Coalition seeks to reopen case of civil-rights workers
By Heather Cottin
A multinational coalition wants the state of
Mississippi to prosecute those responsible for the deaths of
civil-rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew
Goodman, who were killed 40 years ago in Philadelphia,
Miss.
The three were part of the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign to
desegregate Mississippi and organize Black voter registration.
The campaign was organized by the NAACP, the Congress of Racial
Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
That summer, homes of 37 African American families and 37
churches with Black congregations were firebombed. These acts
of racist terror were actively encouraged by the state
apparatus which was entwined with the extra-legal violence of
the Klan.
On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, an African American
civil-rights activist, and Michael Schwerner and Andrew
Goodman, both white activists, traveled to Longdale, Miss., to
investigate a church bombing. The Ku Klux Klan was reportedly
strong there. As the three later drove back through Neshoba
County to Meridian, Philadelphia police stopped and detained
them.
The three civil-rights workers were never seen alive again.
On Aug. 4 their bodies were found, buried in a dam.
The movie "Mississippi Burning" is based on these deaths,
which stunned the country and the world. Although the murders
took place before the summer project had begun, more than
70,000 students from all over the United States came to
Mississippi for Freedom Summer.
Reopen the case!
Seven members of the Ku Klux Klan were convicted of federal
civil-rights violations and sentenced to terms ranging from
three to 10 years. The state never brought murder charges. All
were paroled before serving their full sentences.
Now, in late May, 40 years later, the new coalition gathered
at City Hall in Philadelphia, Miss., in infamous Neshoba
County, to seek justice.
Their resolution states, "Local and state law enforcement
officers were involved in the planning and execution of these
murders." The group criticized the "shameful involvement and
interference of state government, including actions of the
State Sovereignty Commission, in thwarting justice in this
case." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 26)
The infamous "Sovereignty Com mission" was formed in 1956 to
represent the interests of the landowners and business class.
Its aim was to preserve Jim Crow segregation and to keep
civil-rights activities at bay. The "commission" disseminated
information about civil-rights activists to local
law-enforcement agencies. One such piece of information was the
license plate number of civil-rights workers' car the night
they disappeared. (History News Network, hnn.us)
Ben Chaney, who was 12 when his brother James Chaney was
killed, is currently traveling on a 20-bus caravan to publicize
the need to reopen the case, and to engage in voter
registration in the South. The cortege embarked on a 20-stop
tour beginning in New York City on June 9. It is scheduled to
end in Philadelphia, Miss., for a memorial service for the
three martyrs.
"The need for truth is there," Ben Chaney said. "To
continually push for the trial to take place in Mississippi is
a way of confronting racism and the Klan." (CourtTV.com)
Infamous history of racism
"Mississippi is infamous, with the worst reputation for
civil injustices and racial violence against African
Americans," concludes Jackson State University's Dr. Monique
Guillory
Mamie Till-Mobley worked until her January 2003 death at age
81 to demand a new investigation into the 1955 murder of her
son Emmett Till in Neshoba County. The Black teenager was
lynched after being accused of whistling at a white woman. Now
the long struggle has finally forced the Justice Department to
reopen the investigation.
The Rev. Walter Edward Fauntroy, former congressional
delegate from Washington, D.C., noted after Ronald Reagan's
death that at Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott's urging, "Ronald
Reagan's first speech in his presidential campaign was given in
Philadelphia, Miss.--where they had beaten Chaney, Schwerner
and Goodman to death ... and the purpose was to let [the Black
community] know [the Klan was] going to turn the clock
back."
President George W. Bush recently appointed Mississippi
Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr., who reportedly had ties to the
"Sovereignty Commission," to the U.S. Southern District's Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals.
Reprinted from the June 24, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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