By Ashkea Herron McAllister and Caren E. Short

Sunday, June 21, 2009, marks the 45th anniversary of the infamous murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi-James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24. They had joined the “Freedom Summer” initiative of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register blacks in the state to vote. Chaney himself was a black Mississippian. Schwerner and Goodman were Jewish volunteers from New York.

Andrew Goodman, Mississippi-James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner

The brutality of their deaths was a critical factor in Congressional approval of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the law now the subject of a constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, which will be decided in the next several days.

The men were traveling to Neshoba County to investigate the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church when Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price stopped them for speeding. They were released from jail several hours later, only to face their demise. Shortly thereafter, Deputy Price caught up to the men, abducted them, and delivered them to several local Klansmen who carried out the murders.

After the men failed to check in with the local SNCC headquarters at 4 p.m. that day, the civil rights forces began an aggressive search. The story became national news by the next morning. Public outcry led President Johnson to direct the FBI to investigate the disappearance. Mississippi officials stated publicly that the disappearance was merely a hoax designed to create media attention.

The bodies of the three men were finally found on August 4, 1964, in an earthen dam five miles south of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Each had been shot to death. Chaney had been severely beaten. Every bone in his body was broken. The discovery of the bodies sent shockwaves throughout the world, sharply increasing public support for the Civil Rights Movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and, subsequently, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Mississippi officials refused to bring murder charges against any individuals. In January 1965, the federal government charged eighteen individuals with violating the U.S. Force Act of 1870 by conspiring to deprive the three men of their civil rights by murdering them. Seven men were found guilty, but none served sentences longer than six years.

Edgar Ray Killen, a local self-described minister, was strongly implicated in the murders by witnesses at trial; however, the jury was deadlocked on the conspiracy charges against him and the federal prosecutor decided not to retry him.

No legal action was taken in the case for nearly forty years. Films, articles, and documentaries were produced in response to the events that took place and the inaction of Mississippi officials. Amidst mounting pressure from Congress, media attention, and a call for justice from the citizens of Philadelphia, the case was reopened and Killen was subsequently r e-arrested and charged with murder.

On June 21, 2005, exactly 41 years after the murders, Killen was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three consecutive twenty-year terms. Killen’s conviction was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2007.

Roscoe Jones, Sr. was a 17-year-old youth leader in Meridian, Mississippi during Freedom Summer. He agreed to go with Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner on June 21, but, at the very last minute, Schwerner instructed him to stay behind to speak to the youth at a local church. He shared his thoughts with LDF regarding the anniversary of the murders and the continuing need for the Voting Rights Act.

Q: What does this anniversary mean to you?

A: It’s very significant to me because it is 45 years Sunday to the day. June 21, 1964 was a Sunday. This anniversary will be very significant for me because it’s a wake up call. When [Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner] came into town, I was a youth leader and I had dealings with them.

I already knew Mickey and Chaney, but only met Andy for ten minutes that [Saturday] night. Andy was only in Mississippi a little over 36 hours before his death, but Mickey and Chaney were familiar with Philadelphia. Chaney came to the teen center where I was and asked if I could go with them to Philadelphia the next morning.

That was the first time he had ever asked me to go with him. He felt very uncomfortable being the only black person in the car. He understood that going to Philadelphia with Mickey and Andy would pose a problem. Chaney was concerned because Deputy Price previously approached him while working in Philadelphia and told him not to come back up there again.

Q: How did your efforts that summer, and the deaths of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, bring the franchise to African Americans in the south?

A: I think their deaths really galvanized the whole thing. That was the key to the whole summer. It would not have been as significant had they not been killed. You have to remember that they found their bodies 44 days later. The whole summer was caught up in trying to find out what happened to them. It galvanized the whole movement because a lot of people pulled into Mississippi at that point and [their disappearance] became a focal point.

We had Freedom Summer; we went to Freedom School. I was influential because I helped organize it. [Freedom Schools were established to teach confidence, voter literacy and political organization skills in addition to academics. Formed in connection with the Freedom Schools was the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), which was established as a non-exclusionary rival to the Mississippi Democratic Party in the hope of being recognized by the national Democratic Party. When the MFDP held its state convention in Jackson, Mississippi, the Freedom School youth organized a similar convention in Meridian.] The Democratic Party held its national convention in Atlantic City that summer. Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer [and other members of the MFDP] attended and several youth leaders and I had the opportunity to go. We stayed with New Jersey families and they had the opportunity to interact with us and find out what was going on in Mississippi.

The next summer really pushed the focus on the Voting Rights Act. In fact, I’m one of the people that marched all the way [from Selma to Montgomery]. Most people don’t realize that after we left Selma, thousands of people crossed the [Edmund Pettus] Bridge, but only several hundred were permitted to continue. We left Selma on a Sunday and arrived in Montgomery on Friday. It took us five days and over 50 miles.

Q: What was your reaction to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

A: I was elated. It was significant because my grandmother had an opportunity to vote. It was very important to see that she no longer had to take a literacy test or pay a poll tax.

Q: Why is the Voting Rights Act still important today?

A: We did not fight for the Voting Rights Act just for history to repeat itself. Right after slavery, a lot of black officials were elected. Then Jim Crow laws were created to ensure that we could not vote. The same thing could happen again today, and history could repeat itself. We now have a black president. If we don’t look to the [Voting Rights] Act and exercise the right to vote, we may never have a black president again.

Q: How can we, as citizens today, honor the efforts of those like you, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, who dedicated their lives to extending the right to vote to African Americans in the south?

A: Throughout the year, I would like for people to understand that there were sacrifices made and lives given, and it all took place for the right to vote. It’s not just something that you could do automatically; a price was paid for it. We need to cherish the right to vote, because it is a right-something that is given to you that no one should take away. But it can be taken away if we’re not careful.

Voting is a right, and not a privilege. Democracy is a responsibility.

Critical Turning Point

The deaths of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner represent one of the critical turning points in our nation’s Civil Rights Movement, helping give rise to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Soon, the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder-a case concerning the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Act. Undoubtedly, Section 5 represents the heart of the Voting Rights Act; it has played a key role in combating and deterring discrimination in Philadelphia, Mississippi and elsewhere in the south. Hopefully, the Court will honor the legacy of those who struggled to extend voting rights to disenfranchised citizens by rejecting the constitutional challenge and recognizing the significant work that remains in our nation’s pursuit of political equality.

Ashkea Herron McAllister and Caren E. Short are summer legal interns at LDF in Washington, DC. They both attend Howard University School of Law.