The Three Murdered Civil Rights Workers,
Goodman Chaney & Schwerner:
On June 21, 1964, In Philadelphia, Mississippi, Three Civil Rights Workers Were Murdered By The Ku Klux Klan, With Local Police And A Preacher's Involvement.
The Slain Workers Were Members Of The Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE). James Chaney, A Black Man From Meridian, MS And Andrew Goodman And Michael Schwerner, Two Jewish Men From New York, Were Taking Part In Freedom Summer, A Cross-Country Initiative To Register Black Voters.
By Most Accounts, Chaney Was The Last Of The Three Men To Die. The Killers Crushed Every Bone In His Body. All The Men Were Buried And It Took 44 Days To Uncover The Bodies.
No Murder Convictions Were Ever Reached. Eighteen Suspects Were Put On Trial For Civil Rights Violations, ONLY.
Sheriff E.G. Barnett And Edgar Ray Killen, A Minister, Had Been Strongly Implicated In The Murders, But Were Set Free By A Deadlocked Jury.
Several Films Have Been Made Recounting The Murders. These Include The CBS TV Movie, Attack On Terror: The FBI vs The Ku Klux Klan (1974), Mississippi Burning (1988) And Murder In Mississippi (1990).
The First Two Movies Angered Some Civil Rights Activist Because They Depeicted FBI Agents In An Overly Sympathetic Way.
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr.
