The Freedom Summer Murders
Freedom Summer
"To be born black and to live in Mississippi was to say that your life wasn't worth much." - Myrlie Evers, wife of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers
- Mississppi was, in 1964, still segregated.
- Freedom Summer was intended to help educate African-Americans in registration and voting, aid in financial assistance, open summer schools in churches, and community centers, among other things.
- Young white volunteers, among them Andrew Goodman, were being trained in Oxford, Ohio and then being sent to Mississippi to carry out Freedom Summer.
- Three young men, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Micheal Schwerner, were brutally murdered by the the KKK, simply because they were "Being the change they wished to see in the world" - Gadhi
Neshoba County
- Segregation was a way of life and strongly supported, but not easily let go of.
- Did NOT like outside agitators
- Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price (Top Middle), Edgar Ray Killen (Far Left), Horace Doyle Barnette, Jimmie Snowden, Alton Wayne Roberts (Bottom Middle), Samuel Bowers (Far Right), and Olen Burrage were the eight suspects of the murders.
Three young men
Andrew Goodman -
Michael Henry Schwerner -
- Born in NYC, on Nov. 23, 1943. Was 20 years young when mudered.
- Middle child of 3 sons.
- Was said to be sensitive polite, respectful, had a strong sense of fairness and didn't tolerate bullies
- He was a doer, this was part of the reason he went to Mississippi
- Social activist
- In the early '60s, Andy, as he was known to his family and friends, participated in a sit-in at Woolworth's at Herald Square in NY. Also attended the March on Washington.
- Born on May 30, 1943 in Meridian, Mississippi, the same place he was mudered 21 short years later.
- Second oldest of 5 siblings
- Hard worker, practical joker, respectful, laid back, and wanted a better future for his family and people
- In '59, Jim, as his friends called him, joined the Meridian chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Michael Henry Schwerner -
- Born on Nov. 6, 1939. Mickey, as his friends called him, was married and twenty-four years young when he was murdered.
- He was the younger of 2 sons.
- Was taught social justice.
- Was an atheist, caring, innately respectful and tolerant of others, and had a knack for working with troubled teens and young adults.
- Some of his family members' lives were claimed by the Holocaust.
- In June 1962, became a social worker in the projects of the Lower East side of Manhattan.
- Married Rita Levant.
- In 1963, Rita and Mickey became CORE workers
- On July 4th, they participated in a sit-in at an amusement park outside of Baltimore, Maryland and arrested.
- The Schwerners left for Mississippi and arrived on Jan. 16, 1964, being the first full-time white civil rights workers in Mississippi.
Work in Mississippi
- Roscoe Jones trained and prepared the Schwerners and James Chaney
- The CORE workers were running Meridian's community center by Feb. 1964
- The center offered sewing classes, story time for kids, a game room for adolescents, voter registration, and training to apply for jobs.
The fateful Day
- The three men were going to Neshoba County because the church, Mt. Zion Methodist, that they had asked to use as a Freedom Summer school, had been incinerated by the KKK.
- The Schwerners, Andy, and J.E. (James), were in Oxford, Ohio training volunteers, when the burning occurred.
- The KKK figured that "Goatee", the KKK's label for Mickey, and his friends would come running, and they were right. It would prove to be a deathly trap.
- The company left at 3:00 A.M on June 20th, 1964. This would be the last time Rita Schwerner and James Chaney's mother would see them, Andy's parents were in NY.
- Micheal Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney headed for Meridian at around 2:00 P.M., the last time friendly, and not foe, would see them alive.
- Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price pulled over their vehicle, with James behind the wheel, and jailed the trio at around 4:00 P.M.
- James was held on an phony accusation of speeding, the other two were for "investigation", and they were denied their one phone call.
- While Deputy Price "searched" for the magistrate, for six hours, prosecution believed that he was tipping off the KKK..
- When the trio were't back by 4, as they promised, their co-workers were starting to worry.
- The COFO phoned the jail at 5:30 P.M., in which they were being held, but the person who answered the telephone call denied seeing them. The three's ill-fated night wasn't going to last much longer.
- James Jordan, a Klansmen, would later testify that Killen met with the gang at a drive-in to recruit volunteers to execute their plan.
- Horace Doyle Barnette, a Klansmen as well, said that Klansmen met in Philadelphia, where the three young lads were being held, around 9:30 P.M. Killen shared with Barnette that "we have a place to bury them and a man to ru the dozer to cover them up." Barnette "realized that the three civil rights workers were to be killed" then.
- At 10:00 P.M., Price released Mickey, Andy, and J.E. from the jail, escorted by Price.
- The trio turned off Highway 19, heading for Meridian since they had already missed their deadline for checking in.
- After driving on a back roads for miles, a Klansmen caravan and Price stopped them.
- Price then asked them, "I thought you were going back to Meridian if we let you out of jail?" and told them to evacuate their car. As they were doing so, James was struck by Price with his blackjack on the back of his head.
- Micheal Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney more than likely realized, then, that they were in a deadly situation.
- Barnette would later recollect the following:
- Olen Burrage then led the KKK members to an earthen dam at his Old Jolly Farm. They were then buried with a bulldozer an their vehicle burned.
Bibliography
- http://goo.gl/RgZlwD
- http://goo.gl/cR8sGm