At the start of the summer, while volunteers were being trained in Ohio, civil rights workers James Chaney and Michael Schwerner along with volunteer Andrew Goodman drove south to Mississippi to investigate a church burning outside Philadelphia, MS.
The trip was dangerous. The fact that James, who was black, would be traveling with two whites, Michael and Andrew, would be a clear sign that they were civil rights workers. And the Klan in Mississippi was gearing up to send a message to the Freedom Summer workers who were about to descend upon the state. The situation in Mississippi was tense and volatile.
On June 20th, James, Michael and Andrew safely got to the civil rights office in Meridian, Mississippi. The next morning, on June 21st, they drove north toward Philadelphia to investigate the church burning. That afternoon, just as they were starting to head back toward Meridian, the men were stopped and arrested by deputy sheriff Cecil Price from Neshoba County Mississippi who was also a member of Ku Klux Klan. James, Michael and Andrew were held in jail until nightfall and were released around 10:30 pm.
The reason for the delayed release was so that the Klan could get a plan in place to hijack the civil rights workers. Leaving the jail James, Michael and Andrew drove south on Highway 19 back toward Meridian. Cars packed with men were waiting for them. Finding themselves pursued, James, Michael and Andrew raced through the night down Highway 19.
They were eventually overtaken. Captured, James, Michael and Andrew were driven back up Highway 19 a couple of miles until the caravan of cars reached an unmarked dirt road that led off into the woods. There in the dark woods, just off Highway 19, James, Michael and Andrew were murdered.
Their bodies were discovered many weeks later, on August 4. Today, fifty years ago.
A few weeks ago, at the start of our family vacation, we were traveling through Mississippi and were spending the night in Meridian. Given that we were in Meridian and that this was the 50th Anniversary of Freedom Summer and of the deaths of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, I wanted to drive north on Highway 19 to visit the murder site and pay my respects.
So I got up early, leaving Jana and the boys sleeping in the hotel, and drove north toward Philadelphia on Highway 19. For the first part the road was four lanes, designated at one point by a sign saying "Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner Memorial Highway." Eventually, the highway narrowed to two lanes and the trees came in close. Very much like the highway would have looked in 1964.
I drove past the point where James, Michael and Andrew were overtaken and captured (Highway 492). From that point, I was retracing the last moments of their lives, driving north toward the turn off where they were taken down a dirt road and into the woods.
The turn off is marked by a historical marker, pictured above, on the edge of Highway 19.
I turned down the road and reached the intersection where the murders occurred. I stopped the car and got out.
There are a few houses along this road now, but at the intersection the area is still wooded. I stood there looking into the trees and tried to comprehend what had happened in this place fifty years ago.
Nothing seemed to mark the spot. Just the historical marker down on the highway. But then my eye caught a small cairn of stones, pine cones and flowers at the edge of the trees.
I walked over and examined the stones and flowers. Bits of paper were mixed in, notes written to James, Michael and Andrew. Remembering them. Thanking them. This is the small unofficial memorial that has been created by those who drove off the highway to visit the place where James, Michael and Andrew had died.
I rose and scanned the ground, finding what I was looking for. I stood over the cairn and said a prayer. Then I knelt down and added my stone the the pile.
The breeze whispered in the pine trees, and I whispered their names with it.
"James, Michael, Andrew."
"Thank you."
