Many questions are yet to be answered regarding civil rights casualties. Many black people in America were killed, and their murders were not solved. In the 1950s and 60s, quite a significant number of black people that involved themselves with the Civil Rights Movement were killed, and their stories made headlines across the nation. Many family members of the victims killed during the civil rights movement are still waiting for justice and proper measures to be taken on those who participated in the murder of their loved ones.
The murder of three civil rights workers by Ku Klux Klansmen and the cover-up following their murder is one of the most remarkable events for the civil rights movement (Donaldson, 212). Two of the victims were whites, and they had disappeared in the town Mississippi. The three were Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. Chaney was one of the local blacks in Mississippi and was 21 years old. Goodman was an old student of the New York College, and Schwerner was a social worker on the eastern side of New York (Donaldson, 212). The incident made the Federal Bureau of Investigation invade the town following the disappearance of the young men.
The state of Mississippi was conservative, and the whites had control over the blacks, who were the majority in the state. Residents of the state strongly dissented any outsider that tried to change the way of living in that state. There was segregation of the whites and the blacks and the blacks used to be denied their basic rights. Some of the civil rights workers in Mississippi formed a civil rights movement with the aim of increasing the number voters in that state (Brown and Barry, 541). That occurred because, in Mississippi, only a few blacks were allowed to vote. The process of the registering more voters was tough.
There was a law in the country that excluded a majority of the black people from voting. As a result, there was an open hostility between the black people and the whites in Mississippi. The majority of those that were against the civil rights movement saw the three as a group of college students trained by the activists to register more blacks as voters. The fact that many blacks were not able to vote made them start some form of civil movement so that their rights could be respected.
The three were heading towards the county seat after visiting the church that they were to open and register more workers; the church had already been set on fire by the Klan (Brown and Barry, 541). It was at this point that the Deputy Sheriff Cecil arrested them for over-speeding. They did not resist as everyone as they believed in the power of non-confrontation and nonviolence. Little did they know that it was the plan of the Deputy Sheriff to hold them in jail so that the mob could assemble. They were released later in the night and continued their journey, which was towards Meridian. When they were just were a few minutes’ drive to Meridian, a group of members together with the Deputy Sheriff who had arrested them earlier followed them. They took them away from their car to a secluded area, where they shot and killed them.
Three days after their disappearance, the Ford station that belonged to Schwerner was found burnt. The three had disappeared in June, and their bodies were recovered on August, in some of the shallow graves in the county of Neshoba (Smith). The event struck fear among the citizens of the state, as they saw it as an injustice and brutality against the supporters of the Civil Rights Movement. The event also showed the effects of racism in the state. It resulted to the whites stalling the civil rights movement that was being conducted by the blacks.
The news hit the press and was one of the greatest stories in the year 1964. There was a national outcry, and many citizens demanded that those responsible for the murder should be arrested and punished. The courts in Mississippi were not able to follow up with the case, and it was in the early December that the FBI arrested some of the suspects and charged them with violating the rights of the three activists (Nilsson). The Federal Courts of Mississippi found the suspects guilty, and they were handed a jail term of ten years.
Later, there was a change in the state, and cameras were set all over to capture any similar incident. The three were among the few that brought out the United States from the darkness of discrimination and intolerance. They ensured that everyone in the state had received his or her rights regardless the gender, race, ethnicity, and religion he or she came from. It came to the notice of President Kennedy’s administration that everyone was in need of a race reform after the murder of the three. He proposed a bill, which would eliminate the issue of racism in the country (Donaldson, 212). It is evident that the issue of segregation in the state brought a lot of difficulties in some of the state’s sectors. For example, tourism was affected, and the violence between the whites and the blacks presented a negative image to the state.
President Johnson ordered for an FBI office to be opened. The aim of this office was to facilitate the investigation of the crime activities that happened in the state. Some said that the death of the white men was the reason for scrutiny on Mississippi. Nevertheless, different people raised their voices and demanded an urgent racial reform to ensure that the issue of racial discrimination in the state was ended. The family members of the three civil rights workers had waited to see justice and for those that were found guilty of the murders to be punished. It was in 2005 when the Court of Mississippi convicted Edgar Ray Killen, who is believed to be one of the greatest leaders and the Klan organizer. It was a symbolic act to many Americans; it was seen as a victory for justice for a crime that had haunted the nation for a long time. After the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, there is a large number of blacks in Mississippi that participate in voting. Others represent Mississippi in the U.S Congress and the state legislature (Brown and Barry, 541).
In conclusion, racial segregation and discrimination led to the death of many people who tried to fight for their civil rights. In the southern part of the United States where black people were the majority, they were denied their basic rights by the whites. Those that managed to form or join the civil rights movement were treated in a hostile manner. The sudden disappearance of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman made the people of Mississippi to live in great fear as they later found dead and buried in shallow graves. Suddenly, people from all the corners of the nation added their voice to the issue and called for immediate civil rights reforms. The people in the southern part were not allowed to participate in the voting, and the three had gone to see the church that had been burnt by the Klan. They had started some classes to register more voters in the southern part before they were attacked and killed on their way back to Meridian. Their death resulted in many changes including the passage of the Civil Rights Bill whereby the issue of racial discrimination and segregation in the state was ended. The law opened the way for those found guilty of any crime, especially related to the Civil Rights, to be convicted. The conviction of Edgar Ray Killen by the Mississippi Court was a symbolic act to the people of America as it is a sign that justice had finally been served for a crime that haunted the nation for a long time.
Works Cited
Donaldson, Gary. Liberalism's Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964. Armonk, NY
[u.a.: Sharpe, 2003. Print.
Brown, Nikki L. M, and Barry M. Stentiford. The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn:
Greenwood Press, 2008. Internet resource.
Nilsson, Jeff. "Victims of Politics: The 1964 Murder Of Three Civil Rights Workers". The
Saturday Evening Post 2014: n. pag. Internet Resource.
Smith, Stephen. "Mississippi Burning" Murders Resonate 50 Years Later". CBS News 2014: n.
pag. Internet Resource.
