Our History is American History - Mississippi Burning

In elementary school, I remember we had the chance once a week to go to music period. We learned different songs and to play the Kudzu (aka the recorder). Do kids still do that? When we learned songs, it was a given that we were going to learn the patriotic songs, like The Star Bangled Banner, America the Beautiful, and My Country Tis Of Thee. Never knew what "Tis of Thee" was but I do recall singing it loud and proud along with the rest of my classmates. Remember it, "My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From ev'ry mountainside, Let freedom ring!" Let Freedom Ring became a popular phrase from Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech (side note: one of these days, we're gonna talk about that speech b/c yall ain't talking about but one part of it). Anyhoo, there are those who really believed in letting freedom ring and then there are those who don't and decide that believing in freedom for all deserves a death sentence. I guess freedom invokes different feelings to different people. 

On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers, a 21-year-old black Mississippian, James Chaney, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24 whose disappearance garnered national attention were found buried near Philadelphia, MS. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.”

Michael Schwerner arrived in Mississippi in January 1964 and aroused the animosity of white supremacists after he organized a successful black boycott of a variety store in the city of Meridian and led voting registration efforts for African Americans. In May, Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi, sent word that the 24-year-old Schwerner was to be eliminated. On the evening of June 16, two dozen armed Klansmen descended on Mt. Zion Methodist Church, an African American church in Neshoba County that Schwerner had arranged to use as a “Freedom School.” Schwerner was not there at the time when the Klansmen beat several African Americans present and torched the church.

On January 20, Schwerner returned from a civil rights training session in Ohio with new CORE recruits, 21-year-old James Chaney and 20-year-old Andrew Goodman. On June 21, they went to investigate the burning of the church in Neshoba. While attempting to drive back to Meridian, they were stopped by Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, a KKK member, just inside the city limits of Philadelphia. Price, who had been looking out for Schwerner or other civil rights workers, threw them in the Neshoba County jail, allegedly under suspicion for church arson. After seven hours in jail, Price released them on bail and escorted them out of town. Later, Price went in pursuit of the three civil rights workers along with 2 other cars filled with Klansmen who had been alerted by Price. Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were shot to death and their bodies buried in an earthen dam a few miles from the Mt. Zion Methodist Church.

The next day, the FBI began an investigation into the disappearance of the civil rights workers. On June 23, the case drew national headlines, and federal agents found the workers’ burned station wagon. Under pressure from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the FBI escalated the investigation, which eventually involved more than 200 FBI agents and scores of federal troops who combed the woods and swamps looking for the bodies. Delmar Dennis, a Klansman and one of the participants in the murders, was paid $30,000 and offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for information. On August 4, the remains of the three young men were found. The culprits were identified, but the state of Mississippi made no arrests.

The FBI arrested 18 men in October 1964, but state prosecutors refused to try the case, claiming lack of evidence. The federal government then stepped in, and the FBI arrested 18 in connection with the killings. In 1967, seven men were convicted on federal conspiracy charges and given sentences of three to ten years, but none served more than six. No one was tried on the charge of murder. The contemptible words of the presiding federal judge, William Cox, give an indication of Mississippi's version of justice at the time: "They killed one ni---r, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved." Another 8 defendants were acquitted by their all-white juries, and another 3 ended in mistrials. One of those mistrials freed Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen, who was believed to be the ringleader, after the jury in his case was deadlocked by one member who said she could not bear to convict a preacher. However, on June 21, 2005, the 41st anniversary of the three murders, Edgar Ray Killen, was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. At 80 years of age and best known as an outspoken white supremacist and part-time Baptist minister, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison.