Forty-years has passed from the time when three voter-rights advocates left the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) office in Meridian, Mississippi to investigate the bombing of an African-American church in Philadelphia in the Magnolia State. The three never returned alive.
Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were killed. All were members of CORE. Chaney was a black Mississippian, and Schwerner and Goodman were white New Yorkers. They were seized by members of the Ku Klux Klan in their station wagon on June 21, 1964, murdered and buried in an earthen dam.
Last week, on the anniversary of this heinous crime, former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for three counts of manslaughter in connection with the crime.
At least 200 people sat in the Neshoba County courthouse beside attorneys, prior victims, police officers and court officials. Racism, human error, antiquated recordkeeping and scheduling lapses had frustrated victims and their family members for more than 40 years while Edgar Ray Killen remained free.
But, last week, a semblance of justice was completed. Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon sentenced Killen to 20 years for each of the three counts of manslaughter. The judge showed uncommon backbone and gained my respect for standing up for principles in a state that is known for its violence towards blacks, Catholics and Jews.
Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were participating in the Freedom Summer campaign. It was led by CORE, and included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Norman R. Seay, an esteemed St. Louis civil rights activist, is a founding member of the St. Louis chapter of CORE. He is the founder of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday committee and helped to lead the demonstrations at Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. that began on Aug. 30, 1963 when CORE demanded that Jefferson Bank hire four black clerical workers.
Seay said he was pleasantly surprised by the conviction of Killen. “I wonder why it took 60 years to find an 80-yearold man guilty of the crimes the entire world knew he was responsible for,” Seay said. “Today, there is a more sophisticated form of segregation and hate, but I will keep hope alive.”
Seay referred to the conviction of Byron de la Beckwith, who murdered Medgar Evers; the 1998 guilty verdict of former Ku Klux Klan wizard Sam Bowers in a 1966 Mississippi firebombing; the murder convictions of Robert Chambliss, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry in the 1963 bombing that killed four black girls at a Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; and the reopening of the 1955 Emmett Till murder case.
“We must continue to fight for justice, and let’s keep hope alive and believe that others will be brought to justice for their prior crimes, no matter how long it takes,” Seay said.
I am sure the brothers at the Mississippi State Prison at Parchman will greet Killen with open arms. At least I hope so. I am keeping that hope alive.
I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.