42nd Anniversary of the Discovery of the Three Civil Rights Workers

Forty-two years ago yesterday, August 4, the remains of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were dragged out of a partially-constructed dam outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi. They would become famous as “The Three Civil Rights Workers” who were jailed, and released in the middle of the night by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price who, working with the Klan, arranged for them to be waylaid and killed. Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were in Mississippi investigating the burning of a black church as part of their work with black Mississippians during 1964’s Freedom Summer. Their story and the trial of their killers was portrayed in the movie “Mississippi Burning”. You can read more about their story on the BBC or in my post on Edgar Ray Killen's trial for their murder here.

Miss Daisy Bates and I traveled through Meridian and Philadelphia, MS on our civil rights road trip. Blasting Mississippi for its civil rights past and present is just so easy that on this occasion I will refrain. Anyway, I have some good news that evinces a change of heart in Mississippi. I just read this in my Poverty & Race Research Action Council newsletter (which I highly recommend).

“Under a bill approved by the state’s Senate, stretches of Mississippi Highways in three counties are being renamed for James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, the three civil rights workers murdered by Klan members in Philadelphia, MS in 1964. The bill also will name a portion of another highway the Emmett Till Memorial Highway. (Wash. Post, 2/11/05)"

Congratulations on the progress, Mississippi.