Mississippi Burning murders

Also known as: Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, Freedom Summer murders

Active: 1964–1964
Region: Neshoba County, Mississippi, USA
State: MS
Kind: Single
Status: Convicted
Victims: 3

On June 21, 1964, during Freedom Summer, three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, drove to Longdale to look into the burning of Mount Zion Methodist Church. Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price arrested them for speeding and held them in the Philadelphia jail, released them that night, then stopped them again on Highway 19. Members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and local lawmen took them to Rock Cut Road and shot them, and buried them in an earthen dam, where the FBI found them 44 days later. The state brought no charges for decades; in 1967 a federal jury in Meridian convicted seven men, including Price and Klan leader Sam Bowers, of civil rights conspiracy. In 2005, 41 years to the day after the killings, a Neshoba County jury convicted Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

James Earl Chaney, 21 · June 21, 1964
A Black Mississippian working with CORE on Freedom Summer voter registration.
Andrew Goodman, 20 · June 21, 1964
A New Yorker who had come to Mississippi for Freedom Summer.
Michael Schwerner, 24 · June 21, 1964
A New Yorker working for CORE in Neshoba and Lauderdale counties.

Timeline of locations

June 21, 1964
Mount Zion Methodist Church, Longdale (Other, approximate area)
The three men came to Longdale on June 21 to see the site of Mount Zion Methodist Church, which had been burned.
June 21, 1964
Neshoba County jail, Philadelphia (Abduction, approximate area)
Deputy Cecil Price arrested the three for speeding and held them in the county jail in Philadelphia. He released them around 10 p.m., then followed and stopped them on Highway 19 and handed them over to the Klansmen.
June 21, 1964
Rock Cut Road (Crime scene, approximate area)
The men were taken to this isolated road south of Philadelphia and shot. A Mississippi historical marker now marks the site.
August 4, 1964
Earthen dam, Old Jolly Farm, near Philadelphia (Recovery site, approximate area)
The bodies were buried in an earthen dam on a farm near Philadelphia. After an informant's tip, the FBI found them on August 4, 1964, 44 days after the murders. Mapped at city precision.
October 1967
Federal trial, Meridian (Court / trial, approximate area)
In United States v. Price, a federal jury convicted seven men of civil rights conspiracy on October 20, 1967, including Deputy Cecil Price and Klan Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers. Sentences ranged from three to ten years.
June 21, 2005
Neshoba County trial, Philadelphia (Court / trial, approximate area)
A Neshoba County jury convicted Edgar Ray Killen of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005. He was sentenced to 60 years.
January 11, 2018
Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman (Prison)
Killen died in the prison hospital at Parchman on January 11, 2018, at 92.

Mississippi Burning murders

Victims

Timeline of locations

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Sources