An Infamous Chapter Of The Civil Rights Era Ends

Brooklyn, NY - June 24, 2005 -Justice has been almost completed for James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, the three civil rights workers who were ambushed by racial terrorists in 1964.

Forty years later, Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years for his participation in this tragedy. Sadly, Killen was the only individual who was brought up on murder charges for this case by the state of Mississippi. And the jury of respectable citizens would not admit it was murder. The verdict was instead manslaughter.

American society has not fully grown, or developed from an era that many people still want to brush under a rug. They want to run and hide from the Racism that still exists in America. Forty years later, the problems that we faced then as Americans still exist.

Our nation’s racism is often unchallenged when perpetrated by national heroes. In 1980, when Ronald Reagan, running for President decided to announce his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where those three young men were murdered, he expounded loudly about “states rights”, a notorious code word to rally racists against African American voters. He exploited white anger and resentment for his party’s gain.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” For 40 years, we remained silent about the tragedy that befell those three civil rights workers.

Too much silence has allowed the poison of racism to spread. After refusing to pass laws against lynching while more than five thousand were recorded, the US Senate has now apologized for doing nothing. Someone should apologize to Ronald Reagan’s tribute to the killers in 1980. Some President of the United States should apologize for slavery. Congress or the President should immediately present medals to the families of James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

###