Our area of the country rarely sees experiences major events or events that later become a chapter in the history books.
Some people may lament this while other people enjoy just being left alone. During the summer of 1964, however, our area of the country experienced one of the most significant cases of the civil rights era: “Mississippi Burning.”
As part of the initiative known as “Freedom Summer,” three civil rights activists came to the area to help register African Americans to vote (the whole initiative was to help register African Americans in the South to vote in order to combat racial discrimination in the voting process). During this summer, the three activists disappeared close to Philadelphia.
Neither the bodies nor those responsible were found until much later, and although this does not directly Union, many Union residents may be interested in hearing this story of something that happened close to home.
At the beginning of the summer, three activists—Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney—came to Mississippi in order to combat voter suppression by organizing protests of various kinds and helping register African Americans to vote. Although their efforts were noble, racism was extremely strong in Mississippi, and the KKK was as well. On June 16th, the Klan began hunting Michael Schwerner, the leader of these activists.
They first went to a church meeting where they hoped to find Schwerner, but this failed. After this failure, the KKK beat the attendees and burned the church to the ground (“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, fbi.gov). A few days after this, the three activists decided to investigate the fire. When they entered Philadelphia, they were arrested by Cecil Price, a Neshoba County Deputy.
They were supposedly arrested for speeding; however, the intentions of the police that day were much darker. After being released late that night, the three activists drove toward Meridian, and as agreed, the KKK followed them and stopped them. The three activists “were never heard from again (“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, fbi.gov); they simply vanished.
In the weeks and months that followed, the FBI took the case and began the search. They began work extremely quickly on this case, making many discoveries in the first few days. On June 23rd, FBI agents located the station wagon that the three activists drove. The interior was completed burned out, which is where the case name “Mississippi Burning” originates from.
Over the course of the next few weeks, the FBI and National Guard searched the backcountry near Philadelphia and the surround areas while at the same time mapping the KKK throughout the area. President Lyndon Johnson also authorized the FBI to set up a new field office in Jackson (“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, fbi.gov). On August 4th, the FBI found three bodies buried in a dam in Neshoba County. These were the bodies of the three activists (“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, fbi.gov.).
On December 4th, 18 suspects were arrested. Eventually, in 1967, only seven of the defendants were convicted, and shockingly, none of these convictions were murder charges. While some of those people escaped justice, the last person involved in the Mississippi Burning murders was finally convicted in 2005 (“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, fbi.gov).
Although these murders were awful things, they “galvanized the nation and provided impetus for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964” (“Mississippi Burning.” FBI, fbi.gov). In 1988, a movie called Mississippi Burning was made that is based on the Mississippi Burning murders. A year later, this was adapted into a novel.
Mississippi’s history is just like history anywhere else; there have been good things, bad things, and ugly things that have happened throughout Mississippi’s history. The Mississippi Burning murders were terrible as was the force of racism that drove these murders. This sort of treatment was awful and can never again be allowed to rear its ugly head.
For the betterment of Mississippi and the country as a whole, we must always remember and learn from both the good parts of our history and the bad.
Matt Hennington covers the Union community beat. He can be reached via email at mch.2000@hotmail.com.
