DOCSLIB.ORG

Remembering the Martyrs of Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Remembering the Martyrs of Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 Les Bayless, Three who gave their lives : Remembering the martyrs ofMississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 Page 1 of 5 .,J Documents menu Three who gave their lives: Remembering the martyrs of Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 By Les Bayless, in People's Weekly World, 25 May, 1996 OXFORD, Miss. - Buford Posey was stunned when he picked up the March 13 copy of the Neshoba Democrat, a local newspaper. Prominently featured was a photo ofthe newly sworn-in officers of the Neshoba County Shriners club. Among the men in the photo was Cecil Price who had just taken the oath as the Shriners' vice president. Posey knew Cecil Ray Price . He knew something that others, from Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice on down, wanted Mississippi and the rest of the nation to forget. "Cecil Price was the chief deputy sheriff ofNeshoba County in 1964," Posey told the World in an exclusive interview. "He led the Ku Klux Klan that lynched Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman on Sunday night, June 21, 1964. "I have tried without success to get Mississippi newspapers to comment on this outrage of Cecil Price being elected as a high-ranking Masonic leader," Posey said. In a slow southern drawl, Posey recounted events that had occurred in Philadelphia, Miss. that night in 1964. In this small town of6,000, 30 miles northeast of Jackson, three young volunteers ofthe Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were murdered. They were participants in "Freedom Summer," an effort to register African American voters in the deep south. The three young men - a local teenager named James Chaney and New Yorkers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman - were dragged from a blue station wagon along an isolated country road and brutally murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. They had been arrested earlier that evening by Price on trumped up charges and released. Sheriffs deputies followed their vehicle from the police station. Two days later, the station wagon was found near a swamp, burned out and empty. For the next six weeks, the FBI searched Neshoba County for the bodies of the three young men. Finally on Aug. 4 the bodies were discovered. A team ofpathologists who later examined the bodies found http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/046.html 9/17/2003 Les Bayless, Three who gave their lives : Remembering the martyrs ofMississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 Page 2 of 5 that Chaney, who was African American and a native of nearby Meridian, had been beaten so brutally that he was probably dead when a Klansman shot him three times. Schwerner and Goodman died from gunshot wounds . In a 1967 interview, Chaney's mother summed up the feelings of a bereaved nation. She said the three men and others like them made a difference in Mississippi. "It was wonderful of them to volunteer their time. It made a lot of colored people start to think there would be a chance for them. It woke up a lot of people - both Negro and white," Fannie Lee Chaney told the Worker, the predecessor to the People's Weekly World. A reward had been posted for information leading to the discovery ofthe bodies. Evidence submitted by Posey and others identified the leader of the murderous band as a local sheriffs deputy named Cecil Ray Price. FBI cover-up Although Posey comes from a prominent Mississippi family, he was active in the civil rights movement in the early '60s. He will tell you, with not a little bit ofpride in his voice, that he was the first white person in Mississippi to join the NAACP. He now lives in Oxford, where he receives a small disability pension. Posey said that the FBI knew who murdered the civil rights workers within hours of the grisly event. "In those days I was in Neshoba County, where I was born and raised. Though I traveled around a lot, I had been at my father's in Philadelphia because he was dying ofprostate cancer," Posey said. "The murders took place on a Sunday night, June 21, 1964 on Rock Cut Road, right offHighway 19. I was sitting home that night. It was late, 2 o'clock or something like that, and I received a call. I recognized the voice at once." The caller was Edgar Ray Killen, the "chaplain" ofthe White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. "We took care of your three friends tonight and you're next," Killen told Posey. Posey had gone to Meridian the week before and talked to Schwerner, the oldest of the three murdered workers. "I told them to be careful. 'The Klan has sentenced you to death. You know the sheriffs up there, Lawrence Rainey and Cecil Ray Price, are Klan members. "' The morning after the call from Killen, Posey contacted the FBI, first in Jackson and then New Orleans. "I told them I was a civil rights worker, who I worked for and what had happened. I told them the preachers' name and that I thought the sheriffs office was involved in the murder." The FBI didn't act on Posey's tip. Civil rights leaders had long charged that the FBI worked with local racists and ignored those they were supposed to be protecting. An article in the Worker, dated two years after the murders, gave a concrete example of this: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/046.html 9/17/2003 Les Bayless, Three who gave their lives: Remembering the martyrs ofMississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 Page 3 of 5 "The threat of death crowded in on the Mississippi marchers and the Negro inhabitants of Neshoba County, following four attacks on the Negro community in Philadelphia, Miss., Tuesday night by racists shooting from cars. Earlier a mob of 300 men, using clubs, bottles, cherry bombs and stones, assaulted the marchers. Representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, town police and county deputies stood by passively during the assaults." Though the FBI ignored Posey, a chain of events was soon set in motion that led to the discovery of the bodies and another three years later, the conviction of Neshoba Sounty Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, Price and five others on federal charges of violating the civil rights ofthe three murdered men. Klan conducts a "funeral" Soon after the "disappearance" of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, Posey fled to Tennessee where he took refuge at the Highlander Center near Knoxville. He was soon to come across information that pinpointed the location of the bodies and the identities of the murderers. This information, initially ignored by federal authorities, led the FBI to the discovery of the three young martyrs . It came from Ernest Moore, a World War II veteran who had a drinking problem. Here's how Posey recounted the story to the World: "Ernest was a good man, but a veteran will tell you that some of those boys never sobered up after the war. "Ernest lived with his widowed mother near the dam site where the bodies were eventually found. Well, one night Earnest was drinking and his momma wouldn't let him iri the house. So he went down near the dam and laid under a tree and fell asleep. He woke up kind of early in the morning and he heard Ray Killen . He knew him 'cause he'd heard him on TV. Killen was preaching a funeral. "The preacher was asking the Lord to forgive [Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman] for being Jews and Communists, agitators and things like that. Moore thought he was dreaming ... you know, Moore had had the D.T.s several times but he was saying, 'God almighty, this is my worse case yet." Moore walked several miles back to town and fell asleep in front of a dry cleaners owned by Hugh Wolverton, a.friend of Posey's. Wolverton was later to tell Posey the exact location ofthe bodies. Mississippi's bloody legacy Posey had talked to newspaper columnist Drew Pearson who was a friend ofPresident Lyndon Johnson. Johnson and the "big news organizations," according to Posey, started to put the pressure on. Six weeks after the murders the bodies were found buried on the property of a wealthy Klansman named Olen Burrage, who was never prosecuted. But the remains of the three civil rights workers wasn't all the FBI found. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45aJ046.html 9/17/2003 Les Bayless, Three who gave their lives : Remembering the martyrs ofMississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 Page 4 of5 According to Posey, "[the FBI] searched and drug the Pearl River looking for those civil rights workers. I know personally that they found at least seven blacks killed whose bodies were thrown there by the Klan. " Mississippi never brought state charges against any of the Klansmen who committed these crimes . Posey thinks there's a reason for that. "When I was coming up most of the white people in Mississippi didn't know it was against the law to murder a Black person," he said. He recalled an incident he witnessed as a child that shaped his thinking on the genocidal cruelty of racism. "I was in Philadelphia one Saturday afternoon - in the olden days people came to town on Saturday - they were share croppers and the like. Well, to make a long story short, there was this Black teenager. There was this white woman who came out of a store right there on Court Square." The teen accidentally bumped into her. The woman started screaming. "Well, some men went into Johnson's hardware store and took out some shotguns," Posey said. "They chased the poor young fellow around Court Square, shooting at him.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Attorney General's Ninth Annual Report to Congress Pursuant to The
    THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S NINTH ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS PURSUANT TO THE EMMETT TILL UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS CRIME ACT OF 2007 AND THIRD ANNUALREPORT TO CONGRESS PURSUANT TO THE EMMETT TILL UNSOLVEDCIVIL RIGHTS CRIMES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2016 March 1, 2021 INTRODUCTION This is the ninth annual Report (Report) submitted to Congress pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of2007 (Till Act or Act), 1 as well as the third Report submitted pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016 (Reauthorization Act). 2 This Report includes information about the Department of Justice's (Department) activities in the time period since the eighth Till Act Report, and second Reauthorization Report, which was dated June 2019. Section I of this Report summarizes the historical efforts of the Department to prosecute cases involving racial violence and describes the genesis of its Cold Case Int~~ative. It also provides an overview ofthe factual and legal challenges that federal prosecutors face in their "efforts to secure justice in unsolved Civil Rights-era homicides. Section II ofthe Report presents the progress made since the last Report. It includes a chart ofthe progress made on cases reported under the initial Till Act and under the Reauthorization Act. Section III of the Report provides a brief overview of the cases the Department has closed or referred for preliminary investigation since its last Report. Case closing memoranda written by Department attorneys are available on the Department's website: https://www.justice.gov/crt/civil-rights-division-emmett­ till-act-cold-ca e-clo ing-memoranda.
    [Show full text]
  • Cold Case Initiative 1St Report to Congress
    THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S FIRST ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS PURSUANT TO THE EMMETT TILL UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS CRIME ACTOF 2007 APRIL 7,2009 This report is submitted pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, regarding the activities ofthe Department ofJustice (DOJ or the Department) under the Act. This initial report covers activities predating the Act, which was signed into law on October 7,2008, and the six months since its enactment.! 1. THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE'S EFFORTS TO INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS ERA HOMICIDES A. Overview and Background The Department of Justice fully supports the goals ofthe Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of2007. For more than 50 years, the Department of Justice has been instrumental in bringing justice to some ofthe nation's horrific civil rights era crimes. These crimes occurred during a terrible time in our nation's history when some people viewed their fellow Americans as inferior, and as threats, based only on the color of their skin. The Department of Justice believes that racially motivated murders from the civil rights era constitute L some of the greatest blemishes upon our history. As such, the Department stands ready to lend our assistance, expertise, and resources to assist in the investigation and possible prosecution of these matters. Unfortunately, federal jurisdiction over these historic cases is limited. The Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution and federal statutory law have limited the Department's ability to prosecute most civil rights era cases at the federal level. For example, two ofthe most important federal statutes that can be used to prosecute racially motivated homicides, 18 U.S.C.
    [Show full text]
  • To South Africans of Color Such As My Mother, Who Came of Age in The
    To South Africans of color such as my mother, who came of age in the years after 1948, when the white minority government launched the so- cial experiment known as apartheid, the United States beckoned as a country of promise and opportunity, a faraway place relatively free of the racialized degradation South Africa had come to epitomize. Americans, especially black Americans, were glamorous and well off and lived in beau- tiful homes, my mother and many in her generation believed. Although they understood that whites ran most things in America, too, it was hard to conceive of a life as oppressive as that experienced by people of color under the strictures of South African baaskaap, or white domination. As she planned to leave, my mother believed that she was escaping a country on the verge of self-destruction, its trauma highlighted by events that were increasingly capturing the world’s attention. In 1966, thousands of people had been evicted from District Six, a multiracial area in central Cape Town, and dumped on the barren wastelands of the Cape Flats. In May 1966, anti-apartheid activist Bram Fischer was sentenced to life in prison for his work with the African National Congress (ANC) and its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), and the South African Communist Party. A month later, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy toured the country, speaking out against apartheid, meeting with ANC president-general Albert Luthuli, and criticizing the govern- ment in a historic speech at the University of Cape Town. In July 1966, the government banned nearly one thousand people under the Suppres- sion of Communism Act and the Riotous Assemblies Act.
    [Show full text]
  • Southern Sheriffs of the Twentieth Century
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2003 "Caretakers of the Color Line": Southern Sheriffs of the Twentieth Century Grace Earle Hill College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Criminology Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Hill, Grace Earle, ""Caretakers of the Color Line": Southern Sheriffs of the Twentieth Century" (2003). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626415. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-st0q-g532 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “CARETAKERS OF THE COLOR LINE”: SOUTHERN SHERIFFS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Grace E. Hill 2003 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts J Grace E. Hill Approved, June 2003 Judith Ewell Cindy Hahamo vitch Cam Walker TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract iv Introduction 2 Part I. Southern Sheriffs: Central Figures in Southern Racial History 8 Part II. Activism: Exposing and Challenging Southern Sheriffs’ Power 28 Part III. Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and Sheriff Jim Clark: 42 The Battle for Voting Rights in Mississippi and Alabama Part IV.
    [Show full text]
  • Emmett Till Cold Case Investigation and Training and Technical Assistance Program” Hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance
    MARY JO GIOVACCHINI: Good afternoon everybody and welcome to today's webinar “Emmett Till Cold Case Investigation and Training and Technical Assistance Program” hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. At this time, I'd like to introduce today's presenters: Elizabeth Griffith, Associate Deputy Director with the Bureau of Justice Assistance; Barbara Kay Bosserman, Deputy Chief of the Cold Case Unit and Senior Legal Counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice; LaShunda Williams, Supervisory Special Agent Civil Rights Division within the Bureau of—in the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Gerri Ratliff, Acting Director for Community Relations Service within the Department of Justice. At this time I'm going to turn the presentation over to Betsi Griffith. ELIZABETH GRIFFITH: Good afternoon and thank you. I'm Betsi Griffith from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. I just want to lay out here the agenda for today. We're going to spend a little bit of time talking about the agency who's offering this opportunity, the Bureau of Justice Assistance where I work, talk a little bit about the particular opportunity including eligibility and grant-related information, and some background on how we review our applications to assist you in applying. This project has—is really building on the foundation of some tremendous work that's been happening across the Department over the last decade so I really want to turn it over to subject matter expertise that can kind of give you that context and are available to work with sites that receive funding or generally have an interest in this work so I wanted you all to be aware of that, and then we'll close with a few minutes around, you know, just logistics of both things that we've learned from experience you want to keep an eye out for as you apply as well as to talk briefly about our new Grants Management System, and answer question and—answer any questions you have.
    [Show full text]
  • James Chaney James Earl Chaney, the Son of a Plasterer, Was Born In
    Page 1 of 3 James Chaney James Earl Chaney, the son of a plasterer, was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on 30th May 1943. An early supporter of the struggle for civil rights, Chaney was suspended from school for wearing a NAACP badge. After leaving Harris Junior College he worked with his father as an apprentice plasterer. In October, 1963, Chaney began volunteer work at the Meridian office of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). He impressed Michael Schwerner, the head of the office, and was recommended for a full-time post with the organisation. Chaney was involved with the CORE's Freedom Summer campaign. On 21st June, 1964, Chaney, along with Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, went to Longdale to visit Mt. Zion Methodist Church, a building that had been fire-bombed by the Ku Klux Klan because it was going to be used as a Freedom School. On the way back to the CORE office in Meridian, the three men were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Later that evening they were released from the Neshoba jail only to be stopped again on a rural road where a white mob shot them dead and buried them in a earthen dam. When Attorney General Robert Kennedy heard that the men were missing, he arranged for Joseph Sullivan of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to go to Mississippi to discover what has happened. On 4th August, 1964, FBI agents found the bodies in an earthen dam at Old Jolly Farm. Page 2 of 3 James Earl Chaney's mother, Fannie Chaney and brother Ben at his funeral.
    [Show full text]
  • Working for Justice in Neshoba County, Mississippi: Andy Sheldon
    THE JURY EXPERT Working for Justice in Neshoba County, Mississippi: Andy Sheldon and Beth Bonora discuss trial consulting in this landmark case by Beth Foley “Neshoba: The Price of Freedom,” is a newly released documentary by Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano that focuses on one of the most notorious crimes of the Civil Rights Era and the long road to justice that followed. The case of Mississippi v. Edgar Ray Killen is about three young men murdered in Mississippi in 1964 James Chaney, a 20-year-old black Mississippian, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, two white New Yorkers, also in their early 20s disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The young men were spending their summer working to register African Americans to vote. Six long weeks later their bodies were found in a mud dam on the property of Olen Burrage. Goodman and Schwerner had been shot. Chaney, the young black man, was also shot, but only after he was beaten, tortured and mutilated. Although the F.B.I. and the Justice Department won a handful of convictions, and light sentences, on federal civil rights charges a few years later against some of the men involved with the murders, no state charges, for murder or anything else, were brought until 2005. Finally, in 2005 Edgar Ray Killen, the 80-year-old preacher and sawmill operator long believed to have been one of the main organizers of the killings was brought to justice and convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison. The documentary tells the story of these murders, from black and white members of the Philadelphia Coalition, a dedicated group of citizens who push to make sure the truth about that fateful night is told and pressure Mississippi state officials to bring the murderers to justice.
    [Show full text]
  • Neshoba: the Price of Freedom
    A film by Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano 87 mins, 2010 DigiBeta, Stereo, 4:3 First Run Features (212) 243-0600/Fax (212) 989-7649 Website: www.firstrunfeatures.com Email: [email protected] PRAISE FOR NESHOBA: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM ““Fascinating and troubling… history is richly present in Neshoba , (yet) it is not only of historical interest. It was a Mississippi writer, after all, who observed that ‘the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.’ This film is a document of hope, progress and idealism but also a reminder that the deep springs of bigotry and violence that fed a long, vicious campaign of domestic terrorism have not dried up.”” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times "A film about fiery passions and murderous deeds that is disturbing in ways that go beyond what might be expected." -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times “Potent…Riveting!" - Dennis Harvey, Variety FOUR STARS! “ Neshoba reopens the debate: How was this allowed to happen? How do we move forward? Some questions, this compelling movie reminds us, still require answers.” -S. James Snyder, Time Out New York CRITICS’ PICK! “Seriously disturbing…gains raw power thanks to unrepentant racist Edgar Ray Killen’s unlikely cooperation with the film.” –New York Magazine “This is a superb and intelligent film that brought an awaking to me of a problem that has never been addressed correctly.” -Gerald Wright Rotten Tomatoes "Masterful!" - Ernest Hardy, The Village Voice “Provides a fresh perspective on history”- Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward FOUR STARS! “Reveals that although many have belatedly come to embrace the notion of universal brotherhood, some still remain inveterate racists willing to go their graves waving the flag of intolerance.” –Kam Williams, Newsblaze “The tools used to tell the tale (newsreels, family photos, crime scene and autopsy photos) are masterfully employed.
    [Show full text]
  • Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act
    EMMETT TILL UNSOLVED CIVIL RIGHTS CRIME ACT JOINT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES AND THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME, TERRORISM, AND HOMELAND SECURITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 923 JUNE 12, 2007 Serial No. 110-31 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary Available via the World Wide Web: http://judiciary.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 36-017 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan, Chairman HOWARD L. BERMAN, California LAMAR SMITH, Texas RICK BOUCHER, Virginia F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., JERROLD NADLER, New York Wisconsin ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina ELTON GALLEGLY, California ZOE LOFGREN, California BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas STEVE CHABOT, Ohio MAXINE WATERS, California DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California MARTIN T. MEEHAN, Massachusetts CHRIS CANNON, Utah WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts RIC KELLER, Florida ROBERT WEXLER, Florida DARRELL ISSA, California LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California MIKE PENCE, Indiana STEVE COHEN, Tennessee J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia HANK JOHNSON, Georgia STEVE KING, Iowa LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois TOM FEENEY, Florida BRAD SHERMAN,
    [Show full text]
  • Murder in Mississippi: United States V. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights. by Howard Ball (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2004) 192 Pp
    298 | BRIAN K. LANDSBERG Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights. By Howard Ball (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2004) 192 pp. $29.95 cloth $12.95 paper Murder in Mississippi tells the story of the federal prosecution of persons charged with conspiracy to deprive three civil-rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, of their civil rights. Although the case led to a Supreme Court decision interpreting Reconstruction criminal statutes, its signiªcance lies more in what it says Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article-pdf/36/2/298/1707053/0022195054741569.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 about the history of the civil-rights era, the condition of Mississippi soci- ety in the 1960s, the growing national consciousness of racial discrimina- tion, and the structure and problems of enforcing federal laws in a resis- tant and hostile environment. Ball draws on his personal knowledge of Mississippi, along with the papers of Supreme Court justices, presidents, civil-rights organizations, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, and numerous secondary sources to develop a compelling narrative. Ball does not purport to pres- ent a comprehensive historical, social, and legal analysis. Instead, he paints the picture in broad strokes, selecting dramatic examples to illus- trate the story, rather than providing every fact and nuance. After short chapters introducing the book and explaining Ball’s own experiences in Mississippi beginning in 1976, Ball describes the legal and social structure of racial segregation, choosing Plessy v. Ferguson as the seminal Supreme Court decision legitimating segregation. He presents Brown v.
    [Show full text]
  • Applying the Jigsaw Technique to the Mississippi Burning Murders: a Freedom Summer Lesson Lindon Joey Ratliff Mississippi State University
    The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies Volume 72 Article 4 Number 2 Volume 72 No. 2 (2011) June 2011 Applying the Jigsaw Technique to the Mississippi Burning Murders: A Freedom Summer Lesson Lindon Joey Ratliff Mississippi State University Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/the_councilor Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons, and the Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education Commons Recommended Citation Ratliff, Lindon Joey (2011) "Applying the Jigsaw Technique to the Mississippi Burning Murders: A Freedom Summer Lesson," The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies: Vol. 72 : No. 2 , Article 4. Available at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/the_councilor/vol72/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in The ouncC ilor: A Journal of the Social Studies by an authorized editor of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ratliff: Applying the Jigsaw Technique to the Mississippi Burning Murders: Applying the Jigsaw Technique to the Mississippi Burning Murders: A Freedom Summer Lesson Lindon Joey Ratliff Mississippi State University Purpose Statement The purpose of this article is to assist social studies teachers with integrating the Jigsaw technique to the Civil Rights movement. Designed in 1971, the Jigsaw Technique was created to combat racism and assist with encouraging cooperative learning. It is the sincere hope of this author that this sample lesson will ultimately assist educators in the creation of stronger units dealing with civil rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    INTRODUCTION This study guide is designed for teachers as a companion to the Pepsi Edition of the documentary Eyes on the Prize. Divided into eight segments, the Pepsi Edition is two hours long, considerably shorter than the original version of Eyes on the Prize. The teacher, using this guide with the Pepsi Edition, can present to students a balanced rendering of the major events of the civil rights movement between the landmark years 1954 and 1965. The first section of the study guide is devoted to what came before the advent of the modern civil rights movement, from the landing of the first slaves in Louisiana to the entrenchment of Jim Crow in the South. The subsequent sections of the guide, with three case studies, are devoted to the eight segments of the documentary Eyes on the Prize. Each of the eight sections includes: Synopsis Chronology Glossary Quotes Questions Two copies of Glossary, Quotes, and Questions appear in each section. One copy, with the list of questions, is to be copied and handed out to the students. The second copy, with the list of questions and (suggested) answers, is for the teachers. The Quotes and Questions often touch on the same points, and it is best to select Quotes for one segment of the documentary and Questions for another, etc. The events described in Eyes on the Prize are recent history. To be sure, we live in the aftermath of a political revolution that has no equal. But if Jim Crow is dead, his legacy lingers. I was reminded of this in February 1994.
    [Show full text]