June 1964
Civil rights workers James Chaney (21, Black), Andrew Goodman (20, white), and Michael Schwerner (24, white) were abducted and murdered by Klan members in Neshoba County, Mississippi, with the complicity of Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam August 4. No one was convicted of murder until Edgar Ray Killen in 2005.
SNCC and CORE organized Freedom Summer, sending approximately 700 mostly white Northern volunteers to Mississippi to register Black voters and establish Freedom Schools. More than 1,200 volunteers were trained at Western College for Women in Ohio. Despite violence and arrests, Freedom Schools taught 3,000 students and the project exposed the depth of Mississippi's terror system.
Events
- June 21, 1964Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Murdered During Freedom Summer
Civil rights workers James Chaney (21, Black), Andrew Goodman (20, white), and Michael Schwerner (24, white) were abducted and murdered by Klan members in Neshoba County, Mississippi, with the complicity of Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam August 4. No one was convicted of murder until Edgar Ray Killen in 2005.
- June 21, 1964Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Murdered in Neshoba County
Civil rights workers James Chaney (21, Black), Andrew Goodman (20, white), and Michael Schwerner (24, white) were abducted and murdered by KKK members with Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price's complicity. Bodies were found buried in an earthen dam August 4. No murder conviction came until Edgar Ray Killen in 2005.
- June 21, 1964Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Murdered in Mississippi
CORE workers James Chaney (Black, 21), Andrew Goodman (white, 20), and Michael Schwerner (white, 24) were abducted and murdered by Klan members with the involvement of the Neshoba County Sheriff's Department during Freedom Summer in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam. Edgar Ray Killen was not convicted until 2005.
- June 1964Mississippi Police Systematically Attack Freedom Summer Workers
During 1964 Freedom Summer, Mississippi law enforcement arrested over 1,000 civil rights workers, beat volunteers in jail cells, and fired into homes where workers stayed. In Hattiesburg, police used electric cattle prods on Black residents attempting to register to vote. The Council of Federated Organizations documented over 450 separate incidents of racial violence that summer.
- June 1964Freedom Summer Registers Black Voters Across Mississippi
SNCC and CORE organized Freedom Summer, sending approximately 700 mostly white Northern volunteers to Mississippi to register Black voters and establish Freedom Schools. More than 1,200 volunteers were trained at Western College for Women in Ohio. Despite violence and arrests, Freedom Schools taught 3,000 students and the project exposed the depth of Mississippi's terror system.
- June 21, 1964FBI Delayed Finding Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner Bodies for 44 Days
After civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner disappeared June 21, the FBI took 44 days to find their bodies — after a paid informant led agents to the earthen dam on August 4. During the search, FBI agents found the bodies of seven other unidentified Black men in Mississippi waterways, evidence of a broader pattern of racial murder that was never investigated.
- June 21, 1964FBI Delays 44 Days Finding Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner Bodies
After the three workers disappeared June 21, the FBI took 44 days to locate their bodies via a paid informant. During the search, agents found seven other unidentified Black men in Mississippi waterways, evidence of broader racial murder never investigated.
- June 21, 1964Freedom Summer
Volunteers register Black voters in Mississippi; three are murdered by the Klan.