Site of Cheney Goodman Schwerner Murder, Neshoba County, Mississippi, near Philadelphia
Site of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner’s murders, Philadelphia, Mississippi, 2009
The Meridian Klan and the Neshoba County Klan, with help from members of the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office, murdered civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner on June 21, 1964. Schwerner and Goodman were shot once, and James Chaney was beaten and shot three times. The murders received national attention. Charges were brought, and in 1967 several men were found guilty and given sentences that ranged from three to ten years. In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of murder for coordinating the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. Jerry Mitchell, a journalist at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, was instrumental in discovering Killen’s involvement and reopening the case.