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Great Moments in Newspapering
Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were murdered 41 years ago today, June 21, 1964, late at night on a gravel road just outside Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their bodies were not found until August 4. On August 3rd, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the state's leading newspaper, editorialized:
If they were murdered, it is by no means the first case of such disposition of Communists of their dupes to insure their silence. . . . However, the careful absence of clues makes it seem likely that they are quartered in Cuba or another Communist area awaiting their next task. . . . There is no reason to believe them seriously harmed by citizens of the most law-abiding state of the union.
Source of the quote: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights, by Yashuro Katagari.
Today, the Clarion-Ledger's web site has several good pages on the case:
- How the killings happened
- Basic timeline of the murders and the aftermath
- More detailed narrative of events
Posted on June 21, 2005, in Mississippi.