Freedom Summer Murders (1964)
Sun Jun 21, 1964
Image: An FBI "Missing" poster, depicting (from left to right) Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner
On this day in 1964, civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were assassinated by white supremacists in Philadelphia, Mississippi. No one was held accountable for the Freedom Summer Murders until 2005.
All three activists 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 black people in Mississippi to vote.
The trio were arrested by Sheriff Cecil Price near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi while investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been the site of a CORE Freedom School.
The group was released that evening without being allowed to contact anyone. While traveling back to Meridian, Mississippi, they were stopped by patrol lights and two carloads of KKK members, kidnapped, tortured, and killed.
The sheriff, along with six others, were indicted and convicted for depriving the three men of their civil rights. No one was held accountable for their murders, however, until 2005, when outspoken white supremacist Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter. Killen died in prison in 2018, at the age of 92.
- Date: 1964-06-21
- Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, mscivilrightsproject.org.
- Tags: [#Civil Rights](/search?q=%23Civil Rights&type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=New), #Assassinations.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org