[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 24, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6025-S6026]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 600--COMMEMORATING THE 44TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATHS 
   OF CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS ANDREW GOODMAN, JAMES CHANEY, AND MICHAEL 
 SCHWERNER IN PHILADELPHIA, MISSISSIPPI, WHILE WORKING IN THE NAME OF 
 AMERICAN DEMOCRACY TO REGISTER VOTERS AND SECURE CIVIL RIGHTS DURING 
    THE SUMMER OF 1964, WHICH HAS BECOME KNOWN AS ``FREEDOM SUMMER''

  Mr. REID (for Mr. Obama (for himself, Mr. Specter, Mr. Leahy, and Mr. 
Schumer)) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and 
agreed to:

                              S. Res. 600

       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 has become known as 
     ``Freedom Summer'';
       Whereas Andrew Goodman was a 20-year-old White anthropology 
     major at New York's Queens College, who volunteered for the 
     ``Freedom Summer'' project;
       Whereas James Chaney, from Meridian, Mississippi, was a 21-
     year-old African-American civil rights activist who joined 
     the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1963 to work on 
     voter education and registration;
       Whereas Michael ``Mickey'' Schwerner, from Brooklyn, New 
     York, was a 24-year-old White CORE field secretary in 
     Mississippi and a veteran of the civil rights movement;
       Whereas in 1964, Mississippi had a Black voting-age 
     population of 450,000, but only 16,000 Blacks were registered 
     to vote;

[[Page S6026]]

       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 beaten, shot, and killed;
       Whereas 2 days later, their burnt, charred, and 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 led 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, was 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 Senate--
       (1) encourages all Americans to pause and remember Andrew 
     Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner and the 44th 
     anniversary of their deaths;
       (2) commemorates the life and work of Andrew Goodman, James 
     Chaney, 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) commemorates and acknowledges 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.

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