5 – The ‘Mississippi Burning’ Murders – 1964
This is the nickname given to the heinous triple murder of three civil rights activists by the Klan on June 21, 1964. James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) while Andrew Goodman was a college student who volunteered as part of the Mississippi Summer Project. As is the case with several entries on this list, the triple murder was the culmination of several months of tensions. During the summer of 1964, the KKK burned 20 black churches in Mississippi and targeted Mount Zion Baptist Church; ostensibly to get their hands on Schwerner. The Klan apparently wanted the activist dead for some time.
On the fateful day, the three men visited the ruins of the Mount Zion church. They met at the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) HQ in Meridian and Schwerner told members of COFO to start looking for the trio if they didn’t return by 4 pm. Their station wagon was known to local law enforcement as a CORE vehicle. After visiting the church, the group elected to return to Meridian via Highway 16 and then Highway 19. Along the way, one of the tires became flat soon after passing the city limits of Philadelphia. Deputy Sheriff Cecil Ray Price spotted the vehicle and pulled them over for speeding.
Meanwhile, workers in the COFO office in Meridian were concerned because the men did not get in touch. At 4:45 pm, the Meridian office contacted the Jackson office with the news that the group had not returned from Neshoba County. It was later revealed that the police lied to COFO and claimed they didn’t know the whereabouts of the three activists. Meanwhile, the three men were held and informed that they had to wait until the Justice of the Peace arrived to process the fine. Eventually, they allowed the men to leave after collecting the fine; it was about 10 pm and Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman were never seen alive again after leaving the police station.
It transpired that Klan members had been waiting to gain the ultimate revenge on freedom fighters all summer. When the police released the three men from the station, it was only so they could carry out their cowardly deed. Price followed them as soon as they were released and coordinated with a lynch mob to murder the trio as soon as they found a suitable location. All of the above was carried out with the assistance of Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey.
Price caught the CORE vehicle and pulled it over as it was heading toward Union in Mississippi on Highway 492. Witnesses later said that Alton W. Roberts, a U.S. Marine who was dishonorably discharged, shot all three men. James Jordan was later said to have also shot Cheney. The bodies were covered up with a bulldozer; the autopsy later found that Goodman was probably buried alive. Price told his fellow thugs that they had “struck a blow for the white man.”
Investigators found the smoldering CORE station wagon two days later, and the remains were located with the help of an informant. Horrifyingly, the remains of eight African-American men were found during the search in Mississippi. The bodies of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, were found on August 4. While 18 men were charged, only seven were convicted; including Price. None of them served more than six years in prison. In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter and received a 60-year prison sentence.
