Left to right: Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman
June 21, 1964: Three men working on the "Mississippi Freedom Summer" project are murdered by agents of the Ku Klux Klan, outside the small city of Philadelphia, Mississippi. The assassination infuriates the nation.
Andrew Goodman was 20 years old, from the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Michael Schwerner was 24, from The Bronx. Both being Jewish, the felt the sense of the underdog from watching African-Americans struggle for their civil rights, and volunteers for the Freedom Summer project of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1964, attempting to register black people to vote, and to change the course of governance in the Magnolia State. James Chaney was 20, a native of Meridian, Mississippi, and had been on the Freedom Rides in the early 1960s.
Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney were investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been a site for a CORE Freedom School. In the wake of Schwerner and Chaney's voter registration rallies, parishioners had been beaten by Ku Klux Klan members. They accused the sheriff's deputy, Cecil Price, of stopping their caravan and forcing the deacons to kneel in the headlights of their own cars, while white men beat them with rifle butts. The same Klansmen who beat them were also identified as having burned the church.
Price arrested Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner for an alleged traffic violation, and took them to the Neshoba County Jail. They were released that evening, without being allowed to telephone anyone. On the way back to Meridian, they were stopped by patrol lights and two carloads of KKK members on Highway 19, then taken in Price's car to another remote rural road. The men approached then shot and killed Schwerner, then Goodman, both with one shot in the heart; then Chaney with three shots, after severely beating him. They buried the young men in an earthen dam nearby.
The men's bodies remained undiscovered for 44 days. The FBI was brought into the case by John Doar, the U.S. Department of Justice representative in Mississippi monitoring the situation during Freedom Summer. The missing civil rights workers became a major national story, especially coming on top of other events as civil rights workers were active across Mississippi in a voter registration drive; and, the previous year, the March On Washington, and the uses in Birmingham, Alabama of firehoses and police dogs on demonstrators and the bombing of a church.
Schwerner's widow, Rita, who also worked for CORE in Meridian, expressed indignation that the press had ignored previous murders and disappearances of blacks in the area, but had highlighted this case because 2 white men from New York had gone missing. She said she believed that if only Chaney were missing, the case would not have received nearly as much attention.
The assassination inspired the songs "Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone and "Here's to the State of Mississippi" by Phil Ochs; and the 1988 film Mississippi Burning.
In 1967, the federal government charged 10 men with conspiracy to deprive the 3 murdered men of their civil rights, under the Enforcement Act of 1870, the only federal law then applying to the case. The jury convicted 7 men, including Deputy Sheriff Price; but 3 were acquitted, including Edgar Ray Killen, the former KKK organizer who had planned and directed the murders.
Price was sentenced to 6 years in prison, and served 4. He died in 2001. In 2005, the State of Mississippi convicted Killeen of 3 counts of manslaughter, and sentenced him to 60 years in prison. He died in prison in 2018, nearly 93 years old, having gotten away with the crime for 41 years.
The historical markers marking the locations of the murders of Emmett Till and of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, 9 years earlier, are 117 miles apart.
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June 21, 1964 was a Sunday. This was also the day that Fascist Spain defeated the defending Champions, the Communist Soviet Union, to win the European Football Championship. I have a separate entry for that event.
As was often the case in that era, Sundays often featured baseball doubleheaders. These games were played:
* The Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the New York Mets, 6-0 and 8-2 at Shea Stadium. In the opener, Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game for the Phillies, the 1st perfect game in the National League since 1880. It was Father's Day, and Bunning was already the father of 6 children. He would eventually have 9. It made him only the 2nd pitcher ever to pitch a no-hitter in each League: He had previously pitched one in the American League, for the Detroit Tigers in 1958. I have a separate entry for this event, too.
* The New York Yankees had one of their longest days, but a successful one, sweeping the Chicago White Sox, 2-0 and 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. In the opener, Jim Bouton pitched 3-hit shutout ball over 7 2/3rds innings, then Pete Mikkelsen went the rest of the way, completing a 4-hit shutout. Mickey Mantle and Elston Howard hit home runs.
The nightcap went 17 innings. With 1 out in the top of the 17th, Héctor López doubled of Don Mossi. White Sox manager Al López (no relation to Héctor) ordered that Howard be intentionally walked. But Mossi unintentionally walked Phil Linz to load the bases. Having no more available pinch-hitters, Yankee manager Yogi Berra sent pitcher Bill Stafford up to bat for himself. He hit a grounder to short, and future Met hero Al Weis bobbled it, allowing to Héctor to score. Stafford finished the South Siders off, getting the win. Al Downing had started, going 12 innings.
The games took a combined 26 innings to play, but, in time, just 6 hours and 42 minutes. To really show how times have changed, over those 26 innings, the Yankees used just 5 pitchers, although Mikkelsen pitched in both games. The Yankees ended up beating the White Sox for the Pennant by only 1 game, so this day may have decided the title.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-6 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4 with a walk.
* The Chicago Cubs swept the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 and 7-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ernie Banks went 1-for-8 with a walk and 2 RBIs, and Roberto Clemente went 0-for-8.
* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 1st game, 4-2. Sandy Koufax outpitched Bob Purkey. The Cincinnati Reds won the 2nd game, 2-1. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 3-for-8. Pete Rose only appeared as a pinch-hitter in the 1st game, and did not reach base.
* The Houston Astros swept the Milwaukee Braves, 5-2 and 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Rusty Staub hit 2 home runs in the 1st game. Bob Bruce outpitched Warren Spahn. Ken Johnson won the 2nd game, and helped his own cause with a homer. Hank Aaron went 2-for-9 with 3 RBIs, but none was on a home run.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Al Kaline went 0-for-3, but drew a walk. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Willie Mays and Hal Lanier hit home runs for the Giants, while the newly-acquired Lou Brock did so for the Cardinals. Gaylord Perry pinch-hit for Giants starter Jack Sanford in the 6th, and had a sacrifice bunt. He then pitched the rest of the way for the save.
* The Washington Senators swept the Kansas City Athletics, 13-2 and 5-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels groundshared with the Dodgers until their stadium in suburban Anaheim could open.
