Mississippi Burning - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

GermanStar · #1 01-07-2005, 08:36 PM

Anyone who saw the film Mississippi Burning should find this rather interesting. Talk about a long time coming....

Quote:

79-year-old preacher charged in three 1964 Klan slayings

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) — A reputed Ku Klux Klansman was arrested late Thursday on murder charges in the 1964 slayings of three voter-registration volunteers — a case that is one of the last pieces of unfinished business from the civil rights era.

Sheriff Larry Myers told The Associated Press that Edgar Ray Killen was arrested at his home without incident, and added that there would be more arrests.

Killen’s arrest followed a grand jury meeting Thursday that apparently included testimony from individuals believed to have knowledge about the killings, dramatized in the 1988 movie ‘‘Mississippi Burning.’’

Myers said Killen, a 79-year-old preacher, was being held on three counts of murder. ‘‘We went ahead and got him because he was high profile and we knew where he was,’’ the sheriff said.

Calls to Killen’s home late Thursday were answered by a recording.

The grand jury considered whether sufficient evidence existed after 40 years to bring charges in the crimes. Killen was identified in testimony in earlier federal court proceedings as having a role in the killings.

Mississippi has had some success reopening old civil rights murder cases, including a 1994 conviction of Byron de la Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers.

But until recently there has been little progress in building murder cases against those involved in the Ku Klux Klan slayings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

Seven Klansmen were convicted of federal conspiracy charges in the killings and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years to 10 years. None served more than six years. But the state never brought murder charges.

Goodman’s mother, Carolyn Goodman, said she ‘‘knew that in the end the right thing was going to happen.’’

‘‘As I have said many times before, I’m not looking for revenge. I’m looking for justice,’’ Goodman, 89, said from her home in New York.

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were among hundreds of Freedom Summer volunteers, mostly white college students, who came to Mississippi in 1964 to educate blacks and help them to vote. The three were beaten and shot to death. Their bodies were found later in an earthen dam.

Chaney, a 21-year-old black man, was from Meridian, Miss. Goodman, 20, and Schwerner, 24, were from New York.

Plantman · #2 01-07-2005, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GermanStar

Anyone who saw the film Mississippi Burning should find this rather interesting. Talk about a long time coming....

Sam Cooke: " It's been a long time comin', but I know, a change gonna come"

That was a very good movie, telling a sad but tragic tale.

After all these years, I'm glad some justice, albeit late will be served.

In this day and age of DNA testing, I think we'll be seeing more and more of these type of situations.

Good for them.

Botnst · #3 01-07-2005, 08:44 PM

'bout time.

Remindsme of m'boy from Jackson, Mike Moore. A tenacious, hard-working and honest AG.

MS Fowler · #4 01-07-2005, 08:48 PM

The late 1950s and early 1960s were a high point of the American culture. However, this is a reminder that everything was great. There were some very dark places in those years, too.

Plantman · #5 01-07-2005, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

The late 1950s and early 1960s were a high point of the American culture. However, this is a reminder that everything was great. There were some very dark places in those years, too.

Did you mean a low point in regards to racism and a high point now that the respomsible parties are being tried and convicted?

GermanStar · #6 01-07-2005, 09:31 PM

Yes, I found that statement rather confusing as well. Scratches head...

mzsmbs · #7 01-07-2005, 08:47 PM

good. i hope he fries....