On Monday, Rep. John Lewis introduced H. Res. 1293 to commemorate of the 44th anniversary of the deaths of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner who were murdered during the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964.  The effort was a nationwide call for volunteers to help register black voters in Mississippi.

            The brutal murders drew the nation’s attention to the violent resistance of Southern segregationists and provoked an outpouring of support for the Freedom Summer campaign and the ongoing Civil Rights Movement.  Despite the widespread attention received by the case, no one was convicted for the murders for more than forty years.   In 2005, on the day they disappeared more than 40 years later, Edgar Ray Killen, a leader of the local Klu Klux Klan group responsible for the deaths, was convicted of those crimes. 

            While the Freedom Summer campaign marked the climax of voter-registration activities in the South, the murders of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner alerted the nation to the sacrifice made by Civil Rights activists in the fight for voting rights in America.    The bill had 20 co-sponsors and was passed on suspension in the U.S. House of Representatives by a voice vote.

            When he introduced the bill Rep. Lewis made this statement on the House floor:

“Madame Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the courage and conviction of three young men - Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner.  On June 21, 1964, they gave their lives in the struggle for voting rights in America. 

“There was a time, just 44 years ago, when it was almost impossible in the American South for people of color to register and vote.  Then I was 23 years old and the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. I traveled around the country encouraging people to come to Mississippi to get involved with the Freedom Summer of 1964.  

“At that time the state of Mississippi had a population of more than 450,000 blacks, but only 18,000 were registered to vote.  It was dangerous, very dangerous, for those of us who believed that everyone should have the right to vote.   But in spite of the risks, there were people—young and old, black and white, rich and poor—people like Andy Goodman, James Chaney, and Mickey Schwerner, who put aside the comfort of their own lives to make sure that every citizen had free and fair access to the ballot in America.

“Mickey Schwerner was a twenty-four-year-old, Jewish man from Brooklyn, New York, who was already a participant in the movement.  Andy Goodman, also Jewish, was 21-years-old and a student at Queens College in New York.  James Chaney was a 21-year-old African American man from Meridian, Mississippi who decided to take a stand for justice in his own community.

“On the morning of June 21, 1964, these three young men drove to Longdale, MississippiPhiladelphia, Mississippi. That same evening, they were released from the jail by the sheriff and turned over to the Klan. Then were beaten, shot and killed. to investigate the burning of an African American church. On their way back, they were arrested by the sheriff, taken to jail in

“Their burnt blue Ford station wagon was pulled from a creek, just two days later.  I joined the search for them that night with a very heavy heart. Their bodies were found a few weeks later on August 4, 1964, buried under a mound of dirt. 

“Madame Speaker, I share this story today so that members of Congress will realize that the struggle for civil rights has been a long, hard road, littered by the battered and broken bodies of countless men and women who paid the ultimate price for a precious right—the right to vote.

“Andy Goodman, James Chaney, and Mickey Schwerner did not die in Europe. They did not die in Asia. Or in Africa.  They did not die in Central America. Or in the Middle East. They died right here in the America—in the American South.  I knew these three young men. 

“I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this resolution, to pay tribute to these three young men, and so many others, who died in the struggle for voting rights in America.  We must never forget their sacrifice.  As members of the U.S. House of Representatives, it is our duty, our mission, our mandate to make sure that these three young men did not die in vain. Thank you, Madame Speaker.”

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Brenda Jones

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