In June of 1964, three Civil Rights workers decided to investigate the remains of a church that was burned down. The three names were James Chaney, a young negro youth from Meridian, Mississippi, Andrew Goodman, a New York City college student, and Michael Schwerner, a New Yorker as well but slightly older than Goodman.

It was Freedom Summer. The summer when many college aged kids decided to take part in registering the southern negro to vote. This infuriated white southerners.

Many southerners turned to crime to help solve their problems concerning the negro vote. The Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan took action and decided to murder the men who would "invade" their territory which was central Mississippi.

After Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner inspected the ruins, they attempted to return to Meridian, Mississippi--the headquarters for their efforts. The KKK intercepted them, jailed them in the local county lockup, and later released them to fend for their lives. This they failed to do when Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price caught the three men right before they crossed the Neshoba County line into Newton County.

Price along with several other KKK members took them deeper into Neshoba County and killed them by firearms. They took the bodies to an earthen dam and swore they would never tell a living soul. However, in 44 days the 3 men's bodies were found by the FBI in a massive search that was well covered by the media.

In December of 1964, the FBI rounded up Price and several Mississippian men, including James Jordan and Alton Wayne Roberts, whom were thought to have participated in the trio's murder. This eventually led to a trial that sent some members of the lynch mob to prison, not for murder but for violation of the trio's civil rights.

We Are Not Afraid is the definitive account of these murders. ( )

Update: 6/9/2012

I happened to watch the movie Mississippi Burning again recently and was instantly returned to the events of 1964 and 1965, the year I graduated high school. I had forgotten how bad things were. Random lynchings, murder, intimidation, arson; they seemed to be regular occurrences, our own Kristallnacht, if you will, except it lasted much, much longer. There is no question prejudice still bedevils us, but it is remarkable how much has changed since 1964.

The FBI has declassified many of the documents from its files related to MIBURN and, while heavily redacted, still make interesting reading. [http://vault.fbi.gov/Mississippi Burning (MIBURN) Case] This book is still one of the best summarizing events.

"Jordan stood in the road with his gun at his side. ’Well, he drawled solemnly, ’You didn’t leave me nothing but a nigger, but at least I killed me a nigger. " This is a book everyone should read. They use the murder of the three civil rights workers as a backdrop for a thorough and frightening history of the civil rights movement during the early 60s. The movie Mississippi Burning was loosely based on the same incidents.

"Mississippi Burning" or MIBURN was the FBI code word for the investigation in Mississippi. The situation in Mississippi was truly horrifying. Blacks were routinely murdered, beaten and terrorized with the full complicity of the local police. In 1958 a black professor at Alcorn (a local black college) sought admission to the University of Mississippi. He was of course denied admission and when the word. got out of his attempt he was dragged from his home and declared legally insane and committed. Another black, a graduate of the University of Chicago, applied in 1959 for a summer session course at the University of Mississippi. He was shortly thereafter framed for stealing 5 sacks of chicken feed and sentenced to 7 years at hard labor.
Mississippi had been targeted by SNOC (the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,) CORE, (the Congress on Racial Equality) and several other civil rights groups for a massive voter registration campaign. Neshoba County, where the murders were committed, was so racially uptight that the children of a. mulatto couple "formed a covenant to live their lives in celibacy to prevent their blood strain from being passed to another generation." The KKK was very active; most of the local police were members. From the moment of their arrival the civil rights workers were the targets of bomb threats, intimidation, and harassment. The courage of these students knowing that they might be facing imminent death is truly astonishing. The list of bombings, arrests, and beatings between June 16 and August 14, 1964, for example, ran to 34 single-spaced typed legal sized pages. (The three murders were committed on June 21, 1964.)

It is also ironic and sad that the nation's ire was aroused only after two white students were killed. While searching for the three bodies many bodies of brutalized and mutilated blacks were discovered including, tragically, one which was never identified; that of a fourteen year old boy who was discovered wearing a CORE T-shirt. Black leaders became, justifiably bitter. One additional irony. The authors present substantial evidence that it was LBJ’s refusal to seat the Mississippi Freedom Party at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 that led to the rise of the black power movement. The phrase "black power" was first used at that convention. What astonishes me is that despite the mounting frustration and bitterness which had accumulated over the years, Martin Luther King’s nonviolent approach still managed. to obtain such a wide base of support.

This is an important book, although the incredible amount of hatred portrayed, will truly depress the reader. The Nazis obviously had no corner on the brutality market. Personally, I think Mississippi would have made a terrific place to store toxic waste. Or is that redundant. ( )

3376 We are Not Afraid: The Story of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney and the Civil Rights Campaign for Mississippi, by Seth Cagin and Philip Dray (read Dec 6, 2000). This book came out in 1988 and I know, I should have read it then, but I did not. It is an excellent book, tho it ranges more widely over the civil rights movement than I thought necessary, but its coverage of the title event is excellent. Can you believe that Federal Judge Harold Cox after the trial of the killers said: "They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them what they deserved: 10 years, 6 years, and 3 years."? This was certainly the best book I read this month. ( )