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June 20, 2014

50th Anniversary of Mississippi Slaying of Civil Rights Workers 
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Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the killing of three civil rights
workers in Mississippi, a pivotal moment in the 1960s struggle for
equality. On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael
Schwerner were ambushed by a gang of Klansmen. The three were beaten and
shot, their bodies found weeks later buried in an earthen dam. They had
come to Mississippi to register African-American voters as part of the
Freedom Summer campaign. A number of Klan members were convicted on
minor charges, with none serving more than six years. It took 41 years
before a murder conviction was handed down in the case, with former Ku
Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen found guilty of manslaughter in 2005.

 

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