Tuesday, June 29, 1965: 'Murder in Mississippi'

Norman Rockwell's illustration accompanies Charles Morgan Jr.'s article "Southern Justice," published June 29 in Look magazine. It depicts civil rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, killed in June 1964 in Mississippi.

Background

Rockwell based his illustration on Hector Rondon Lovera's photo (often called "Aid From The Padre"), taken in June 1962 during a short-lived rebellion in Venezuela. The photo was awarded the World Press Photo of the Year for 1962 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1963.

     * Story behind the photo (from "Picture Coverage of the World: Pulitzer Prize Winning Photos," Heinz Dietrich-Fischer, 2011): @

Early on, Rockwell's illustration (intended as a two-page spread) included the three victims as well as their killers.

This is Rockwell's finished version. Look editors decided to use Rockwell's earlier sketch in the magazine, though this work (known as "Murder in Mississippi") has become the more well-known of the two.

Resources
* Summary from Norman Rockwell Museum: @ (related reference materials can be found on the museum's website by searching for "Murder in Mississippi")
* Text of "Southern Justice" (from Norman Rockwell Museum): @

* "American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell" (2007): @

* "Rockwell & Race" (The Pop History Dig): @

* Earlier post on Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner (June 1964): @

* Earlier post on Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With" (January 1964): @

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Monday, June 28, 1965: 'It's What's Happening, Baby'

In this prime-time special on CBS, hosted by disc jockey Murray the K (Murray Kaufman), performers donate their time and talents to educate teenagers about the function of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. ... In between segments, Murray the K and other entertainers comment on the various opportunities provided by the OEO and appeal to employers to help youths find work. (From The Paley Center for Media; link: @)

     -- TV listing from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 28

     -- Image from Martha and the Vandellas' performance of "Nowhere to Run," filmed at Ford's Dearborn Assembly Plant (where the Mustang was built)

Note: As of this writing the entire show is available online. Start here with part 1; to the right are links to parts 2 and 3.

* "Experimental Show Aimed at Teenagers" (Associated Press, June 25): @

* "Hip Show Passes the Word" (United Press International, June 29): @

* "Antipoverty Film Called 'Shameful' " (Associated Press, June 30): @
* "Battle Against Poverty Has Been Beset By Controversy, Criticism, Complaint" (United Press International, July 15): @
* " 'It's What's Happening' did the job: 10,000 wrote" (Washington Afro-American, July 27): @

* Entry from The Murray the K Archives: @

* Entry from Ray Charles Video Museum: @

* Chapter by Norma Coates in "Music in Television: Channels of Listening" (Edited by James Deaville, 2011): @

* Excerpt from "The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music" (Edited by Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman, 2015): @ 

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Friday, June 18, 1965: 'War is Hell'

Place: South Vietnam

Photographer: Horst Faas

Original caption (from The Associated Press): An unidentified U.S. Army personnel wears a hand-lettered "War Is Hell" slogan on his helmet June 18, 1965, during the Vietnam War. He was with the 173rd Airborne Brigade battalion on defense duty at Phuoc Vinh airstrip in South Vietnam.

The earliest publication date I can find is from July 23, 1967 in various newspapers as part of a story and a block of photos on soldiers' helmets. Caption: That old American individualism comes out even in the jungles of South Vietnam, as the above pictures show. Hats definitely are in fashion when the bullets fly -- and the fashions are as varied as the ingenuity of the GIs. Some are functional -- such as the extra machine gun ammunition around a machine gunner's hat, top left; some are expressive -- such as the "war is hell" band at top center; some are poignant -- like the helmet liner marked off for every day of the wearer's tour in bottom left; and some are nostalgic, such as the helmet featuring the snapshot in bottom center.

Note: In June 2012, the soldier was identified as Larry Wayne Chaffin, who served in 1965-66 (from The Southern Illinoisian: @). 

Horst Faas' Vietnam photos

* From The Denver Post: @

* From The Associated Press: @

Origins of phrase 'War is hell' (General William T. Sherman)

     -- Image from Ohio State Journal, August 12, 1880, on Sherman's speech the day before.
* From "Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order" (John F. Marsalek, 2007): @
* From "The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations" (2006): @
* From "Nashville: The Western Confederacy's Final Gamble" (James L. McDonough, 2004): @ 

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Friday, June 18, 1965: Anthony Quin and Huey Krohn

Place: Jackson, Mississippi

Photographer: Matt Herron

Account (from "103 More Pickets Held in Jackson," New York Times: @)

     In one incident at the white-columned Governor's Mansion, a beefy, suntanned Mississippi highway patrolman and a wide-eyed, 5-year-old Negro boy scuffled over the child's tiny American flag.

     The boy, Anthony Quin, was in a group of six who huddled in a shaded entrance of the building. He sat solemnly on the bottom step with his flag. Next to him was Dr. June Finer, a pretty, 30-year-old Chicagoan who works here with the Medical Committee on Human Rights.

     Dr. Finer had been trying to get into the stockage at the state fair grounds to give medical attention to the prisoners. The city police have refused and say they have two local doctors working there. Dr. Finer, a nursette bag of medical supplies over her shoulder, decided to be arrested and see for herself.

     As the squad of patrolmen advance on the little group to make the arrests, Dr. Finer put her arm around the boy. "Gimme that flag," said Patrolman Huey Krohn, a driver for Gov. Paul B. Johnson Jr. Anthony refused.

     The patrolman tried to wrest the flag from him but the child held on. He was dragged a few feet by the man and then lifted several feet off the ground. Finally the patrolman broke the stick of the flag and thrust the child from him. Anthony fell on the ground and began to cry. He was taken into the paddy wagon.

     The boy, the son of Mrs. Aylene Quin, chairman of the Freedom Democratic party in Pike County, was arrested once before during a voter registration drive in Magnolia. Last fall he was injured when his mother's house was bombed in McComb. His mother and a sister, Jacky, 9, were arrested with him today.

     The child was released several hours later in the custody of Alvin Bronstein, chief staff counsel of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.

     "That man hit my elbow and that was the only thing that made me start crying," the boy said, looking down at his blue sneakers. What did he think of having his flag taken away? 'I don't think nothin' about it,' he said.

Note: Herron's series of photos was awarded second place in general news stories in the World Press Photo competition for 1965.

Matt Herron
* From www.worldpress.org: @ (photos) and @ (profile)
* Herron's account of incident (from "Telling Their Stories," The Urban School of San Francisco): @
* Herron's account (from Princeton Alumni Weekly): @
* mattherronwriter.com: @

* www.takestockphotos.com (Herron is director): @

Anthony and Alyene Quin (often spelled as "Aylene" on websites and in news accounts)
* Alyene Quin profile (from SNCC Legacy Project): @
* Alyene Quin profile (from Mississippi Civil Rights Project): @

* "Civil Rights Incidents in McComb" (1964, from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

Dr. June Finer

* Profile (from Jewish Women's Archive): @

* Medical Committee for Human Rights pamphlet (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

* "The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care" (John Dittmer, 2009): @

* "Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement" (Debra L. Schultz and Blance Wiesen Cook, 2002): @

Other resources

* "Jackson Jails 103 Rights Marchers" (Associated Press, June 18, 1965): @
* 2014 blog entry from M.J. O'Brien, author of "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired": @
* "When Youth Protest: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1970" (Mississippi Historical Society): @

* "Local People: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994): @ 

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June 1965: 'Yesterday' and 'Like a Rolling Stone'

Monday, June 14 and Thursday, June 17: The Beatles (specifically, Paul McCartney and a string quartet) record "Yesterday."

* From The Beatles Bible: @

* From "The Beatles Anthology" (2000): @
* From "All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release" (Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon, 2013): @

Wednesday, June 16: Bob Dylan records "Like a Rolling Stone." 

* From Rolling Stone magazine (2015): @

* "Greil Marcus on Recording 'Like a Rolling Stone' " (NPR, 2005): @

* "Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads" (Marcus, 2005): @ 

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Monday, June 7, 1965: Griswold v. Connecticut

In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a state's ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy. The case concerned a Connecticut law that criminalized the encouragement or use of birth control. ... Estelle Griswold, the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, doctor and professor at Yale Medical School, were arrested and found guilty as accessories to providing illegal contraception. They were fined $100 each. Griswold and Buxton appealed to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, claiming that the law violated the U.S. Constitution. The Connecticut court upheld the conviction, and Griswold and Buxton appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1965. The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision written by Justice William O. Douglas, ruled that the law violated the "right to marital privacy" and could not be enforced against married people.

     -- From "Expanding Civil Rights: Landmark Cases," www.pbs.org: @

     -- Caption: Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League, standing outside the center in April 1963, which was closed pending decision of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Connecticut state law forbidding sale or use of contraceptives (from "The Legal Legacy of Griswold v. Connecticut," David J. Garrow for American Bar Association, 2011): @

* "Birth Control Law Said 'Invasion of Privacy' " (The Associated Press): @

* Oral arguments (from The Oyez Project): @

* Text of ruling (from FindLaw): @

* "Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the making of Roe v. Wade" (David J. Garrow, 1994): @

* Summary from "Sexual Rights in America: The Ninth Amendment and the Pursuit of Happiness" (Paul R. Abramson, Steven D. Pinkerton and Mark Huppin, 2003): @

---

June 1965: Vacuum of space

Despite the fact that a considerable number of studies have been carried out on the effects of rapid decompression to high altitudes, there is still very little information and data concerning the actual effects of exposures to extremely low barometric pressures -- that is, to pressure environments approaching the near-vacuum of space. This information is becoming increasingly urgent in view of the current manned space flights, the programmed flights to the surface of the moon, and the need for man to function safely within a pressure suit in space. ... The critical situation confronting an aerospace crew should accidental loss of pressure be experienced dictated the use of physiologically normal animals so that the data collected would be as valid as possible to obtain. Normal, anesthetized dogs were therefore used; 126 animals were rapidly decompressed to absolute pressures of 1 to 2 mm. Hg.

     -- From "Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum Environment" (Bancroft and Dunn, NASA Technical Report, published June 1965): @

* "Human Exposure to Vacuum" (www.geoffreylandis.com): @

* "What happens if you are exposed to the vacuum of space?" (Phil Plait, Discover magazine, 2012): @
* "Human Exposure to the Vacuum of Space" (www.aerospaceweb.org): @
* "The Body at Vacuum" (from "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," University of Houston): @
* "Survival in Space Unprotected is Possible -- Briefly" (Scientific American, 2008): @
* "The Crew That Never Came Home: The Misfortunes of Soyuz 11" (Space Safety magazine, 2013): @
* Summary of Soyuz 11 flight (Encyclopedia Asronautica): @
* "The Effect on the Chimpanzee of Rapid Decompression to a Near Vacuum" (NASA, 1965): @
* "Rapid (Explosive) Decompression Emergencies in Pressure-Suited Subjects (NASA, 1968): @

* "Bioastronautics Data Book" (NASA, 1974; see Chapter 1, "Barometic Pressure"): @ 

---

April-July 1965: 'Satisfaction'

April 1965 *

     I was between girlfriends at the time, in my flat in Carlton Hill, St. John's Wood. Hence maybe the mood of the song. I wrote "Satisfaction" in my sleep. I had no idea I'd written it, it's only thank God for the little Philips cassette player. The miracle being that I looked at the cassette player that morning and I knew I'd put a brand-new tape in the previous night, and I saw it was at the end. Then I pushed rewind and there was "Satisfaction." It was just a rough idea. There was just the bare bones of the song, and it didn't have all that noise, of course, because I was on acoustic. And forty minutes of me snoring. -- From "Life," by Keith Richards, 2010: @

     * According to other accounts, this occurred the night of May 6 in Clearwater, Florida, during the Rolling Stones' tour of North America. However, since Richards places it in London, this would have been before the tour, which began April 23 in Montreal, Canada. 

     Mick Jagger was also later quoted as saying that he and Richards worked on the song "half in Canada, half in Florida" (Melody Maker, June 26, 1965). Regardless, the opening riff and the phrase "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" are credited to Richards, while Jagger wrote most of the rest of the lyrics.

May 10-12
     The band records the song, first in Chicago (May 10) and then in Los Angeles (May 11-12).

May 20, May 26
     The band premieres the song on the television show "Shindig!" (The show was taped on May 20 and aired on ABC on May 26.)

Late May *
     The song is released in the United States.
     * Many accounts say the song was released June 5 or June 6, but the single was already on sale by then. The image above is from The Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Herald, June 3, 1965. Also, a music survey from KMEN in San Bernadino, California, indicates that the song was released on May 25; link: @.

June 5
     "Satisfaction" is first mentioned in Billboard magazine's "Singles Reviews," above.
     * June 5 issue: @

June 12
     The song debuts on Billboard's Hot 100 at No. 67.
     * June 12 issue: @

July 10
     "Satisfaction" reaches No. 1 on the Billboard charts; it stays at the top for four weeks, displaced on August 7 by "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" by Herman's Hermits.
     * Billboard chart for July 10 (from billboard.com): @
     * July 17 issue: @
     * July 24 issue: @
     * July 31 issue: @
     * August 7 issue: @

August 20 *
     "Satisfaction" is released in Britain. The B-side was "The Spider and The Fly," unlike the American release, whose B-side was "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man."
     * Date approximate; from Billboard, August 21: "This week Decca rushes out in Britain the Stones' recent big American hit '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' ..."

Resources
* Entry from "Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Rolling Stones" (Bill Janovitz, 2013): @

* Entry from "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits" (2003): @

* Entry from www.allmusic.com: @

* "The Rolling Stones' ('I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' " (Performing Songwriter, 2013): @

* "Behind the Song: 'Satisfaction' " (American Songwriter, 2012): @

* "Let It Read! The Ultimate Literary Guide to the Rolling Stones" (The Daily Beast, 2012): @
* "Rolling Stoned" (Andrew Loog Oldham, 2011): @
* "Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock 'n' Roll Band" (Bill Wyman, 1990): @

* "The Complete Works of the Rolling Stones" (database): @
* "The Rolling Stones: Off the Record" (Mark Paytress, 2003): @
* "The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years" (Christopher Sandford, 2012): @

* "1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music" (Andrew Grant Jackson, 2015): @

* Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out" (Gordon Thompson, 2008): @

---

Monday, June 22, 1964: 'I know it when I see it'

As part of his concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio -- ruling that the French film "Les Amants" ("The Lovers") was not obscene and thus the state of Ohio could not ban its showing or prosecute a theater owner for having done so -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote what would become a well-known phrase, if not a strict legal definition.

I have reached the conclusion ... that under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, criminal laws in this area are constitutionally limited to hard-core pornography. I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.

* Summary (from ACLU of Ohio): @

* Transcript of ruling (from Legal Information Institute, Cornell University): @

* Oral arguments (from www.oyez.org): @

* "Fifty Years of "I know it when I see it' " (from www.concurringopinions.com): @

* "On 'I Know It When I See It' " (Paul Gewirtz, Yale Law Journal, 1996): @

* "Movie Day at the Supreme Court or 'I Know It When I See It': A History of the Definition of Pornography" (from corporate.findlaw.com): @ 

---

Sunday, June 21, 1964: Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner

-- Quote from an equipment operator hired by the FBI to dig for the bodies. The man was interviewed by The Meridian Star for a story published September 20, 1964; he was not identified, saying he feared for his life. The story was distributed by United Press International; this image was taken from the front page of The Delta Democrat Times in Greenville. (Story available through www.newspapers.com.)

-- Photo from the FBI, made public in 2005 during the trial of Edgar Ray Killen (see entry below). 

-------------------------------------------------------

"Good evening, three young civil rights workers disappeared in Mississippi on Sunday night near the central Mississippi town of Philadelphia, about 50 miles northeast of Jackson. The last report on the trio came from Philadelphia police, who said they were picked up for speeding on Sunday, fined $20, then released."
-- Lead story from "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite," June 22, 1964 (audio, National Public Radio: @)

-------------------------------------------------------

Timeline

-- Neshoba County map from "Three Lives for Mississippi" (William Bradford Huie, 1965): @

May 31: Meeting at Mt. Zion UMC

     Michael Henry Schwerner (24, New York) and James Earl Chaney (21, Meridian, Mississippi) speak at the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in the Longdale community, just west of Philadelphia in Neshoba County. They and church members were making plans for the church to house a Freedom School.
* Earlier post on Freedom Summer: @

Tuesday, June 16: Mt. Zion burns

-- Photo taken June 17 by Associated Press

     "Night riders struck Neshoba County in north-central Mississippi Tuesday when a Negro church was surrounded by armed white men, most of them masked. Three Negroes attending a church board meeting were beaten and were chased away. A short time later the church went up in flames." -- New York Times, June 21: @
* Account from Junior Roosevelt Cole, lay leader of church: @
* "Mississippi Bombings Since June 16, 1964" (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, October 5): @
* Church website: @

Saturday, June 20: Arrival in Mississippi

-- Postcard written by Andrew Goodman, postmarked June 21. Image from The Andrew Goodman Foundation (link below).

     Goodman (20, New York), Chaney and Schwerner reach Meridian after driving from Freedom Summer training in Oxford, Ohio.

Sunday, June 21: Disappearance 

     "The Neshoba County Sheriff's Office said today three civil rights workers were arrested on a charge of speeding Sunday and released after paying a $20 fine. The Council of Federated Organizations said the trio has been unaccounted for since Sunday afternoon." -- Associated Press, June 22: @
* "3 in Rights Drive Reported Missing" (New York Times, June 23): @

* Memo, probably from Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (June 22): @

Sunday, June 21: Death
   Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner drive to Longdale, site of the burned church. En route back to Meridian in mid-afternoon, they are arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price (Cheney on a speeding charge, Goodman and Schwerner on suspicion of arson in the church fire) and taken to the county jail in Philadelphia. Price releases the three around 10:30 p.m. Leaving Philadelphia, their station wagon is overtaken on a rural road by Price and other members of the Ku Klux Klan. The three are driven to another area where they are shot dead. Their bodies are then moved to the site of an earthen dam, where they are buried nearly 20 feet down.
* "Post Mortem Examination Report of the Body of James Chaney" (David M. Spain, M.D., August 7): @

Tuesday, June 23: Car found

-- Photo by Associated Press via FBI

     "The car driven by three integrationists who disappeared after being arrested last Sunday night here has been found by Federal Bureau of Investigation officers about 13 miles from Philadelphia, in the northeast corner of Neshoba County. The car, a 1963 or 1964 Ford station wagon, was located in heavy sweetgum growth on Highway 21, about 100 feet from the Bogue Chitto creek and about 100 feet off the highway. The station wagon had been burned." -- Neshoba Democrat, June 25: @
* Rights Workers Still Missing" (The Student Voice, publication of SNCC, June 30): @

Monday, June 29: FBI poster

-- Image from Mississippi Department of Archives and History: @

* "The Limpid Shambles of Violence" (Life magazine, July 3): @

Tuesday, August 4: Bodies found

-- Photo by Bill Eppridge for Life magazine, August 14 issue (story: @). Caption: "FBI agents stand under an awning at the excavated dam to search for clues. Arrow marks the actual grave, covered with a white sheet."

DeLoach: Mr. President?
Johnson: Yeah.
DeLoach: Mr. Hoover wanted me to call you, sir, immediately and tell you that the FBI has found three bodies six miles southwest of Philadelphia, Mississippi, the six miles west of where the civil rights workers were last seen on the night of June 21st. A search party of agents turned up the bodies just about 15 minutes ago while they were digging in the woods and underbrush several hundred yards off Route 21 in that area. We're going to get a coroner there right away, sir, and we're going to move those bodies into Jackson, Mississippi, where we hope they can be identified. We have not identified them as yet as the three missing men. But we have every reason to believe that they are the three missing men. They were under a -- they were at the site of a dam that had been constructed near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Wanted to let you know right away, sir.
 -- Telephone conversation between the FBI's Cartha "Deke" DeLoach and President Johnson, just after 8 p.m.

* Transcript (from teacherweb.com, page 217): @
* Audio (from LBJ Library): @
* Oral history with DeLoach (from LBJ Library; remarks on the Mississippi case begin on page 45): @
* "Rights Trio Bodies Found?" (Associated Press, August 5): @
* "Bodies of 3 Missing Rights Workers Found" (UPI, August 5): @
* "Three Murdered Workers Found" (The Student Voice, August 12): @

* "President's Daily Diary, August 4, 1964" (LBJ Library): @

Friday, August 7: Funeral for James Chaney in Meridian

-- Photo of funeral procession by Bill Eppridge

* "Tragedy in Mississippi: Deep-Seated Feelings of Negroes are Reflected in Funeral for Slain Civil Rights Worker" (New York Times, August 8): @
* "Emotional Appeal Marks Rights Worker's Funeral" (UPI, August 8): @
* "Triple Lynching" (Baltimore Afro-American, August 8): @
* Funeral announcement (Tougaloo College Archives): @
* Funeral program (Queens College Civil Rights Archives): @
* Eulogies by Dave Dennis and the Rev. Edwin King (begins on page 55; from "A Righteous Anger in Mississippi: Genre Constraints and Breaking Precedence," William H. Lawson, Florida State University, 2004): @

Sunday, August 9: Funerals for Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in New York

-- Photo by Associated Press. Caption: "The mothers of the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi leave the meeting hall of the Society for Ethical Culture, where funeral services were held for 20-year-old Andrew Goodman." From left: Fannie Lee Chaney, Carolyn Goodman and Anne Schwerner.

     "Joined hand to hand and chanting 'we shall overcome,' thousands of white and Negro mourners paid tribute Sunday night to two white civil rights workers slain in Mississippi." -- Associated Press, August 10: @
* "Andrew Goodman 1943-1964" (a collection of eulogies, Carolyn Goodman Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society): @
* "Nation Mourns Slain Workers" (The Student Voice, August 19): @
* Excerpt from "To Serve the Living" (Suzanne E. Smith, 2010): @

Monday, August 10: Neshoba County Fair opens
     "The white people of Neshoba County put aside today talk of the murder of three civil rights workers and flocked to their fairgrounds for a week or reunion, fun and politics. But the 'nigra issue' was present, nevertheless, just as it has been since the turn of the century ... J.B. Hillman, the 86-year-old chairman, who is as much an institution as the fair itself, said the people were determined not to let the scandal dampen the festivities." -- New York Times, published August 9: @
* The Klan-Ledger, Special Neshoba County Fair Edition (White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi): @

Friday, December 18: 'Day of Accusation in Mississippi'

-- Photo by Bill Reed, showing Neshoba County deputy sheriff Cecil Price and Sheriff Lawrence Rainey during their arraignment in Meridian, as it appeared across two pages in the December 18 edition of Life magazine (story begins on page 34: @).  Image from Iconic Photos. 

Friday, October 20, 1967: Convictions

-- Photo by Jack Thornell, Associated Press. Caption: "Neshoba County Sheriff Deputy Cecil Price holds a copy of the Meridian Star newspaper as he awaits the verdict in the murder trial of three civil rights workers ... Price was convicted on conspiracy charges along with six other defendants. At left is Edgar Ray Killen ... whose case ended in mistrial."

* "News of Mississippi 'Justice' Silences Band, Shopkeepers" (UPI, November 4): @

* Trial summary (Douglas Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City): @

* "Trial transcripts in the case United States v. Price, et al. (also known as the Mississippi Burning' incident)" 1967 (U.S. Department of Justice): @ 

Sunday, August 3, 1980: Ronald Reagan speech

-- Photo by Ron Edmonds. Caption: "Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan and wife, Nancy, share a chuckle as they try rocking chair presented them during their visit to the Neshoba County Fair. The visit to the fair billed as 'Mississippi's Giant Houseparty' marked the first time a major party nominee had ever addressed the fair."

     Reagan's speech took place a little more than two weeks after he won his party's nomination. He was criticized for his choice of venues and for saying, "I believe in states' rights," that term having been used through the years as an argument against enforced integration. Reagan went on to carry Mississippi, narrowly, in the November election against Democrat Jimmy Carter. He won 56.5% of the vote in Neshoba County.
* Transcript (The Neshoba Democrat): @

* Recording (Reagan's speech begins just before the 18:00 mark; from Mississippi Digital Library): @
* Mississippi results of 1980 election, by county (Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections): @
* "Red, White and Blue-Gray" (Walker Percy, The Commonweal, December 1961): @

Wednesday, June 21, 1989: Mississippi apologizes
     Mississippi Secretary of State Dick Molpus, a native of Philadelphia, addresses a memorial service at Mt. Zion UMC. Speaking to the victims' families, he says: "We deeply regret what happened here 25 years ago. We wish we could undo it. We are profoundly sorry that they are gone. We wish we could bring them back."
* Text (The Philadelphia Coalition): @
* "The '64 Civil Rights Murders: The Struggle Continues" (Jesse Kornbluth, New York  Times Magazine, July 1989): @
* "Q&A with Dick Molpus" (The Hechinger Report, June 2014): @

Wednesday, June 21, 1989: Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner Day
     The U.S. Congress passes a resolution that states, in part: "Whereas the lifework of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner remains unfinished until all barriers are removed that bar the full participation of every citizen of this Nation in the democratic process of this Nation, especially in the election process."
* Text (U.S. Government Printing Office): @

Tuesday, June 21, 2005: Edgar Ray Killen convicted

     Killen, 80, whose trial in 1967 ended in a hung jury, is found guilty on three counts of manslaughter. He is sentenced to 60 years in prison.

* "Former Klansman Guilty of Manslaughter in 1964 Deaths" (New York Times, June 22): @
* "Ex-Klansman gets 60 years for 1964 slayings" (Story and video, NBC News): @
* "Racial Healing in Mississippi" (John F. Sugg, Creative Loafing Atlanta, June 29): @
* "Justice in Mississippi: The Murder Trial of Edgar Ray Killen" (Howard Ball, 2006): @
* "Out of the Past" (American Journalism Review, April/May 2005): @
* "Barry Bradford and the Reopening of Mississippi Burning Case" (from barrybradford.com): @

* Killen record, Mississippi Department of Corrections: @

November 24, 2014
     Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
* White House announcement: @

June 20, 2016
* "Mississippi Ends Inquiry Into 1964 Killing of 3 Civil Rights Workers" (New York Times): @
* Department of Justice report: @

Other resources

Related links can also be found in the earlier Freedom Summer post.

Overviews

* FBI summary and files: @ and @

* Summary (Mississippi Civil Rights Project): @

* Summary ("Freedom Summer," Stanley Nelson): @
* Chronology (Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center): @

* "Mississippi Burning Murders (1964)," from "Encyclopedia of the Sixties": @

Books

* "Student Activism and Civil Rights in Mississippi" (James P. Marshall, 2013): @
* "Transformed: A White Mississippi Pastor's Journey into Civil Rights and Beyond" (William G. McAtee, 2011): @
* "Devil's Sanctuary: An Eyewitness History of Mississippi Hate Crimes" (Alex A. Alston Jr. and James L. Dickerson, 2009): @
* "We Are Not Afraid: The Story of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney and the Civil Rights Campaign for Mississippi" (Seth Cagin and Phillip Dray, 2006): @
* "Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited" (M. Susan Orr Klopfer, 2005): @
* "Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America" (Nick Kotz, 2005): @ 
* Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights" (Howard Ball, 2004): @

* "The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights" (Yasuhiro Katagiri, 2001): @
* "In a Madhouse's Din: Civil Rights Coverage by Mississippi's Daily Press" (Susan Weill, 2002): @
* "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994): @

* "The Courting of Marcus Dupree" (Willie Morris, 1983): @
* "Witness in Philadelphia" (Florence Mars, 1977): @
* "Attack on Terror" (Don Whitehead, 1970): @
* "Mississippi: The Closed Society" (James W. Silver, 1964): @

Audio / video

* Conversations between President Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (June-August 1964, C-SPAN): @

* "Mississippi Burning, 1964" (Miller Center, University of Virginia): @

* CBS News special (June 25): @
* NBC News special (June 27): @

* Hoover at opening of field office in Jackson (video, July 10): @
* Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive (University of Southern Mississippi): @

Photos

* Matt Herron and George Ballis (Take Stock): @
* Bill Eppridge (near bottom of page): @

* From CBS News: @

Newspapers / magazines

* "Mississippi Eyewitness" (special issue of Ramparts magazine, 1964): @

* "The Lasting Impact of a Civil Rights Icon's Murder" (Hank Klibanoff, Smithsonian magazine, December 2008): @

* New York newspaper clippings (Carolyn Goodman Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society): @

Organizations

* The Andrew Goodman Foundation: @

* James Earl Chaney Foundation: @

* William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation: @

* Mississippi Truth Project: @

* Mississippi Center for Justice: @
* "Freedom Mosaic" (National Center for Civil & Human Rights): @

Miscellaneous

* Mississippi Sovereignty Commission archives (Mississippi Department of Archives and History): @
* Freedom Summer Collection (Wisconsin Historical Society): @

* Information Resources (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee): @ 
* "Neshoba County African-American Driving Tour" (brochure from The Philadelphia Coalition and the Philadelphia Community Development Partnership): @
* "Partial List of Racial Murders in the South in the Last 2 Years" (April 1963-March 1965, Poor People's Corporation): @
* "Civil Rights Martyrs" (Southern Poverty Law Center): @

* Account by Freedom Summer volunteer Jonathan Steele: @
* Rita Schwerner deposition in COFO v. Rainey (signed July 29, 1964): @ 

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