Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, were the abduction and murder of three activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in June 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement. The victims were James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City. All three were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Since 1890 and through the turn of the century, Southern states had systematically disenfranchised most black voters by discrimination in voter registration and voting.
Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
June 21, 1964
Triple-murder by shooting, white supremacist terrorism
- Lawrence A. Rainey
- Bernard L. Akin
- Travis M. Barnette
- James T. Harris
- Frank J. Herndon
- Olen Lovell Burrage
- Herman Tucker
- Richard A. Willis
- Ethel Glen Barnett
- Jerry McGrew Sharpe
- Cecil Price
- Samuel Bowers
- Alton Wayne Roberts
- Jimmy Snowden
- Billy Wayne Posey
- Horace Barnette
- Jimmy Arledge
- James Edward Jordan
- Edgar Ray Killen
Killen:
Manslaughter (3 counts)
Remaining convicted:
Conspiracy against rights
- Killen: Life imprisonment[a] with the possibility of parole after 20 years
- Bowers, Roberts: 10 years in prison (both paroled after 6 years)
- Posey, Price: 6 years in prison (Price paroled after 4 years)
- Jordan: 4 years in prison
- Arledge, Barnette, Snowden: 3 years in prison (Snowden paroled after 2 years)
Chaney was African American, and Goodman and Schwerner were both Jewish. The three men had traveled roughly 38 miles (61 km) north from Meridian, to the community of Longdale, to talk with congregation members at a black church that had been burned; the church had been a center of community organization. The trio was arrested following a traffic stop for speeding, escorted to the local jail, and held for a number of hours.[1] As the three left town in their car, they were followed by law enforcement and others. Before leaving Neshoba County, their car was pulled over again. The three were abducted, driven to another location, and shot at close range. The bodies were buried in an earthen dam.[1]
The disappearance of the three men was initially investigated as a missing persons case. The civil-rights workers' burnt-out car was found parked near a swamp three days after their disappearance.[2][3] An extensive search of the area was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), local and state authorities, and 400 U.S. Navy sailors.[4] Their bodies were not discovered until seven weeks later, when the team received a tip. During the investigation it emerged that members of the local White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office, and the Philadelphia, Mississippi Police Department were involved in the incident.[1]
The murder of the activists sparked national outrage and an extensive federal investigation, filed as Mississippi Burning (MIBURN), which later became the title of a 1988 film loosely based on the events. In 1967, after the state government refused to prosecute, the United States federal government charged 18 individuals with civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and another pleaded guilty, and received relatively minor sentences for their actions. Outrage over the activists' murder helped gain passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Forty-one years after the murders took place, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged by the state of Mississippi for his part in the crimes. In 2005 he was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was given a 60-year sentence.[5] On June 20, 2016, federal and state authorities officially closed the case. Killen died in prison in January 2018.