The True Story

Freedom Summer CORE

Rita Schwerner, Civil Rights activist, at a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) training session to participate in the "Freedom Summer" campaign to register voters in the Deep South. On June 21, 1964, her activist husband, Michael Schwerner, would be killed by members of the Klu Klux Klan because of their civil rights activism.

Original caption:7/10/1965-Meridian, MS: Original Captio Reads: Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey speaks to rally of the Ku Klux Klan July 10th. Over 1,500 persons attended the rally and cross burning. Seated behind Rainey are, From Left: The bodyguard of the Klan's Imperial Wizard; and the Grand dragon of Mississippi, E. L. McDaniel; and Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton.

Freedom Summer On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers—a 21-year-old black Mississippian, James Chaney, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, traveled to Philadelphia, in Nashoba County, Mississippi. They had been working to register black voters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer and had gone to investigate the burning of a black church.

Michael Schwerner James Chaney Andrew Goodman

Sheriff Dept./Ku Klux Klan They were arrested by the police on trumped-up charges, imprisoned for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who beat and murdered them. It was later proven in court that a conspiracy existed between members of Neshoba County's law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan to kill them.

Sheriff Rainey of Neshoba County stands in Philadelphia, Mississippi during the March Against Fear's rally in the town. Rainey was under indictment for the murders of Civil Rights activists Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner two years before.

A missing persons poster displays the photographs of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Henry Schwerner after they disappeared in Mississippi. It was later discovered that they were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.

Police officers search for the bodies of three slain civil rights activists, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. Their bodies were found six weeks after they were murdered by Klu Klux Klan members.

Young men stand on a bridge and mock the search for the car of slain civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. It was later discovered that the three men were murdered by members of the Klu Klux Klan.

Searchers drag Mississippi's Pearl River in an attempt to locate the bodies of three missing civil rights workers who disappeared on June 21, 1964. Workers from the State Game and Fish Commission brought boats to the area and FBI agents helped in dragging efforts. It was later found that Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were murdered by Ku Klux Klan members while on their way to a civil rights event.

Mafia Greg Scarpa, Sr. Connection AKA "The Grim Reaper" and "The Mad Hatter” Capo for the Colombo crime family Informant for the FBI. During the 1970s and 80s Scarpa was the chief enforcer for Colombo boss Carmine Persico. Scarpa was responsible for at least three murders in 1991.

Aug. 5, 1964 Power shovels excavate the burial site of murdered civil rights activists near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were found the day before, after they disappeared two months before. | Location: near Philadelphia, Mississippi, USA.

This FBI photograph, entered as evidence by the prosecution in the Edgar Ray Killen trial, shows the bodies of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman being recovered from an earthen dam just southwest of Philadelphia, Mississippi on August 4, 1964. Accused Ku Klux Klansman Killen was implicated in the killing of a civil rights worker in testimony from a now-deceased Klansman read in court on June 17, 2005

This FBI photograph, entered as evidence by the prosecution in the Edgar Ray Killen trial, shows the bodies of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were recovered from an earthen dam just southwest of Philadelphia, Mississippi on August 4, 1964. This particular photograph is believed by prosecutor to show the body of Schwerner. Accused Ku Klux Klansman Killen was implicated in the killing of a civil rights worker in testimony from a now-deceased Klansman read in court on June 17, 2005

The FBI arrested 18 men in October 1964, but state prosecutors refused to try the case, claiming lack of evidence. The federal government then stepped in, and the FBI arrested 18 in connection with the killings. In 1967, seven men were convicted on federal conspiracy charges and given sentences of three to ten years, but none served more than six. No one was tried on the charge or murder. The contemptible words of the presiding federal judge, William Cox, give an indication of Mississippi's version of justice at the time: "They killed one ni---r, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved." Another eight defendants were acquitted by their all-white juries, and another three ended in mistrials. One of those mistrials freed Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen—believed to be the ringleader—after the jury in his case was deadlocked by one member who said she couldn't bear to convict a preacher.

Original caption:Jackson, Mississippi: Eight of the 21 white men arrested by the FBI in Mississippi, December 4, 1964 in connection with the slaying of three civil rights workers were, (top, left to right), Earl Akin, Jimmy Snowden, Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, Sheriff Lawrence Rainey; (bottom, left to right), Olan Burrage, B.L. Akin, Jimmy Lee Townsend, and Billy Wayne Posey.

A $5,000-a-year paid informer for the FBI, Delma R A $5,000-a-year paid informer for the FBI, Delma R. Dennis, 27, told a Federal jury that as his chapter of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was about to vote on whether to kill civil rights worker Michael Schwerner, Klan organizer Edgar R. Killen (shown entering court) told him it wouldn't be necessary since Schwerner's "elimination" had been approved at the Klan State level. Killen is among 18 men on trial for conspiracy in the slaying of three civil rights workers.

In this Oct. 19, 1967 file photo, Neshoba County Sheriff Deputy Cecil Price holds a copy of the Meridian Star newspaper with Edgar Ray Killen as they await their verdicts in the murder trial of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Meridian, Miss. Of the 18 defendants, Price was convicted on conspiracy charges along with six other defendants. Killen walked out of federal court in 1967 because the jury could not reach a verdict. But in 2005, the former Ku Klux Klansman and one-time Baptist preacher was convicted of manslaughter in the 1964 slayings.

Whose Smiling Now Edgar? Suspected Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen smiles after his trial is recessed for the day at the Neshoba County Courthouse in Philadelphia, Mississippi, June 15, 2005. Killen is being tried for the June 1964 murders of three civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. Killen, 80, was sentenced to 60 years in prison, serving three consecutive 20-year terms for the three counts of manslaughter.