What had appeared to be an old fashioned lynching, turned out to be a murder orchestrated by none other than county police. Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, were all shot in the dark of night on a road in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Many people predicted an event of this nature when the Mississippi Summer Project, an effort that would bring hundreds of black college-age volunteers to encourage education, register them for voting, and progress civil rights in "the most totalitarian state in the country." The plan was announced in April, 1964. The FBI became determined to find the murderers when it was discovered that of the three young men, two of them were white. They were successful, and the case went to trial three years later, but the victory was bittersweet because they landed in the courtroom of America's most determined segregationist judge.
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Sheriff Lawrence Rainey at his trial in October of 1967
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"They killed one ni---r, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved." - Federal judge William Cox
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How was the case solved? |
Why this Case is Famous |
The FBI had arrested the three victims for speeding and then later released them for the county jail and realized that a car had been calling them from then. This car was full of KKK members that eventually shot and killed them , then to bury their bodies 15 feet under ground. Their bodies were discovered by police after 44 days of searching. After this incident the members of the KKK beat several members of the church and burned it down.The KKK members were tried for conspiring to violate the civil rights movement, this is when statutes of murder did not exist.
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This is is the most influential case because of the injustice that was done in this time span. Starting with the police, they saw a black man in the car with two white men who looked like they were part of the Mississippi Summer Project. They pulled them over to stop them from getting there and had them arrested. They lied and said that there tail light was out so they could have a reason to arrest them. Also the authority stayed in contact with the Ku Klux Klan so that when they are released, they will be right in the hands of the KKK for them to kill them.
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