Those Three are on Our Minds

Today is a holiday in the United States. It commemorates Martin Luther King, Jr., a martyr of the American struggle for civil rights. But there were many more. During the "Freedom Summer" of 1964 three civil rights workers, James Chaney a 21 year old black man from Mississippi and Andrew goodman and Michael Schwerner, two white youths from New York, aged 20 and 24, were murdered in Mississippi:

The murders of the three men occurred in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964, just one day after the trio had arrived in Mississippi. The men had just finished a week-long training at the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio regarding strategies on how to register blacks to vote.

After getting a haircut from an African-American barber in Meridian, the three men headed to Longdale, 50 miles away in Neshoba County, in order to inspect the ruins of Mount Zion United Methodist Church. The church, a meeting place for civil rights groups, had been burned just five days earlier.

Before they left the area, they stopped by the local office of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), an umbrella group of four civil rights organizations. Schwerner, aware that the station wagon's license number had been given to members of the notorious local Citizens Council, told COFO workers to contact the FBI if he hadn't called them by 4:30 p.m.

At approximately 5:00, the blue Ford carrying the trio was stopped by Neshoba County deputy Cecil Price, who arrested Chaney for allegedly driving 35 miles per hour over the speed limit. He also booked Goodman and Schwerner, "for investigation."

While awaiting their release, they were given a dinner of spoon bread, green peas, potatoes and salad. Chaney was then fined $20 and the three men were ordered to leave the county. Price followed them to the edge of town, heading toward Meridian on state Highway 19 at approximately 10:30 p.m.

Following Schwerner's instructions, COFO workers phoned the FBI, which claimed they had no evidence to investigate the possible crime. COFO also called the Mississippi Highway Patrol, which simply issued a missing person's bulletin. On June 23, a phone tip led the local FBI office to the Bogue Chitto swamp, 12 miles northeast of Philadelphia, Mississippi, and on a Choctaw Indian reservation. Upon arrival, the officers found the charred remains of the station wagon, with three of the hubcaps having been removed by the Choctaws. They also realized that the site was in the opposite direction of what Price had told investigators.

Some local officials were hardly sympathetic to the situation, with Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey saying, "They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state." Mississippi governor Paul Johnson also dismissed concern by simply stating, "They could be in Cuba."

Forty-four days later the men's bodies were found on Olen Barrage's Old Jolly Farm, six miles northeast of Philadelphia. The break in the case had come after the FBI offered to pay $25,000 for inside information. The subsequent autopsies showed that Goodman and Schwerner had been shot once in the heart with a .38-caliber bullet, while Chaney had been shot three times after being severely beaten. (Wikipedia)

Two years later Frances Taylor and Pete Seeger penned this unforgettable song, Those three are on my mind (there's a wonderful version on the Tribute to Pete Seeger, Where Have all the Flowers Gone, sung by Kim & Reggie Harris and Magpie):

THOSE THREE ARE ON MY MIND

I think of Andy in the cold wet clay
Those three are on my mind
With his comrades down beside him
On that brutal day
Those three are on my mind

There lays young James in his mortal pain
Those three are on my mind
So I ask the killers can you see those three again
Those three are on my mind

I see dark eyed Michael
With his dark eyed bride
Those three are on my mind
And three proud mothers
Weeping side by side
Those three are on my mind

But I'm grieving yet
And for some the sky is bright
I cannot give up hoping
For a morning light
So I ask the killers do you sleep at night
Those three are on my mind

I see tin roof shanties
Where my brothers live
Those three are on my mind
And the little burnt out churches
Where they sing we forgive
Those three are on my mind

I know of Tom Paine's Water Tree
I know the price of liberty
Now I ask the question that is deep inside of me
Did they also burn the courthouse
When they killed those three
Those three are on my mind
Those three are on my mind
Those three are on my mind

Words and Music by Frances Taylor and Pete Seeger

© 1966 Fall River Music, Inc.

Those three are on our minds. The Reveres.
Martin Luther King Day, 2007.