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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Mississippi Burning: The Impact of White America on the Civil Rights Movement During the Long Hot Summer of the Cold South





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).” 
            http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm (accessed January 18, 2009).
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).
Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement Website.  http://www.crmvet.org  (accessed April 1,
            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,
            June 13, 2005.  www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-te.missburning13jun13...
            (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
            Edition 38 (2004).  http://www.isreview.org/issues/38/MFDP.shtml  (accessed April
            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.





[1] Federal Bureau of Investigation, “MIBURN,” case file  http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm 
[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. 
[24] Federal Bureau of Investigation, “MIBURN,” case file  http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm
[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.
[28] Federal Bureau of Investigation, “MIBURN,” case file  http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm 
[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.
[34] Federal Bureau of Investigation, “MIBURN,” case file  http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm 
[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.
[40] Federal Bureau of Investigation, “MIBURN,” case file  http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm 
[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

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