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The Three Civil Right Workers

 

In 1964, three civil rights workers named James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, were abducted and murdered while working on a voter registration project in Mississippi. The tragic event, known as the Mississippi Burning case, brought national attention to the ongoing struggle for civil rights in the United States.

Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were all young activists who had committed themselves to the cause of racial equality. Chaney, a 21-year-old African American from Mississippi, had already been involved in several civil rights campaigns and was passionate about bringing change to his home state. Goodman, a 20-year-old Jewish American from New York, had traveled to Mississippi to participate in the Freedom Summer project, which aimed to register black voters in the South. Schwerner, a 24-year-old white American from New York, was a field organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and had been working on voter registration in Mississippi for several months.

On June 21, 1964, the three men were arrested by local police on trumped-up charges of speeding. They were released a few hours later and set out on the road in their car. They never made it back to their destination. Instead, they were ambushed by Ku Klux Klan members and shot to death. Their bodies were discovered several weeks later, buried.


The Mississippi Burning case shocked the nation and galvanized support for the civil rights movement. It also led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The act was a major victory for the civil rights movement and helped pave the way for further progress in the decades that followed.


Despite the efforts of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, racism and discrimination continue to be a pervasive problem in the United States. However, their sacrifice and dedication to the cause of equality serves as an inspiration to all those who strive to make the country a more just and equitable place. Their legacy lives on in the ongoing fight for civil rights.



Sources:


Beschloss, Michael. “'Think They Got Killed?' 1964, L.B.J. and Three Civil Rights Icons.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 June 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/upshot/think-they-got-killed-1964-lbj-and-three-civil-rights-icons.html. 

“The KKK Kills Three Civil Rights Activists.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-kkk-kills-three-civil-rights-activists#:~:text=Michael%20Schwerner%2C%20Andrew%20Goodman%20and,ire%20of%20the%20local%20Klan. 

“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, FBI, 18 May 2016, https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/mississippi-burning. 

Singh, Maanvi. “20 Years Ago, Mount Zion AME Was Set on Fire. Last Night, It Burned Again.” NPR, NPR, 1 July 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/07/01/419168251/20-years-ago-mount-zion-ame-was-set-on-fire-last-night-it-burned-again. 


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