[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1293 Engrossed in House (EH)]
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
June 23, 2008.
Whereas 44 years ago, on June 21, 1964, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and
Michael Schwerner were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, while
working in the name of American democracy to register voters and secure
civil rights during the summer of 1964, which would become known as
``Freedom Summer'';
Whereas Andrew Goodman was a 20-year-old White anthropology major from New
York's Queens College, who volunteered for the Freedom Summer Project;
Whereas James Chaney was a 21-year-old African-American from Meridian,
Mississippi, who became a civil rights activist, joining the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) in 1963 to work on voter education and
registration;
Whereas Michael ``Mickey'' Schwerner was a 24-year-old White CORE field
secretary in Mississippi and a veteran of the civil rights movement,
from Brooklyn, New York;
Whereas in 1964, Mississippi had a Black voting-age population of 450,000, but
only 16,000 Blacks were registered to vote;
Whereas most Black voters were disenfranchised by law or practice in
Mississippi;
Whereas in 1964, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner volunteered
to work as part of the ``Freedom Summer'' project that involved several
civil rights organizations, including the Mississippi State chapter of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, and CORE, with the purpose of registering Black
voters in Mississippi;
Whereas on the morning of June 21, 1964, the 3 men left the CORE office in
Meridian and set out for Longdale, Mississippi, where they were to
investigate the recent burning of the Mount Zion Methodist Church, a
Black church that had been functioning as a Freedom School for education
and voter registration;
Whereas on their way back to Meridian, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael
Schwerner were detained and later arrested and taken to the
Philadelphia, Mississippi, jail;
Whereas later that same evening, on June 21, 1964, they were taken from the
jail, turned over to the Ku Klux Klan, and were beaten, shot, and
killed;
Whereas 2 days later, their burnt, charred, gutted blue Ford station wagon was
pulled from the Bogue Chitto Creek, just outside Philadelphia,
Mississippi;
Whereas the national uproar caused by the disappearance of the civil rights
workers led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara to send 200 active duty Navy sailors to search the
swamps and fields in the area for the bodies of the 3 civil rights
workers, and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to order his Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director, J. Edgar Hoover, to send 150
agents to Mississippi to work on the case;
Whereas the FBI investigation lead to the discovery of the bodies of several
other African-Americans from Mississippi, whose disappearances over the
previous several years had not attracted attention outside their local
communities;
Whereas the bodies of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner,
beaten and shot, were found on August 4, 1964, buried under a mound of
dirt;
Whereas on December 4, 1964, 21 White Mississippians from Philadelphia,
Mississippi, including the sheriff and his deputy, were arrested, and
the Department of Justice charged them with conspiring to deprive Andrew
Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner of their civil rights,
since murder was not a Federal crime;
Whereas on December 10, 1964, the same day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received
the Nobel Peace Prize, a United States District judge dismissed charges
against the 21 men accused of depriving the 3 civil right workers of
their civil rights by murder;
Whereas in 1967, after an appeal to the Supreme Court and new testimony, 7
individuals were found guilty, but 2 of the defendants, including Edgar
Ray Killen, who had been strongly implicated in the murders by
witnesses, were acquitted because the jury came to a deadlock on their
charges;
Whereas on January 6, 2005, a Neshoba County, Mississippi, grand jury indicted
Edgar Ray Killen on 3 counts of murder;
Whereas on June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Edgar Ray Killen on 3 counts of
manslaughter;
Whereas June 21, 2008, will be the 44th anniversary of Andrew Goodman, James
Chaney, and Michael Schwerner's ultimate sacrifice;
Whereas by the end of Freedom Summer, volunteers, including Andrew Goodman,
James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, helped register 17,000 African-
Americans to vote;
Whereas the national uproar in response to the deaths of these brave men helped
create the necessary climate to bring about passage of the Voting Rights
Act of 1965;
Whereas Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner worked for freedom,
democracy and equal justice under the law for all; and
Whereas the Federal Government should find an appropriate way to honor these
courageous young men and their contributions to civil rights and voting
rights: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives encourages all Americans to--
(1) pause and remember Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael
Schwerner and the 44th anniversary of their deaths;
(2) commemorate the life and work of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney,
and Michael Schwerner, and all of the other brave Americans who made the
ultimate sacrifice in the name of civil rights and voting rights for all
Americans; and
(3) commemorate and acknowledge the legacy of the brave Americans
who participated in the civil rights movement and the role that they
played in changing the hearts and minds of Americans and creating the
political climate necessary to pass legislation to expand civil rights
and voting rights for all Americans.
Attest:
Clerk.