Mississippi Burning

Yesterday was the 41st anniversary of one of the most blatant civil and human rights violations to occur in America. That violation and its proceeding judicial remedies condoned the unregulated assault on blacks and members of the civil rights community, shook the foundation of youth civil rights activism, ripened the racial divides in the South, and sealed a town in secrecy. One June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers – James Chaney, 21 years old; Andrew Goodman, 20 years old; and Michael Schwerner, 24 years old – were murdered by local Ku Klux Klansmen near Philadelphia, Mississippi. They were in the area working to register black voters in during Freedom Summer and had gone to Nashoba County to investigate a recent church burning. On there way out of the County, they were arrested by the cops on a phony charge, detained, released, and then ambushed and shot point-blank. Their lifeless bodies were buried in a dam under tons of dirt.

That year, no justice was allotted them. Vengeance was not given. Of the 18 persons charged with the crime, only eight were convicted. The sentences given to the convicted ranged from 4 to 10 years. The judge is quoted to have said, “They killed one nigger, one Jew, and one white man—I gave them what I thought they deserved”. However, yesterday another key person involved in the murder of those 3 young lives was convicted. Edgar Ray Killen, 80 years old, was finally convicted of manslaughter for his involvement in those crimes. On Thursday, he can be sentenced to a maximum of 60 years in prison.

Senseless tragedies and bold racist attacks like these make me very sad and at times very angry. It just does not meet any rationale. Now, my questions are these: what does that mean for us today? What does the conviction of an 81 year old racist murderer mean? What is its significance? Those answers are too complicated to attempt to answer in this space. What’s more pertinent to me is how the spirits of James, Andrew, and Michael speak to us and what do they implore us to do. As someone who is just a few years older than those guys when they were murdered, it raises so many questions for me as I try to live a life of meaning. The most resonating question for me is this: in a hurting world (racism, poverty, sexism, injustice, inequity, and nihilism) how can I truly have an impact? James, Andrew, and Michael died for what they believed in. Their lives were not in vain. Although I wish they never had to suffer as they did, I thank them for their sacrifice as it is teaching me how life is truly meant to be lived-courageously and purposefully.