40th Anniversary of Murder of Civil Rights Workers Commemorated
Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were
murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964 in Neshoba County,
Mississippi. They were part of the Freedom Summer Program in Mississippi in
which young civil rights workers organized freedom schools and voter
education/registration campaigns. Their bodies were discovered 44 days
later, buried in an earthen dam. The state of Mississippi has never
convicted the identified perpetrators.
To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of their deaths, the Chaney,
Goodman, Schwerner Justice Coalition, a project of the James Earl Chaney
Foundation, has announced a series of events including a 20-bus caravan
entitled Freedom Ride 2004. The caravan starts in New York City on June 9
and makes some 20 stops, including a memorial service in Philadelphia,
Mississippi.
Civil rights veterans, college and high school students, business and labor
leaders, clergy and citizen activists/organizers will be part of the
caravan. Each bus on the caravan will have a multi-media website connection
to allow world wide participation.
At each stop of Freedom Ride 2004 participants will do door-to-door voter
registration. Workshops on voter registration and "The Faces of
Racism‹2004" will be conducted for freedom rider participants.
FMI: goodtime_ent@hotmail.com
Back to Peace Talk Index, Summer, 2004