Three Missing Activists
Three men were killed by the KKK because they were only civil rights activists trying to register African-Americans to vote and help organize civil rights efforts for (CORE) near Meridian, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner was a twenty-four year old Social worker from New York, he also had a wife that helped him establish a headquarters in Meridian along with the assistance of the second of the three people killed, James Chaney. James Chaney was a twenty-one year old activist that was fighting for voting rights who was taken from his daughter. Andrew Goodman was the last of the three activists, and was a twenty year old college student also from New York. A klansman and cop named Cecil Ray Price pulled the three men over for “speeding” and immediately recognized Schwerner as a member of COFO. He booked James Chaney for speeding and kept Goodman and Schwerner for further investigation, apparently for the church arson. Other associates of Price drove down from Philadelphia to complete the plan, they were waiting for the three activists to get out of jail that night and immediately sped after them once they got the news of their release. There were many klan members there that night involved in the murders. A couple of identified members were, Jimmy Arledge, James Jordan, H. D. Barnette, Travis Maryn Barnette, and Jimmy Snowden. The three bodies were buried in a dam that was under construction at the time. The FBI was working closely with COFO in the effort of passing voting rights in Mississippi and were quickly notified that three COFO members had not returned and were missing. The torched station wagon belonging to the three was found only two days after their deaths. This prompted the FBI to move resources into Mississippi to solve the case. This was an extremely tragic event in which three innocent peaceful activists were killed in cold blood as an example to other activists.
Citation-
“Michael Schwerner – James Chaney – Andrew Goodman.” The United States Department of Justice, 10 May 2018, www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/micheal-schwerner-james-chaney-andrew-goodman.
To start my reflection, I would say that I am very impressed with the information that you have shared in your blog post. My group and I did a presentation this week for the March Book 3 so I am very familiar with the information that was provided in your blog post. Our presentation covered this part of our pages along with many other important events including The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, voting rights, and The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Even though I remember reading this information from the book, it was still helpful because I learned smaller details about this incident. I would also like to add that you did a good job gathering information from the book along with the website you used while also remembering to cite it correctly. I also like that you used outside sources to gain more information about these three missing volunteers. One piece of information that I have learned about this is the name of the arresting police officer and how he was a Klansman. In addition, I learned how the arresting police officer’s associates were waiting for the three activists to be released from jail that same night so they could kill them. Lastly, I learned the names of the people who were involved in the murder of the three activists. The three activists’ names were Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. In March Book three, the names of the Klansman who killed, Michael, James, and Andrew were never revealed and I do not know why because the names of the murderers were not included which is a crucial part of these murders. After reading this blog post, I learned that the names of these murderers are Jimmy Arledge, James Jordan, H.D. Barnette, Travis Maryn Barnette, and Jimmy Snowden.