Michael Henry 'Mickey' Schwerner, a 24-year-old white Jewish-American civil rights activist, dedicated his efforts to the voter registration and community organizing work of the Congress of Racial Equality in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. His focused work in establishing Freedom Schools and organizing voter drives made him a target for white supremacists. In the spring of 1964, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Sam Bowers, had already marked Schwerner for elimination. The Klan's animosity towards Schwerner, whom they nicknamed 'Goatee,' was palpable in the Meridian and Neshoba County chapters.
On June 21, 1964, Schwerner, along with fellow civil rights workers James Chaney, a 21-year-old Black man from Meridian, and Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old white volunteer from New York, traveled to Longdale in Neshoba County. They were there to investigate the recent burning of the Mount Zion Methodist Church, a site that had been a center for community organization and a planned Freedom School. As they were heading back to Meridian, their station wagon was stopped by Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, a known member of the Ku Klux Klan. Chaney was arrested for speeding, and Schwerner and Goodman were held for investigation.
Price detained the three men in the Philadelphia, Mississippi jail for several hours, denying Schwerner's request to make a phone call. This was a deliberate tactic to allow time for a lynch mob to assemble. Price contacted Edgar Ray Killen, a local Klan leader and Baptist minister, who orchestrated the gathering of Klansmen in Philadelphia. Around 10:00 PM, Price released the three activists and ordered them to drive back to Meridian. Shortly after their release, they were pursued and overtaken by Price and two carloads of Klansmen. The civil rights workers were forced into their cars and driven to a secluded, rural road.
At this remote location, the three men were brutally murdered. According to accounts from informants within the mob, Klansman Wayne Roberts pulled Schwerner from the car, asked, 'Are you that nigger lover?', and then shot him in the heart. Goodman was also shot and killed. James Chaney was severely beaten, tortured, and then shot three times. The bodies of the three men were then taken to a farm owned by Klan associate Olen Burrage and buried in an earthen dam.
The disappearance of the three men sparked national outrage and a massive federal investigation codenamed 'MIBURN,' for 'Mississippi Burning.' The FBI investigation faced resistance from state and local authorities who initially claimed the disappearance was a hoax. After a 44-day search, acting on a tip from an informant, the FBI discovered the bodies on August 4, 1964.
In December 1964, the Justice Department charged 21 men with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman, as murder was a state crime and Mississippi officials refused to prosecute. After a series of legal battles, including a Supreme Court ruling to reinstate indictments that a local judge had dismissed, a federal trial began in 1967. An all-white jury convicted seven of the eighteen defendants, including Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price and Klan Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers. The sentences ranged from three to ten years in prison. No one was convicted of murder at the time.
Decades later, the case was reopened. In January 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was charged with murder. On June 21, 2005, the 41st anniversary of the killings, a jury found Killen, then 80 years old, guilty of three counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to sixty years in prison and died behind bars in 2018. The investigation was officially closed in 2016.
