[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 90 (Friday, June 25, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1271-E1272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING AND ENCOURAGING ALL AMERICANS TO OBSERVE 40TH ANNIVERSARY 
 OF THE DEATHS OF ANDREW GOODMAN, JAMES CHANEY, AND MICHAEL SCHWERNER, 
                        CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZERS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 21, 2004

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize 
the 40th anniversary of the deaths of Mr. James Chaney, Mr. Andrew 
Goodman, and Mr. Andrew Schwerner. I submit the following speech by 
former Mississippi Secretary of State Dick Molpus published June 25, 
2004, in the Clarion-Ledger Newspaper of Jackson Mississippi.

       To the families and friends of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman 
     and Mickey Schwerner we issue a heartfelt welcome. You and 
     yours are forever linked with all of us. We are honored today 
     by your presence.
       Also, as I look across this audience I see people I know 
     from across Mississippi and the United States. I am lifted up 
     by your presence, as well.
       This is an historic day for a number of reasons. First, we 
     are seeing a remarkable display of unity and connection from 
     the citizens of Philadelphia and Neshoba County. In the June 
     2 edition of the Neshoba Democrat I saw a picture of Leroy 
     Clemons, president of the NAACP, with Jim Prince, editor of 
     the Neshoba Democrat, saying clearly this community has come 
     together and it was time for the ``sun to shine through the 
     clouds.''
       There is no doubt that the work of the Philadelphia 
     Coalition is nothing short of a miracle. I watched with pride 
     as Mayor Rayburn Waddell of Philadelphia spoke for the 
     Philadelphia City Council in passing an unequivocal 
     resolution calling for justice and as the Neshoba County 
     Board of Supervisors, led by James Young, issued their own 
     clear call. The power of human understanding has been shown 
     to us by the 30 individuals who have met every Monday night 
     for two months to plan this event and authored their own 
     eloquent and moving tribute to Messrs. Chaney, Schwerner and 
     Goodman. I am more proud of the leadership in my hometown 
     than at any time in my life.
       I believe, however, until justice is done, we are all at 
     least somewhat complicit in those deaths. I recognize that 
     only a handful of hate-filled men actually committed the 
     murders, but we are all, to some degree, implicated. Some 
     will say, ``How can that be? Why can't we just move on?'' 
     Most weren't members of the Klan, those of you under 40 
     weren't even born and many of the baby-boomers, myself 
     included, were teenagers. Many of our older citizens would 
     never have ridden the dirt roads to terrorize and they 
     don't condone murder.
       But all us who are Neshoba Countians or Mississippians have 
     to acknowledge and face our corporate responsibility in this 
     tragedy and I'm not talking about some fruitless and useless 
     intellectual effort to assign guilt or blame.
       The debate about who could have or should have done what in 
     1964 could go on forever. It's a discussion that carries us 
     no where--there is no resolution. But that does not mean we 
     can move on by ignoring where we are in 2004.
       One fact is absolutely clear. Hear this: For 40 years, our 
     state judicial system has allowed murderers to roam our land. 
     Night riders, church burners, beaters and killers deserve no 
     protection from sure justice.
       Our district attorney, Mark Duncan, is elected by Neshoba 
     citizens and those in four adjoining counties. Jim Hood, our 
     attorney general, is elected by all Mississippians. Our U.S. 
     attorney, Dunn Lampton, is appointed by the president of the 
     United States, an election we all vote in. These are not 
     weak, timid or cowardly men. They have all voiced their 
     support for bringing charges with proven evidence that will 
     lead to a conviction.
       But our local responsibility for what happens in the future 
     is also heavy. Clearly, we need to encourage and support 
     those prosecutors. But those of us with local roots must do 
     more.
       By most accounts there were 20 men from Neshoba and 
     Lauderdale Counties involved in the planning and actual 
     executions. A number of them have taken to their grave their 
     knowledge of this crime. They have already had their judgment 
     day. Others, however, certainly told wives, children and 
     buddies of their involvement.
       So there must be witnesses among us who can share 
     information with prosecutors. Other murderers are aged and 
     infirm and may want to be at peace with themselves and with 
     God before their own deaths. They need to be encouraged to 
     come forward. Now is the time to expose those dark secrets.
       When we have heard murderers brag about their killings but 
     pretend those words were never spoken, when we know about 
     evidence to help bring justice, but refuse to step forward 
     and tell authorities what they need to know ... that's what 
     makes us in 2004 guilty. Pretending this didn't happen makes 
     us complicit. We must provide the help prosecutors need to 
     bring closure to this case.
       But justice by itself is not enough. These three young men 
     died while urging people to vote and participate in our 
     democracy. James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner and Andy Goodman 
     were American patriots. Their murderers were domestic 
     terrorists.
       The end of this saga, however, should not be about cowardly 
     racists finally brought to justice. The final chapter should 
     be about redemption and about moving on--moving on to a 
     better life. The most lasting tribute we can make to these 
     fallen heroes is to move on and to honor their cause.
       This is 2004, not 1964. Many of the demons we face today 
     are similar to the ones 40 years ago. True, African Americans 
     have the right to vote, but too few of our citizens--black, 
     white, Indian, Asian or Hispanic--use that right. Public 
     schools were segregated in 1964. With the growth of 
     segregation academies and white flight, many remain that way 
     now. Few politicians today use outright race-baiting, but we 
     see the symbols some use and the phrases they utter and 
     everyone knows what the code is--what really is being said.
       In 1964 there was a dependence on low-wage jobs in 
     manufacturing plants. Forty years later, most of the plants 
     are gone, but too many still scrape by on dead-end jobs to 
     make ends meet. Black, white and Choctaw Indian communities 
     here in Neshoba County and Mississippi struggle with the 
     scourge of school dropouts, teen pregnancy and drug

[[Page E1272]]

     abuse that keep the cycle of poverty unbroken. To build a 
     lasting monument to James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and 
     Andrew Goodman, we must face these issues with a clear, 
     unblinking eye and say ``no more.''
       And finally, we Mississippians must announce to the world 
     what we've learned in 40 years. We know today that our 
     enemies are not each other. Our real enemies are ignorance, 
     illiteracy, poverty, racism, disease, unemployment, crime, 
     the high dropout rate, teen pregnancy and lack of support for 
     the public schools.
       We can defeat all those enemies not as divided people--
     black or white or Indian--but as a united force banded 
     together by our common humanity, by our own desire to lift 
     each other up.
       Forty years from now, I want our children and grandchildren 
     to look back on us and what we did and say that we had the 
     courage, the wisdom and the strength to rise up, to take the 
     responsibility to right historical wrongs--that we pledged to 
     build a future together, we moved on. Yes, we moved on as one 
     people.
       Dick Molpus, a former secretary of state and gubernatorial 
     candidate, owns the Molpus Woodlands Group, a timberland 
     investment company in Jackson.

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