In the summer of 1964,
three young civil rights workers—24-year-old Michael Henry Schwerner,
21-year-old James Earl Chaney, and 20-year-old Andrew Goodman—were murdered in
Neshoba County, Mississippi. While
investigating the burning of Mount Zion Methodist Church, they were arrested by
Deputy Sheriff Cecil Ray Price on trumped-up charges, jailed for several hours,
and then released, only to be apprehended by the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered
them.[1] The missing civil rights workers made
national news and President Lyndon Baines Johnson ordered an investigation, which
eventually led to the recovery of the bodies buried in an earthen dam on
private property a few miles from where they had disappeared. Many people predicted such a tragedy when the
Mississippi Summer Project, which brought many students from the North to help
with various civil rights projects, was announced in April 1964. The fact is the murders did not go unnoticed
because of one reason and one reason only:
Schwerner and Goodman were white, upper-middle-class, Northerners. Had Chaney, who was a black male from
Meridian, Mississippi, been driving by himself, the tragedy would have gone
virtually unnoticed. The media would not
have flocked to Mississippi to cover the story; President Johnson would not
have been involved, despite 1964 being an election year; and the FBI would not
have investigated the murder. Schwerner’s
wife Rita confirmed this fact when she made the following statement: “It’s tragic, as far as I’m concerned that
white Northerners have to be caught up in the machinery of injustice and
indifference in the South before the American people register concern. I personally suspect that if Mr. Chaney, who
is a native Mississippian Negro, had been alone at the time of the
disappearance that this case would have gone completely unnoticed.”[2] Interestingly enough, though, is the fact
that white college students from the North were recruited for the purpose of
increasing national exposure to the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Fortunately for the civil rights movement,
the tragedy, sad as it was, brought racist Neshoba County, Mississippi to its
knees and forced America to confront its problem of racism, This was,
ultimately, the reasoning behind the recruitment of white student volunteers
from the North.
To state that it was only because of Schwerner and Goodman
may sound harsh; however, during the investigation into the murders of the
three men, several other bodies of black victims were found, yet none of them
received the same amount of news coverage or an investigation.[3] For example, when authorities were searching
for the three young men along the Mississippi River, they found instead the
mutilated corpses of two other men. The
two were identified as Charles Moore, 20, and Henry Dee, 19. The perpetrators, two Klansman of the Mississippi
White Knights, the South’s most violent Klan organization, were charged with
the killings. But a local Justice of the
Peace dismissed the charges.[4] Elizabeth Sutherland, a writer for The Nation, reiterated this fact: “The hordes came, it is true, only because
two of the missing youths were whites.”[5] The murder of the three young civil rights
workers, namely that of Schwerner and Goodman, gave the civil rights movement
the power boost it needed. For the first
time, this murder case made it virtually impossible for white citizens to
ignore the situation in Mississippi.
To fully appreciate the significance of the murder of the
three civil rights workers, it is necessary to discuss how the idea of
recruiting white volunteers was initiated and why. Robert Moses, director of the Mississippi
Summer Project, was convinced that national publicity could force the federal
government to intervene on behalf of voter registration in Mississippi. He believed that a large-scale campaign would
create the kind of crisis that would force federal intervention, if only to
protect white students from upper crust families and prestigious universities.[6] The Project, later called Freedom Summer,
would have two objectives: (1) voter
registration and educational activity and (2) the establishment of freedom
schools and community centers throughout Mississippi. The Project would bring about what Moses
called ‘the searchlight from the rest of the country on Mississippi.’ In “’The Long, Hot Summer’: The Mississippi Response to Freedom Summer,
1964,” John R. Rachal points out that the “scale of the Project, coupled with
the participation of very visible white students who were often from elite
colleges, intended to give the movement a jump start while simultaneously bringing
national attention to the state’s dismal civil rights record.”[7] The announcement of the project infuriated
the people of Mississippi and these civil rights volunteers from outside the
state were labeled “invaders” and “agitators.”[8]
Also, a COFO (Council of Federated Organizations) publication
observed in March 1964 that previous projects did not get any national
publicity on the issue of voting rights, and as a result, received little, if
any, national support either from public opinion or from the federal
government. A large number of Northern
students making the trip to go South would make abundantly clear to the
government and the public that the situation in Mississippi (or anywhere else
where people are being denied their civil rights) can no longer be ignored nor
tolerated.[9] In an interview, David Dennis explained the
use of white student volunteers in a more radical manner: “We knew that if we had brought in a thousand
blacks, the country would have watched them slaughtered without doing anything
about it. Bring in a thousand whites and
the country is going to react.” As
Dennis later admitted, “it was SNCC’s sorta cold assessment that if it was
going to take deaths to achieve justice in Mississippi, the death of a white
college student would bring on more attention to what was going on than for a
black college student getting it.”[10]
Neil R. McMillen recognizes the importance of the white
student volunteers in “Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi: Federal Enforcement and Black Protest in the
1960s.” He argues that, although there
were some black project workers who were not especially excited about the
recruitment of these advantaged white students, the movement’s leadership
recognized that by “engaging the children of the middle class, ‘Freedom Summer’
would be assured maximum news coverage.”[11] McMillen referred to a statement made by
Moses after the volunteers arrived in Mississippi, which sums up the main
reason for recruiting the volunteers:
“These students bring the rest of the country with them. They’re from good schools and their parents
are influential. The interest of the
country is awakened, and when that happens, the Government responds to that
interest.”[12] McMillen also observes that, while it was not
the intention of COFO or any of the other civil rights organizations to
purposely place these white student volunteers in harm’s way, the movement’s
leaders and veterans expected casualties because of the white backlash, and
they advised all volunteers to be mindful of the dangers inherent in the Summer
Project.[13]
Blending oral histories with an extensive examination of
archival materials, John Dittmer includes the murder of Goodman, Schwerner, and
Chaney in Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Dittmer argues that the major turning point
in the civil rights movement was the decision to recruit hundreds of young
whites from the North to Mississippi for the 1964 Freedom Summer Project. He contends that white civil rights workers
were brought in because they would attract national attention, something the
movement desperately needed. Freedom
Summer did, indeed, attract the media, as well as the federal government to
action, but not, asserts Dittmer, until the murder of two white
upper-middle-class college students—Schwerner and Goodman. Chaney, unfortunately, but realistically, was
not the main focus.
The suggestion to recruit white student volunteers proved
to be controversial, especially among the local SNCC staff. The issue was debated extensively. Those who opposed the idea believed that the
white volunteers would want to take over the projects. Fannie Lou Hamer and Moses argued that if
barriers of segregation are to be broken, then the movement cannot segregate
itself. In the end, those who opposed
compromised for the betterment of the cause, to rise above the race issue.[14]
The Mississippi Summer Project was certainly not for the
weak or for the faint of heart. Before
making their trek to the Magnolia State, students had to make sure they took an
adequate amount of bail money (usually about $500) and a list of their next of
kin. Volunteers were required to go
through orientation before going into the field.[15] In addition to bail money, volunteers were
advised to bring $60.00 expense money and arrange to have $10 to $15 living
costs sent to them on a weekly basis.[16] The speakers at the orientation warned the
students that they would not be enjoying the comforts of home. James Forman, executive secretary of SNCC,
advised the volunteers to “get ready for the outhouses.” He also warned that Mississippi law was just
as bad as the outdoor plumbing. Then,
with one single sentence, he painted an ominous portrait: “You may be killed.”[17]
On the first day of training, volunteers learned of the
missing three civil rights workers in Neshoba County—Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman. For the first time, they came face-to-face
with the reality of the risks involved in being a volunteer, yet many
volunteers continued to stay in Mississippi.
In Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for
Civil Rights, Howard Ball reveals the precarious situation the student
volunteers could find themselves in at any given time. Ball alludes to a warning made by J. R.
Brown, one of the small numbers of black attorneys practicing in Mississippi,
who warned the group: “You’re going to
be classified into two groups in Mississippi.
Niggers and nigger-lovers, and they’re [white, racist Mississippians]
tougher on nigger-lovers.”[18]
As
the white student volunteers came in droves, white Mississippians became more
agitated. The influx of volunteers
seemed like an invading army bent on destroying Mississippi’s way of life.[19] Before sending volunteers out into the field,
Moses and parents of the volunteers sent a wire to President Johnson to
intervene before the situation in Mississippi exploded. The message landed on deaf ears. President Johnson was agitated by the situation
because he was in the middle of pushing the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. Ignoring the story could be
politically damaging. To prove he was
sincere and passionate about civil rights, President Johnson expanded the
investigation into the disappearance of the three civil rights workers.[20]
The Project was sponsored by the Council of Federated
Organizations (COFO), which included the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as Mississippi community
groups. Volunteers worked from these
various civil rights organizations. In
addition, groups of doctors, lawyers, nurses, ministers, priests, rabbis,
educators, and psychologists offered their services to the volunteers. The mere presence of attorneys decreased the
number of beatings and the chances of getting a person released on his own
recognizance instead of by putting up bail was much better.[21] And, just as the Mississippi experience
transformed the student volunteers; it transformed these professionals as
well. William M. Kunstler, a lawyer who
spent part of the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, admitted that the movement had
given his life “heightened meaning and purpose.” Educator Richard J. Bernstein, who assisted
with the Freedom Schools, stated that the civil rights workers helped people to
arouse their sense of injustice and to take seriously their own professed
ideals about democracy, freedom, and the rights of man.[22]
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation website provides a summary of the investigation
of the 1964 murder of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman (case name “MIBURN,” for
Mississippi Burning), dividing the summary into nine parts. The file is extensive, which includes memos,
letters, FBI lab reports, criminal reports, telegrams, teletypes, background
information concerning the victims and the circumstances pertaining to the
civil rights workers in Neshoba County, the pursuit of the three young men by
Deputy Sheriff Price prior to the arrest, details of their arrest and
incarceration at the Neshoba County Jail, witnesses to the abduction and murder
of the three young men, recovery of the victims’ bodies at Olen Burrage’s dam
on August 4, 1964, the destruction of the workers’ 1963 Ford station wagon, and
autopsy reports describing the fatal wounds.
According
to the FBI case file, Schwerner and Chaney attended a training session at the
Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, in late June. At the end of the first session, Schwerner
and Chaney drove back to Mississippi with several volunteers, among them
Goodman, a college student from Queens. Chaney
was a Mississippi native from Meridian and had been a volunteer for the past
year. Schwerner was already a veteran of
the movement and had been living in Meridian with his wife Rita. Goodman had just been recruited and arrived
in Meridian the night before the murder occurred, on June 20. On June 16, Mount Zion Methodist Church in
Longdale, Mississippi, was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in an attempt to kill
Schwerner. Schwerner had been a target
for some time. (According to former KKK
member Billy Roy Pitts, Sam Bowers, the imperial wizard of The White Knights of
the KKK, authorized the murder of Schwerner.
Pitts claimed that “Bowers hated Jews worse than blacks.” Schwerner was Jewish.)[23] When the young men heard the bad news, they
drove to the church to investigate the incident. On their way back to Meridian, they were
arrested by Deputy Price at approximately 3:30 p.m., June 21, 1964. Chaney was arrested for allegedly speeding
within the city limits of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Schwerner and Goodman were incarcerated “for
investigation.” The three young men were
held in the Neshoba County Jail until Justice of the Peace Leonard Warren was
available to see the bond for Chaney.
Warren finally set Chaney’s bond at $20.
After Chaney paid the bond, the young men were released. During the FBI investigation and court
testimony, it was discovered that Price alerted Edgar Ray Killen, a Klan
kleagle, of the three civil rights workers in custody at the Neshoba County
Jail. Plans were made for the three
volunteers to be released. The three
young men were denied a phone call. When
the boys were finally released, they were followed and apprehended by the
members of the Klan and executed. The
blue 1963 Ford Fairlane Ranch Wagon, which was registered to COFO, was hidden
and burned. The vehicle was found smoldering
by some Choctaw Indians four days later near Bogue Chitto Creek. Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey
claimed later that the three young men were released at approximately ten p.m.
on June 21. The three men never returned
as expected and a full-blown investigation ensued.[24]
When
Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman did not check in with the Meridian office by the
scheduled time, red flags popped up throughout the civil rights organizations
and its leaders. The standard protocol
for all civil rights workers was to keep the home organization informed of
their whereabouts. In the Deep South,
where racial tensions can boil over, it is imperative for all volunteers to
follow procedure. The COFO office called
the Neshoba County Jail at about 5:20 in the afternoon asking whether anyone had
information concerning the whereabouts of the three young men. Minnie Herring, the jailer who answered the
call, lied and told the COFO office the three men were not there, when in fact,
they were sitting in a jail cell.[25]
Many
white Mississippians believed the disappearance of the three volunteers was a
hoax. In fact, in a telephone
conversation between President Johnson and Senator James Eastland of
Mississippi, Eastland mocked the idea that any violence had occurred and
commented that the disappearance was a “publicity stunt.” Eastland further claimed that there was not a
Ku Klux Klan in the area or a Citizen’s Council.[26] However, an interview conducted with Judge
Tom P. Brady for the documentary Eyes On
The Prize, admitted his reasons for joining the Citizen’s Council: “I don’t want a Negro, as a class, to control
the making of a law that controls me, to control the government in which I
live. I would feel better if Negroes
were removed because they are a potential source of racial strife.”[27]
Claims
that the disappearance of the three civil rights workers came to halt in early
August, when the bodies were found buried in an earthen dam on the property of
local Klansman Olen Burrage. According
to autopsy reports completed by Dr. William Featherston, a local pathologist,
Schwerner and Goodman died of a single bullet wound through the heart. Dr. Featherston found three bullets in
Chaney’s body and advised that death most likely occurred as a result of the
bullet wound to the head.[28] Another autopsy report indicated that Chaney
was severely beaten. In an interview,
Taylor Branch, author of Parting the
Waters, indicated that “Schwerner was reported to have replied to his
killer, ‘Sir, I know just how you feel,’ which demonstrates his extreme
disciplined faith in nonviolence. He
more than likely thought this statement would change his killer’s mind about
killing him.”[29]
The
Schwerner and Chaney families wanted their loved ones—Michael and James—buried
together in the Chaney family plot, but the Mississippi law of segregation was
enforced even in death. The two were
buried separately, which was a big blow to both families.[30]
On
December 4, Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Price, and nineteen others were arrested and
charged with violating the civil rights of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman. About a week later, all charges were
dropped. However, they were refiled, and
in the following year, Rainey, Price, and seventeen others were convicted. They served between two to five and a half
years in prison. The state of
Mississippi never charged anyone with murder in the Mississippi Burning case.[31] Howard Ball’s Murder in Mississippi is an excellent book, which covers the story
of the federal prosecution of the persons involved in violating the civil
rights of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman.
Because Ball lived and taught in Mississippi, he brings his personal
knowledge of the Magnolia State to the story, along with the papers of Supreme
Court justices, presidents, civil rights organizations, the Mississippi Sovereignty
Commission, and other secondary sources.
Although no one has ever been charged with the murder of
Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman, on June 21, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was
convicted of three counts of manslaughter (a lesser charge) for his role in organizing
the murder of three young civil rights workers in 1964. Judge Marcus Gordon sentenced Killen to the
maximum sentence available of sixty years in prison. Killen was eighty years old at the time of
the sentencing.[32] Howard
Ball recounts the story of how state officials finally reopened the case after
forty years in Justice in
Mississippi: The Murder Trial of Edgar
Ray Killen. Ball attended the trial
and conducted interviews with most of the participants, as well as local
citizens and journalists covering the trial.
He points to the 1988 Hollywood film, Mississippi Burning, and its importance in reviving interest in the
murder case. Despite its negative
reviews for its inaccuracies and painting a false picture of the role of the
FBI during this time in history, Ball still credits the film for educating a
new generation of Americans who had never heard of the case of Schwerner,
Chaney, and Goodman.
William
Bradford Huie was sent to Mississippi to cover the tragic story of Goodman,
Schwerner, and Chaney. Not only does
Huie tell the history of each young man in Three
Lives for Mississippi, he also exposes the prejudice of ordinary citizens
who allowed murder to serve as their defense of prejudice. Huie does not think that any of the three
young men anticipated his death, even while in jail.[33] In fact, a man who was also in jail at the
time of Goodman and Schwerner’s incarceration (Chaney was placed separately in
a different cell) and was interviewed by the FBI, claimed that Goodman and
Schwerner “appeared to be calm and collected and apparently anticipated being
in jail for several days.”[34]
In
We Are Not Afraid: The Story of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney
and the Civil Rights Campaign for Mississippi, journalists Seth Cagin and
Philip Dray chronicle the murders of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney. Cagin and Dray give a detailed account of the
subsequent investigation conducted by the FBI and the incidents surrounding
them. Through the use of trial
transcripts and FBI files on the Mississippi Burning (“MIBURN”) case, they
present a thorough account of what really happened and how everyone involved
actually responded.
Various
newspaper articles provide a glimpse of what the public was feeling during the
summer of 1964. For instance, both
whites and blacks experienced anxiety, worrying about the hundreds of student
volunteers from outside the state and how their volunteerism could lead to
serious violence.[35] Parents of the student volunteers are also
fearful for their children’s safety.
Although several parents admitted they would be relieved if their
children came home, most said they would be “disappointed” at the same time
because their children had abandoned a commitment simply because it became
dangerous.[36] Many blacks felt that whites everywhere must
share the blame for murder in Mississippi.
For them, Chaney’s death, not Schwerner’s or Goodman’s, is the
symbol. Their belief that the tragedy
drew national attention because whites were involved only added to the
bitterness.[37]
The
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law website is an excellent
resource. This website provides
commentary on United States vs. Cecil
Price et al, members of the jury, newspaper articles about the jury, Ku
Klux Klan documents, a list of the key figures in the trial, a diagram of the
Neshoba County Jail interior, excerpts from the trial transcript, which include
witnesses such as Reverend Charles Johnson, Ernest Kirkland, Minnie Lee
Herring, Officer E. R. Poe, Sergeant Wallace Miller, Delmar Dennis, James
Jordan, and a confession to the FBI by Horace Doyle Barnette. It also includes the closing arguments by
lead prosecutor John Doar and H. C. Watkins, the defense attorney.
The
impact of the white student volunteers was great for the state of Mississippi
and for the civil rights movement as a whole.
According to Sutherland, Northern reaction to the disappearance of
Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney improved the behavior of local officials.[38] McMillen contends the volunteers brought as
many as “17,000 black applicants to courthouses across the state.” Though not all of the applicants were able to
register, the project’s success was to be found in the national attention the
project received. Most importantly, the
project exposed the iniquities of white supremacy in the Deep South.[39] The nation began to see what the FBI
investigation exposed in its report:
“…that there appeared to be a conspiracy on the part of the prime suspects;
namely, the Sheriff, his Deputy, and others who are closely associated with the
Sheriff’s Office who either were in law enforcement or had formerly been in law
enforcement, to deprive the colored population of their civil rights and these
individual cases taken cumulatively show a clear conspiracy to deprive the
victims of their civil rights.”[40] Freedom Summer also ended the isolation of
Mississippi from the rest of the country.
The ultimate prize, of course, came in 1965 with the passage of the Voting
Rights Act, signed into law by President Johnson.[41] As a result, a much broader electorate began
to grow. In 1964, 6.7% of Mississippi’s
voting-age blacks were registered to vote.[42] By 1969, that number had increased to 66.5%.
The
murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner was a turning
point for the civil rights movement, as it influenced White America to rethink
their opinion of the civil rights movement.
It also demonstrated the sincerity of commitment on the part of the
student volunteers as they braved the racist and bigoted terrain of the Deep
South. The murder of the three men also
provoked international outrage and provided the movement with the visibility it
needed to force a slow and reluctant federal government to take action against
the Ku Klux Klan. Though the murders
forced America to look itself in the mirror, people in the civil rights
movement recognized that it was only because two of the three murdered
volunteers were white. If just Chaney
had been murdered, the outcome may well have been different. Even so, Freedom Summer made a tremendous
impact on the state of Mississippi, as well as the nation. The strength and determination of the
volunteers—white or black, North or South—did much to politically empower millions—one
of whom is America’s 44th president.
Bibliography
Government Documents:
Federal Bureau of
Investigation. “MIBURN (Mississippi
Burning).”
Books:
Ball, Howard. Murder
in Mississippi: United States v. Price
and the Struggle for Civil Rights.
Lawrence:
University Press of Kansas, 2004.
-----. Justice
in Mississippi: The Murder Trial of
Edgar Ray Killen. Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 2006.
Cagin, Seth and Philip
Dray. We are not Afraid: The Story of
Goodman, Schwerner, and
Chaney and the Civil Rights Campaign
for Mississippi.
New York: MacMillan
Publishing Company, 1988.
Dittmer, John. Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. Chicago:
University of Illinois Press, 1995.
Emery, Kathy, Linda
Reid Gold, and Sylvia Braselmann. Lessons From Freedom Summer:
Ordinary People Building
Extraordinary Movements.
Monroe: Common Courage Press,
2008.
Huie, William
Bradford. Three Lives for Mississippi.
Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 2000.
Newman, Mark. The
Civil Rights Movement.
Westport: Praeger, 2004.
Riches, William T.
Martin. The Civil Rights Movement: Struggle
and Resistance. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Whitehead, Don. Attack
on Terror: The FBI Against the Ku Klux
Klan in Mississippi. New
York: Funk &
Wagnalls, 1970.
Internet Sources
(Journal Articles, Magazines, Newspapers, Websites):
Congress of Racial
Equality. “Chaney, Goodman &
Schwerner.” www.core-online.org
(Accessed February 5, 2009).
Germany, Kent and David
Carter. “Mississippi Burning, 1964: Perspectives from the Lyndon
Johnson Tapes. Miller Center, University of Virginia.
April 1, 2009).
The University of
Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. “The
Mississippi Burning Trial:
United States vs.
Cecil Price et al.”
January 15, 2009).
2009).
Film, Videocassette, or
DVD:
Eyes
On The Prize—Episode 5: Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964). Produced by
Orlando Bagwell.
PBS Video, 1986.
Free
At Last: Civil Rights Heroes—Part 2 The
Birmingham Four and Schwerner, Chaney and
Goodman. Produced by Martin Kent. 30 minutes.
Bill Brummel Productions for TLC
Video and World Almanac Video, MCMXCIX.
Magazines:
Bernstein, Richard
J. “Journey to Understanding—Four
Witnesses to a Mississippi Summer:
The Educator.” The Nation, December 28, 1964, 512-515.
“Civil Rights: The Invaders.” Newsweek,
June 29, 1964, 25-26.
Fleming, Karl and
Joseph B. Cumming, Jr.
“Mississippi—‘Everybody’s Scared.’”
Newsweek,
July 6, 1964, 15-16.
Gibson, Gail. “A last push for justice in civil rights-era
killings.” baltimoresun.com,
(Accessed April 7, 2009).
Hess, Aaron and
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field. “How the
Democratic Party Shut Out the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.” International
Socialist Review Online
21, 2009).
Kunstler, William
M. “Journey to Understanding—Four
Witnesses to a Mississippi Summer:
The Lawyer.” The Nation, December 28, 1964, 507-509.
McMillen, Neil R. “Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi: Federal Enforcement and Black
Protest in the 1960s.”
The Journal of Southern History
43 (1977): 351-372.
Rachal, John R. “’The Long, Hot Summer’: The Mississippi Response to Freedom Summer,
1964.” The Journal of Negro History 84
(1999): 315-339.
Sutherland,
Elizabeth. “Summer in Mississippi: The Cat and Mouse Game.” The
Nation,
September 14, 1964, 105-108.
[2]
“Episode 5—Mississippi: Is This America?
(1962-1964),” Eyes On The Prize,
produced by Orlando Bagwell, PBS Video, 1986, videocassette.
[3]
Kent Germany and David Carter, “Mississippi Burning, 1964: Perspectives from the Lyndon Johnson Tapes,” The University of Virginia, http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibits/miss_burning/text_print.htm.
[4]
Gail Gibson, “A last push for justice in civil rights-era killings,” Baltimore Sun, June 13, 2005, www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-te.missburning13jun13,1,5319102,print.story
[5]
Elizabeth Sutherland, “The Cat and Mouse Game,” The Nation, September 14, 1964, 105-108.
[6]
Mark Newman, The Civil Rights Movement
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
2004), 104.
[7]
John R. Rachal, “’The Long, Hot Summer’:
The Mississippi Response to Freedom Summer, 1964,” The Journal of Negro History 84 (1999): 315. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.
[8]Ibid,
316.
[9]
Civil Rights Movement Veterans Website, “Information Sheet—Project
Mississippi,” www.crmvet.org.
[10]
William T. Martin Riches. The Civil Rights Movement: Struggle and Resistance (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997), 80-81.
[11]
Neil R. McMillen, “Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi: Federal Enforcement and Black Protest in the
1960s,” The Journal of Southern History 43
(1977): 366. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org.
[12]
Ibid, 367.
[13]
Ibid, 367.
[14]
Kathy Emery, Linda Reid Gold, and Sylvia Braselmann, eds. Lessons
From Freedom Summer: Ordinary People
Building Extraordinary Movements (Monroe:
Common Courage Press, 2008), 214.
[15]
Ibid, 234.
[16]
Ibid, 236.
[17]
“Civil Rights: The Invaders,” Newsweek, June 29, 1964.
[18]
Howard Ball, Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for
Civil Rights (Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 2004), 55.
[19]Karl
Fleming and Joseph B. Cumming, Jr., “Mississippi—‘Everybody’s Scared,” Newsweek, July 6, 1964.
[20]
Kent Germany and David Carter, “Mississippi Burning, 1964: Perspectives from the Lyndon Johnson Tapes,” The University of Virginia, http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibits/miss_burning/text_print.htm
[21]
Sutherland, 107.
[22]
William M. Kunstler and Richard J. Bernstein, “Journey to Understanding: Witnesses to a Mississippi Summer,” The Nation, December 28, 1964.
[23]
Part 2: The Birmingham Four and
Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman,” Free At
Last: Civil Rights Heroes, produced
by Martin Kent, 30 minutes, Bill Brummel Productions for TLC Video and World
Almanac Video, MCMXCIX, videocassette.
Also, the FBI “Miburn” case file indicates that Sam Bowers used the code
name “Goatee” to refer to Schwerner since Schwerner sported a goatee. Schwerner was an especially bright target of
the KKK because he was an aggressive civil rights leader.
[25]
The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, “The Mississippi Burning
Trial: United States vs. Cecil Price et al.” www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/jury.html.
[26]
Kent Germany and David Carter, “Mississippi Burning, 1964: Perspectives from the Lyndon Johnson Tapes,” The University of Virginia, http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibits/miss_burning/text_print.htm.
[27]
“Episode 5—Mississippi: Is This America?
(1962-1964),” Eyes On The Prize,
produced by Orlando Bagwell, PBS Video, 1986, videocassette.
[29]
Part 2: The Birmingham Four and
Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman,” Free At
Last: Civil Rights Heroes, produced
by Martin Kent, 30 minutes, Bill Brummel Productions for TLC Video and World
Almanac Video, MCMXCIX, videocassette.
[30]
“Episode 5—Mississippi: Is This America?
(1962-1964),” Eyes On The Prize,
produced by Orlando Bagwell, PBS Video, 1986, videocassette.
[31]
Ibid.
[32]
Sid Salter, “Message found in Killen’s sentence,” The Clarion-Ledger, June 29, 2005, www.neshobademocrat.com
[33]
William Bradford Huie, Three Lives for
Mississippi (Jackson: University
Press of Mississippi, 2000), 118.
[35]
Claude Sitton, “Mississippi Is Gripped by Fear of Violence in Civil Rights
Drive,” The New York Times, May 4, 1964.
[36]
Neil Sheehan, “Volunteers’ Parents Fearful but Proud,” The New York Times, July 11, 1964
[37]
Claude Sitton, “Tragedy in Mississippi:
Deep-Seated Feelings of Negroes Are Reflected In Funeral for Slain Civil
Rights Worker,” The New York Times,
August 9, 2009.
[38]
Sutherland, 106.
[39]
Neil R. McMillen, “Black Enfranchisement in Mississippi: Federal Enforcement and Black Protest in the
1960s,” The Journal of Southern History 43
(1977): 367. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org.
[41]
Ibid, 369.
[42]
Aaron Hess and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, “Civil Rights Betrayed: How the Democratic Party Shut Out the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party,” International
Socialist Review Online Edition 38 (2004), www.isreview.org/issues/38/MFDP.shtml
