Primary Sources: The American South: "Mississippi Burning" Case (1964)

"The three murdered civil rights workers from the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project are pictured on this FBI "missing" poster. On June 21st, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner were abducted and killed by Klansmen in an effort to intimidate volunteers working to register black voters. Their badly beaten bodies were found weeks later buried near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Although seven men were tried and convicted for minor federal crimes related to the murders, the state refused to investigate or indict the men, and none served more than a few years in jail. In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was finally indicted and convicted for the murder of the three volunteers."

"or Witness, Andrew's brother David recalls his brother's strong sense of justice and what his family lived through in the 44 days he was missing. He remembers how nationwide shock helped change America for good - and that it took the deaths of two white people to awake the conscience of middle America."

FBI files on the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 (Chaney, Schwerner & Goodman)

"HOOVER REPORTS ON TALKS WITH GOV. JOHNSON, JOHN STENNIS; QUESTION OF HAVING MARINES OR NAVY PERSONNEL HELP IN SEARCH FOR MISSING CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS, JAMES CHANEY, ANDREW GOODMAN, MICHAEL SCHWERNER; REASONS FOR NOT ACTIVATING MISSISSIPPI NATIONAL GUARD"

"LBJ ASSURES HOOVER OF HIS RESPECT FOR FBI AND HOOVER IN INVESTIGATION OF MISSING CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS, JAMES CHANEY, ANDREW GOODMAN, MICHAEL SCHWERNER; LBJ EXPLAINS BACKGROUND OF HIS APPOINTMENT OF ALLEN DULLES AS OBSERVER OF INVESTIGATION"

page 1v) Mentions the three missing SNCC workers [Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner]
[July 1964]
Madison County, Mississippi

"A copy of the Security Handbook given to participants in the "Freedom Summer" campaign in Mississippi in 1964 highlights the dangers that young civil rights workers were exposed to. Tragically, the precautions suggested by the handbook proved insufficient; three young volunteers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were abducted and killed by Klansmen within the first weeks of the campaign."

"...a first-hand account from Patti Miller, who describes her reaction to hearing this news while in Mississippi in 1964."

"Queens College has several entities that steward distinctive collections. The Queens College Library's Special Collections and Archives is the repository for over 5,000 linear feet of college records, special collections, and rare books, with a specialty in civil rights and activism. The Godwin-Ternbach Museum, a part of the Kupferberg Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, is the only comprehensive collection of art and artifacts in the borough of Queens, housing nearly 6,000 works that date from ancient to modern times. The School of Arts, launched in 2022, is the most comprehensive of its kind in the City University of New York (CUNY), with a mission focused on building the community and diversity of artists, people who work in the business of the arts, and their audiences."

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