Photos from the FBI "Missing" poster: Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman
“Dear Mom and Dad, I have arrived safely in Meridian Mississippi. This is a wonderful town and the weather is fine. I wish you were here. The people in this city are wonderful and our reception was very good. All my love-Andy.” (Dated: 6/21/1964).
The day 20 year old Andrew Goodman mailed his postcard, he was murdered along with civil rights activists Michael Schwerner and James Chaney.
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner are arguably the best known martyrs of the civil rights movement after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their deaths and subsequent FBI manhunt inspired the Academy Award winning, although historically inaccurate, Mississippi Burning. As well at least two made for T.V. movies, “Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. Ku Klux Klan” and ”Murder in Mississippi.” Besides the movies, books and songs (Simon and Garfunkel’s “He was my brother“), the murders resulted in the landmark legal case, “US vs. Price et al“-the first time an all white jury (and the juries were all white in Mississippi back then) handed down a conviction for violating the civil rights of an African-American, or a civil rights activists.
Over the next week, I’m hoping to write more posts on the larger context of the summer of 1964 and the civil rights movement, but on this anniversary of their deaths, I thought the final words should be given to those who knew the victims:
In “Freedom’s Children” author Ellen Levine interviewed men and women involved in the civil rights movement as children. In this passage, one man talks about first meeting Mickey Schwerner, who along with his wife Rita, moved to Mississippi to direct the Meridian Community Center, where they taught classes on voter regristration, organized sewing classes, and provided a library and rec area.
“I was eleven when Mickey Schwerner came. I spent lots of time with Mickey and Rita. They were funny, most always happy. He used to do a lot of magic tricks for us. He’d take Ping-Pong balls in his hands and say ‘It’s over here,’ and pull in from somewhere else. It fascinated us. We had never seen that before.”
About James Chaney, he remembered:
“When James Chaney came on the scene, I learned what it was all about. James was a nice, easygoing fella, quiet most of the time. Came around with his hands in his overalls. He wore a blue T-Shirt. He was real friendly. He was different from most black guys you’d see. Most guys would be hanging in the pool rooms or hanging on the corner. But he was up there. He had his job to do. Always seemed to be happy and ready to work.”
-from page 96
In “Three lives for Mississippi” published immediately after the murders, author William Bradford Huie, interviews four young women who worked at the community center with Mickey and James to give their recollection. At one point the women discuss what kind of tangible progress Mickey accomplished in the 6 months he worked in Mississippi. A young woman replied:
“Maybe he didn’t do much in quantity-like the preacher saving a lot of souls. But he did good just by being down there. It made a lot of Negroes feel better just to know that there was a white man in the world like Mickey.”
-from page 73
Comments
Mississippi Burning is a novel by Kirk Mitchell and Joel Norst, and then came a movie. Right?
Anyway, its remarkable story of very dark event (and times), these three young men are immortal knights, actually they were genuine soldiers.
Yes, I second SantaSa. They carried the battle bravely deep into the heart of enemy territory, and even though they weren’t around to see the victory celebrations, it was their victory.
Shaina, you’re lucky to have a visit from Mr SantaSa, Bosnian eco-warrior, hopefully saviour of the Upper Neretva.
SantaSa, I actually had no idea that there was also a novel based on “Mississippi Burning”-thanks for the info! have you read it?
The title “Mississippi Burning” comes from the 1964 FBI investigation into the disappearance and murder of the three civil rights workers. Which you can read here: http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/miburn.htm
After the 2005 trial and conviction of Edgar Killen (one of the men charged in the original conspiracy, but the jury deadlocked on a verdict) there were a few more books published about the crime. In my opinion, the best account is “We are not afraid” Published around 1988-1989, the book puts the murders into the larger context of the civil rights movement as well as a full account of the investigation and trial.
Another book, “Three Lives for Mississippi” was published in 1965. The author, William Bradford Huie was a native of Alabama, who published books and numerous articles on the civil rights movement. He is probably best known for “breaking” the story of the Emmett Till murder. http://www.slate.com/id/2120788/
Some of the writing is a bit dated, but it is a good account of Michael Schwerner’s last 6 months alive. And especially interesting document becuase Huie was only a handful of white southern writers (that I’M aware of) of his stature that were openly supportive of the civil rights movement, and critical of the white supremacist power structure that existed in Mississippi and Alabama at the time.
I competely agree with both of you on the heroism of the trio. One of the most profound statements I read about the entire event was Mickey Schwerner’s last words before he was killed.
As Alton Wayne Roberts held a gun to him, and asked “Are you that N—-R lover?” Schwerner, responded “Sir, I know just how you feel” trying to reason, and reach out on person to person level with his killer even though he knew he had no chance of escape. As the authors of “we are not afraid” noted, Schwerner displayed a kind of courage in his death that Alton Wayne Roberts would never know.
Lucky to have me or not, I meant “as” J.Norst
In fact, S. you are double lucky.