthen dam.
In July investigators combed Mississippi’s woods and rivers, eventually finding 8 African American male skeletons. Three were identified as 19 year old students who were kidnapped & murdered in May 1964. But nothing was recorded about the 5 other bodies. Black deaths presumably mattered less.
After 6 weeks searching for the 3 bodies, a Highway Patrol officer sent investigators to a deep earthen dam on a Philadelphia farm where the FBI found them. Throughout 1964, state and local law enforcement did not pursue the crime, claiming insufficient evidence, but the FBI continued. In June 1964, Klansman James Jordan tortured-shot Chaney and Klansman Wayne Roberts tortured-shot Schwerner & Goodman. The killers loaded the bodies into the CORE station-wagon, then buried the bodies in the earthen dam.
In July investigators combed Mississippi’s woods and rivers, eventually finding 8 African American male skeletons. Three were identified as 19 year old students who were kidnapped & murdered in May 1964. But nothing was recorded about the 5 other bodies. Black deaths presumably mattered less.
Not showing much respect for the court,
UMKC
Because murder was a state crime, the Federal Government couldn’t bring charges. So in Dec, the Justice Dept charged 21 men with conspiring to violate Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman’s civil rights. Prosecutors brought the charges before a federal grand jury, indicting 18 men in Jan 1965. But presiding Judge William Cox dismissed the charges against most defendants, maintaining that the law applied only to law enforcement officers. The prosecution appealed, and in 1966 the Supreme Court reinstated the charges, ruling the law applied to law enforcement officials AND civilians.
In Feb 1967 a Federal Grand Jury re-indicted the men, and in Oct the trial began in segregationist Judge Cox’s court. As the trial proceeded, the prosecution read the 1964 confessions of Klan members Horace Barnette & James Jordan: After leaving Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman in Philadelphia’s gaol, Price called Baptist Minister Edgar Ray Killen, a local KKK leader. Killen directed Klansmen to gather in Philadelphia and when the KKK cars left Philadelphia, Price released the Civil Rights workers from gaol and ordered them gone. He then chased the CORE station wagon.
Killen was correct... he walked. Price was found guilty. 1967
After years of court battles, 7 of the 18 defendants were found guilty in Oct 1967 including Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price and Samuel Bowers, Imperial Wizard of Mississippi’s White Knights of the KKK, but none on murder charges. One major conspirator, Rev Edgar Killen, went free after a juror could NOT convict any Baptist preacher. But in the long run, the Klan’s homicidal ways were less successful. The murders galvanised the nation and provided impetus for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 in July. In 1970 the convicted men each received a sentence of 3-10 years.
Was it true that in 1980 Ronald Reagan launched his election campaign lauding States’ Rights near Philadelphia MS, within walking distance from where the 3 bodies had been buried?
In 1998 a reporter for a Jackson newspaper published excerpts from a 1984 interview with Imperial Wizard Bowers where he spoke proudly about the 3 murders and Rev Killen’s responsibility. This interview, sealed till Bowers’ death, is now freely available.
CBS
In 1999, MS Attorney General Michael Moore reopened the case, using the FBI’s original investigation’s records. In Jan 2005, a grand jury charged Rev Killen with murder. Even then, the grand jury found insufficient evidence for a murder conviction. On the 41st anniversary of his crime, Rev Killen was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years gaol, dying in comfort aged 93.
Photo credits: CBS News