3 good men murdered 1964: Mississippi

In June 1964, Michael Schwerner (from NY) and James Chaney (from MS) worked for the Congress of Rac­ial Equality in Phil­ad­el­phia MS; Andrew Good­man (from NY) was one of the hundreds of college students from acr­oss the country who volunteered to work on voter regist­r­at­ion and Civil Rig­hts in Miss­issippi’s Summer Proj­ect 1964. The 3 men knew their work was dangerous but necessary, given that the local KKK membership was soar­ing.

FBI missing person poster
Goodman 20, Chaney 21, Schwerner 24
June 1964

Schwerner had org­an­is­ed local boycotts of biased businesses and hel­ped with black voter reg­ist­ra­tion in MS. So the KKK was furious, us­ing viol­ence to fight Civil Rights men. Klan memb­ers targ­eted and burned 20 black Mississippi ch­ur­­ch­es in June 1964, inc­luding Nesh­oba Coun­ty's Mt Zion Baptist Church. A mob of armed KKK members descended on a local ch­urch meeting look­ing for Schwerner, but fortunately he’d gone to Ox­ford Ohio that day, to train a group of Freedom Summer volunteers. Instead the KKK tor­ch­ed the church and thump­ed the churchgoers.

The Klan had missed Schwerner, but their trap was set: Schwer­ner, Chaney and Goodman soon headed south, investigating the fire, inter­viewing witnesses and meeting fellow campaigners. After dr­iv­ing to Phil­­ad­el­phia, the 3 men dr­ove towards Mer­id­ian in a station-wagon, to visit the burned Mt Zion. En route, their Congress of Ra­c­ial Eq­uality/CORE station wagon was stop­ped and police arrested them: Chaney was charged with sp­eeding, while Schwerner and Good­man were held for inv­est­igat­ion. Then Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price took them to Phil­ad­elphia gaol!

Price told the 3 men to remain in gaol until a Jus­tice of the Peace calculated their fines. Schwerner asked to make a phone call, but Price denied him and left. Price returned at 10pm, collect­ed Chaney’s fine and told the men to leave the county. They were never seen again

Digging for bodies in a deep farm dam near Philadelphia MS. 

FBI

The case drew national attention, in part because Schwerner and Good­man were white Northerners. But authorities claimed that the disappear­ance of the 3 workers could have been a Civil Rights Movement publicity stunt. Worst still, in 1964 Mississippi was the only state without a cen­tral FBI office, so in June, 200+ agents had to travel from the New Orl­eans office inst­ead! These agents found the destroyed CORE station wagon!!

After 6 weeks searching for the 3 bodies, a Highway Patrol of­f­icer sent invest­ig­ators to a deep earthen dam on a Philad­elphia farm where the FBI found them. Throughout 1964, state and local law en­forc­e­ment did not pur­sue the crime, claiming insufficient evid­ence, but the FBI continued. In June 1964, Klansman Jam­es Jordan tortured-shot Chaney and Klansman Wayne Roberts tortured-shot Sch­w­ern­er & Goodman. The killers loaded the bodies in­to the CORE stat­ion­-wagon, then buried the bodies in the earthen dam.

In July investigators combed Mississippi’s woods and rivers, even­t­ually finding 8 African American male skeletons. Three were ident­if­ied as 19 year old students who were kidnapped & murdered in May 1964. But nothing was recorded about the 5 other bodies. Black deaths presumably mattered less.

Deputy Sheriff Price and Sheriff Rainey at arraignment hearing in 1964 

Not showing much respect for the court,  

UMKC

Because murder was a state crime, the Federal Govern­ment couldn’t br­ing charges. So in Dec, the Justice Dept charged 21 men with cons­pir­ing to violate Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman’s civil rights. Pro­s­ec­u­t­ors brought the charges before a federal grand jury, ind­ict­ing 18 men in Jan 1965. But presiding Judge Wil­l­iam Cox dismissed the charg­es against most defendants, main­taining that the law applied only to law enforcement officers. The prosecution appeal­ed, and in 1966 the Sup­reme Court reinstated the charges, ruling the law app­lied to law enforcement officials AND civilians.

In Feb 1967 a Federal Grand Jury re-indicted the men, and in Oct the trial began in segregationist Judge Cox’s court. As the trial proceeded, the prosecution read the 1964 con­fessions of Klan members Hor­ace Barnette & James Jordan: After leaving Schwern­er, Chaney and Goodman in Phil­ad­el­phia’s gaol, Price called Baptist Min­ister Ed­gar Ray Kil­l­en, a local KKK leader. Kil­len directed Klansmen to gather in Philadelphia and when the KKK cars left Philadelphia, Price released the Civ­il Rights workers from gaol and ordered them gone. He then chased the CORE station wagon.

Edgar Killen (L) and Cecil Price (R) happily awaited their verdicts

Killen was correct... he walked. Price was found guilty. 1967

After years of court battles, 7 of the 18 defendants were found guil­ty in Oct 1967 including Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price and Samuel Bow­ers, Imperial Wizard of Mississippi’s White Knights of the KKK, but none on mur­der ch­arges. One major con­spirator, Rev Edgar Killen, went free after a juror could NOT convict any Bap­tist preacher. But in the long run, the Klan’s homicidal ways were less successful. The murders gal­van­ised the nation and provided impetus for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 in July. In 1970 the convicted men each received a sentence of 3-10 years.

Was it true that in 1980 Ronald Reagan launched his el­ection campaign lauding States’ Rights near Philadelphia MS, within walking distance from where the 3 bodies had been buried?

In 1998 a reporter for a Jackson newspaper publ­ish­ed excerpts from a 1984 interview with Imperial Wizard Bow­ers where he spoke proudly ab­out the 3 murders and Rev Kil­len’s responsibility. This interview, sealed till Bowers’ death, is now freely avail­able. 

Historical marker at Mt Zion Church in Neshoba County MI
CBS

In 1999, MS Attorney General Michael Moore reopened the case, using the FBI’s original investig­ation’s records. In Jan 2005, a grand jury ch­arged Rev Killen with murder. Even then, the grand jury found in­suf­­f­icient evid­ence for a murder con­v­ic­tion. On the 41st anniversary of his crime, Rev Killen was found guil­ty of man­sl­aughter and sent­en­ced to 60 years gaol, dying in com­fort­ aged 93.

Photo credits: CBS News