October 20

Murderers Of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner Convicted

.On October 20, 1967, an all white jury convicted seven of civil rights violations of the murdered civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner in Meridian, Mississippi. On June 21, 1964 Civil rights workers, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were kiiled by members of the Ku Klux Klan while participating in Freedom Summer close to Philadelphia, Mississippi. Freedom Summer which was also called the Mississippi Summer Project was started in June 1964 to register as many African Americans to vote as possible in the state of Mississippi.

The jury of seven white men and five white women found Cecil Price, Ku Klan Klan Imperial Wizard Samuel Bowers, Jimmy Arledge, Horace Barnett, Billey Wayne Posey, Alton Wayne Roberts and Jimmy Snowden guilty. They received sentences from three to ten years. None of the seven served more than six years in prison. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover tells President Lyndon B. Johnson on June 23, 1964 that the car of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner has been found burned. They have not been able to examine the car for bodies yet because the car is still burning. In this video, Angela Lewis, the daughter of murdered civil rights worker James Chaney sings at his grave near Meridian, Mississippi "If I Can Help Somebody" to the 2013 Living Legacy Pilgrimage. Lewis was born 10 days before her father was killed.