Mississippi Burning Trial(英)

(U. S. vs. Price et al.)

by Douglas O. Linder

　　It was an old-fashioned lynching, carried out with the help of county officials, that came to symbolize hardcore resistance to integration. Dead were three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney. All three shot in the dark of night on a lonely road in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Many people predicted such a tragedy when the Mississippi Summer Project, an effort that would bring hundreds of college-age volunteers to "the most totalitarian state in the country" was announced in April, 1964. The FBI's all-out search for the conspirators who killed the three young men, depicted in the movie "Mississippi Burning," was successful, leading three years later to a trial in the courtroom of one of America's most determined segregationist judges.

　　Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan of Mississippi, sent word in May, 1964 to the Klansmen of Lauderdale and Neshoba counties that it was time to "activate Plan 4." Plan 4 provided for "the elimination" of the despised civil rights activist Michael Schwerner, who the Klan called "Goatee" or "Jew-Boy." Schwerner, the first white civil rights worker based outside of the capitol of Jackson, had earned the enmity of the Klan by organizing a black boycott of a white-owned business and aggressively trying to register blacks in and around Meridian to vote.

　　The Klan's first attempt to eliminate Schwerner came on June 16, 1964 in the rural Neshoba County community of Longdale [LINK TO MAP]. Schwerner had visited Longdale on Memorial Day to ask permission of the black congregation at Mount Zion Church to use their church as the site of a "Freedom School." The Klan knew of Schwerner's Memorial Day visit to Longdale and expected him to return for a business meeting held at the church on the evening of June 16. About 10 p.m., when the Mount Zion meeting broke up, seven black men and three black women left the building to discover thirty men lined up in military fashion with rifles and shotguns. More men were gathered at the rear of the church. Frustrated when their search for "Jew-Boy" was unsuccessful, some of the Klan members began beating the departing blacks. Ten gallons of gasoline were removed from one of the Klan members cars and spread around the inside of the church. Mount Zion Church was soon engulfed in flames.

　　News of the beatings and fire reached Michael Schwerner in Oxford, Ohio. Schwerner and his twenty-one-year-old chief aide , a native black Meridian named James Chaney, were in Ohio to attend a three-day program sponsored by the National Council of Churches to train recruits for the Mississippi Summer Project. Among those being trained for a summer of work aimed at improving the lives of black Mississippians was a Queens College student named Andrew Goodman, who Schwerner convinced to come to Meridian. Anxious to get back to Mississippi to learn what they could about the disturbing events in Longdale, Schwerner, Chaney, and the newly-recruited Goodman loaded into a blue CORE-owned Ford station wagon in the early morning hours of June 20 for long trip back to Meridian. The next day, after a short night's sleep and a breakfast in Meridian, the three civil rights workers were again in the CORE wagon heading northwest towards Longdale.

　　Longdale was in Neshoba County, known as a high risk area for civil rights workers. Lawrence Rainey, Neshoba County Sheriff, and his deputy, Cecil Price, were both members of the Klan. Although their Klan membership was not generally known, both had reputations as being tough on blacks. Rainey had been elected sheriff the previous November after campaigning as "the man who can cope with situations that might arise." In Neshoba County, it was well understood that the "situations" Rainey referred to meant meddlesome interference by outsiders wit

h Mississippi's state-enforced policy of segregation. Schwerner told Meridian CORE worker Sue Brown that they should be back in the CORE office in Meridian by 4:00. If they weren't back by 4:30, she should start making phone calls.

　　Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman began their Midsummer's Day visit to Neshoba County with an inspection of the burned out remains of Mount Zion Church. They then visited the homes of four black members of the congregation to learn more about the incident. At one of the homes, the three civil rights workers were warned that a group of white men were looking for them. About 3 p.m., the trio was ready to head back to the relative safety of their Meridian office. There were two possible routes to Meridian. The most direct route was the road they had come up, Highway 491, a narrow clay road intersected by numerous dirt roads. An ambush would be easy on 491. The other, less direct route, was a black topped Highway 16, which would take them west through Philadelphia, the county seat. Chaney turned onto Highway 16.

　　Deputy Sheriff Price was at that time heading east on Highway 16. A few miles outside of Philadephia, Price spotted the well-known CORE wagon heading in his direction. Schwerner and Goodman most likely were crouched low in their seats, allowing Price to see only the black driver, James Chaney. Price shouted over his radio, "I've got a good one! George Raymond!" (Raymond was a black civil rights leader hated by Klan throughout Mississippi.) Price did a quick U-turn and headed back after his quarry. Chaney pulled the CORE wagon over to the side of the road just inside the Philadelphia city limits. Price arrested Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, allegedly for suspicion of having been involved in the church arson, and deposited the three in the Neshoba County jail. Soon thereafter he met with the Neshoba County Klan kleagle, or recruiter, Edgar Ray Killen to tell him of his exciting catch and to plan the deadly conspiracy that would unfold later that night.

　　Some of what happened over the next seven hours in the Neshoba County jail is known. We know that Schwerner asked to make a phone call, but his request was denied. If he wasn't concerned about his physical well-being before that time, he would have been then. We also know that a call was made to the jail at 5:20 in the afternoon asking whether anyone there had information concerning the whereabouts of the three overdue civil rights workers. We know also that the jailer who answered the call, Minnie Herring, lied. We know that shortly after 10:00 P.M. Cecil Price showed up at the jail, telling the jailer, "Chaney wants to pay off—— we'll let him pay off and release them all." Price led them to their parked car, then tailed them as they headed east out of town on Highway 19.

　　The three civil rights workers by then no doubt suspected that they were being led into a trap, and in fact they were. Since receiving word from Price that Schwerner had been captured, Edgar Ray Killen, the Klan kleagle and an ordained Baptist minister, had been busy recruiting members of the Neshoba and Lauderdale County klaverns for some "butt ripping," as he put it. An afternoon meeting at the Longhorn Drive-In in Meridian with local Klan bigwigs was followed by a later meeting at Akin's Mobile Homes with eager, younger members who would participate in the actual killings. Killen told the dozen or more recruits to buy rubber gloves and to be in Philadelphia by 8:15 P. M. After offering the Klan men a drive-by tour of the Neshoba County jail and going over the details of the planned release, Killen headed off to see a departed uncle at the local funeral home and to thereby establish his alibi.

　　After following the CORE station wagon out of town, Price returned to Philadelphia to drop off an accompanying Philadelphia police officer, then raced back onto Highway 19 in pursuit of the three civil rights workers. Meanwhile, two other ca

rs filled with young Klan members were also speeding down with the same object in mind. Price's souped-up Chevy saw the CORE wagon come into view less than ten miles from the county line. Chaney decided to run for it, and a high speed chase ensued. Chaney swerved quickly onto Highway 492, but Price made the turn as well. Seconds later, for reasons unknown, Chaney braked his car and the three surrendered.

　　According to James Jordan, a Klan member who would later become a key FBI informant, Price said, "I thought you were going back to Meridian if we let you out of jail?" When Chaney said that's where they were headed, Price said, "You sure were taking the long way around. Get out of the car." The three were placed in Deputy Price's car. Soon three cars, Price's and two full of Klan members, were traveling in a procession down an unmarked dirt turnoff called Rock Cut Road.

　　It is not known whether the three were beaten before they were killed. Klan informants deny that they were, but there is some physical evidence to the contrary. What is known is that a twenty-six-year-old dishonorably discharged ex-Marine, Wayne Roberts, was the trigger man, shooting first Schwerner, then Goodman, then Chaney, all at point blank range. (FBI informant James Jordan, according to a second informant present at the killings, Doyle Barnette, also fired two shots at Chaney.) The bodies of the three civil rights workers were taken to a dam site at the 253-acre Old Jolly Farm. The farm was owned by Philadelphia businessman Olen Burrage who reportedly had announced at a Klan meeting when the impending arrival in Mississippi of an army of civil rights workers was discussed, "Hell, I've got a dam that'll hold a hundred of them." The bodies were placed together in a a hollow at the dam site and then covered with tons of dirt by a Caterpillar D-4.

　　While the bo

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