PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - Organizers of Neshoba County's historic commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the murders of three civil rights workers say efforts to bring closure to a community haunted by one of Mississippi's darkest moments are ongoing.
The 30-member Philadelphia Coalition, a multiracial group of business and community leaders, has immediate plans for two projects: a memorial to the slain workers and a school course detailing the civil rights movement in this country.
The coalition meets monthly at First United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, where members discuss those projects, as well as the push for the state to reopen the investigation into the nightrider murders of Ben Chaney, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.
"I think the county is ready for this to be put to rest. This has been a burden on the entire county, as well as the state of Mississippi," said Leroy Clemons, president of the Neshoba County NAACP and co-chairman of the coalition.
Seven Klansmen were convicted of federal civil rights violations in the June 21, 1964, deaths and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years to 10 years. None of those convicted served more than six years. Mississippi never brought murder charges in the case.
Heeding the community's call to revive the investigation, state Attorney General Jim Hood has been reviewing what evidence has survived the years. He is scheduled to meet with the coalition next month to discuss his findings.
Any revival of the case must overcome major obstacles - few surviving witnesses and the fact that all of those convicted on the federal charges are now dead.
"I've gone around and interviewed these witnesses personally," Hood recently told The Associated Press, adding that he would announce "by the end of September or earlier if there's a case or not."
In the meantime, the coalition has been in talks with local education officials to ensure students are told the history of the civil rights struggle for both blacks and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
The Choctaws, whose tribal center is in the Philadelphia area, for years were considered second-class citizens and struggled in poverty. Today, the band operates large, successful casinos and tourist attractions.
"We don't feel like young people are getting that taught to them, not that we're trying to tell the school system what to teach," said Steve Wilkerson, a Philadelphia storeowner and coalition member.
Clemons said there's definitely a need to augment the history classes.
"It hurts my heart that whenever you talk to young people and you mention Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney, they don't know who you're talking about," Clemons said.
V.C. Manning, Neshoba County schools superintendent, said the county's civil rights history is usually discussed during Black History Month in February in lesson plans teachers develop themselves.
Manning said the district is willing to form a committee to study the coalition's proposal.
The Philadelphia Public Schools District "is developing a lesson plan on that topic that we'll insert into our curriculum," said Superintendent Britt Dickens.
In June, Carol Ruth Silver, a white woman from San Francisco, donated a small stack of books to Mount Zion Methodist Church here while in Neshoba County for the memorial service for the civil rights workers. She had been one of the freedom riders of the 1960s who boarded integrated Greyhound buses to protest segregated interstate travel - an act that landed her in a Mississippi jail.
Silver said she had been told there were few books at the county library about the slayings.
"I went to Amazon.com and brought copies of all these books," she had said.
Wilkerson said many people probably thought the coalition would organize the June 20 commemoration service and disband. Several state officials and civil rights leaders, including Gov. Haley Barbour and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., were at the Neshoba County Coliseum when a resolution was read calling for a reopening of the case.
The event drew hundreds, marking the first time a service of that caliber had been held in the county in memory of the slain men.
Video of that day's event would be included in the school project, as well as documentaries and books on the subject, said attorney Fenton DeWeese, a coalition member.
DeWeese said the coalition is collaborating with the William Winter Institute For Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. The institute is collecting oral histories about the civil rights movement, he said.
"We're always mindful of the fact that if you don't put what happened in front of people, there's a likelihood that could repeat itself. God forbid," DeWeese said. "We don't want that to happen anywhere."
Goodman, 20, and Schwerner, 24, were white New Yorkers who volunteered for the 1964 Freedom Summer drive to register black Mississippians to vote. Chaney, 21, was a black Congress of Racial Equality volunteer.
The men were abducted on a rural road on the night of June 21, 1964, after investigating an arson fire at Mt. Zion Methodist Church. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam a few miles from the church.
There is no memorial or marker at the murder site. The coalition will soon change that. Clemons said private donations will be used to erect road signs on Neshoba County Road 515, where the murder occurred and Mississippi 21 North, where the victims' car was found.
Clemons said the large-scale memorial project is in its infancy. He said cost, location, design and the inscription are among the factors the coalition is considering.
If there isn't sufficient evidence to reopen the case, DeWeese suggested that law enforcement officials at least make public unknown details of the murders.
"That way it may help people have some closure. I hope we can avoid that, though," DeWeese said. "If there's any way possible for there to be a trial, there should be."
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