[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10] [House] [Pages 13342-13346] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]COMMEMORATING THE 44TH ANNIVERSARY OF FREEDOM SUMMER Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1293) 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''. The Clerk read the title of the resolution. The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 1293 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. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan. General Leave Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Michigan? There was no objection. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. I am so pleased to bring this resolution from the Judiciary Committee to remember the deaths of those three great civil rights workers. And I, of course, begin my comments by thanking and commending our greatest civil rights champion in the House of Representatives, John Lewis of Georgia, who was a leader in the civil rights movement, worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and with Dr. Martin Luther King, and with other civil rights organizations. He was also at the great march on Washington in 1963, and we all met. It was a stirring moment in American history, and these three young men paid with their lives for their dedication to ensure that we could end segregation and secure the right to vote for all people in America. A number of Judiciary Committee members have joined with me as cosponsors of this measure: the gentleman from New York, Jerrold Nadler; Steve Cohen, Tennessee; Bobby Scott of Virginia; Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas; Adam Schiff, California; [[Page 13343]] Linda Sanchez, California; Betty Sutton, Ohio; and a number of others. You remember the summer of 1964? Goodman, a student at New York's Queens College; James Chaney of Mississippi; Michael Schwerner, 24 years old of New York, were all working with the CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality. And they left the Meridian, Mississippi, office for the town of Philadelphia 25 miles away. They were stopped by the Klan, and the rest is history. We still work against the backdrop of this activity. It was out of their sacrifices that the movement and understanding of not only the citizens of the country but the leaders of the country and Washington understood what we had to accomplish. And we passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King's inspiring rhetoric kept us together for so, so long, and I'm happy that we're doing what we've done. I'm sure the Senate, the other body, will follow very rapidly. I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 1293, honoring Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner: Mr. Goodman, a 20-year-old student volunteer; Mr. Chaney, a 21-year-old plasterer and activist in the civil rights movement; Mr. Schwerner, a 24-year-old founder of one of the first community centers for African Americans in Mississippi. Mr. Chaney and Mr. Schwerner were also members of the civil rights task force organized by the Congress of Racial Equality. All three were tragically killed in 1964, that summer, for their participation in the civil rights campaign in Mississippi, where they had just taken part, along with 175 other volunteers, in a civil rights orientation project, which led the way for some 800 other volunteers. I had just graduated from high school in California, and I remember the shock of hearing about this tragedy. It was one in a series of tragedies we were seeing portrayed around the United States, where people just simply attempting to be recognized as full human beings in this society, with the opportunity to vote and the opportunity to participate in the political process, were being denied that, and they and many others attempted to try and change that. That summer, these three men were picked up by a sheriff for allegedly speeding, and after their release from jail, they disappeared. A KKK informant and an FBI investigation pieced the story together. Evidently, after their release, the three men had been chased off the road, forced into a Klansmen's car, brutally beaten, and killed. At the time, the State of Mississippi didn't file charges against anyone. The Federal Government charged someone in 1967 with conspiring to violate the civil rights of another, but that defendant was acquitted. Of seven other men convicted on conspiracy charges, no one served more than 6 years for the death of three innocent individuals in this United States of America. It was not until January 6, 2005, that Mississippi indicted Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of murder. He was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 1, 2005, the 41st anniversary of the crime. There is no doubt that justice so delayed warrants our honoring these three civil rights heroes again today, some 44 years after their death. Last year, the House passed H.R. 923, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which came out of our committee with bipartisan support, and it directs the Attorney General to designate a deputy chief within the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and a supervisory special agent within the Civil Rights Unit of the FBI to coordinate the investigation and prosecution of unsolved civil rights- era murders. {time} 1500 We've got to do it now because the perpetrators of these crimes have been able to live in freedom for so long. And some say why go after old men in their last years? Because, in fact, they should not have the opportunity to live out their lives without being held responsible for these horrendous acts. The bill also provides much-needed resources to the Department of Justice, the FBI, State and local law enforcement officials to prosecute these cases. Madam Speaker, the FBI has identified nearly 100 outstanding cases that still need to be assessed. Many of these murders are 30 or 40 years old. Obviously they're difficult to investigate and to prosecute because evidence has been lost or destroyed, witnesses and defendants have died, and memories have dimmed. We must act quickly to bring the long-overdue justice to these victims and their families. I urge all my colleagues to join the chairman of the full committee and other members of the Judiciary Committee in supporting this resolution. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I thank the floor manager for his statement and his commitment across the years for civil rights activity. I yield all but 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia, John Lewis, whose work and writings and the history that he has made in this area are well known across this country and, indeed, around the world. Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Conyers, the chairman of the full committee, for his leadership and for his dedication to the issue and the cause of civil rights, and for bringing this resolution to the floor. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the courage and conviction of three young men, Andy Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. On June 21, 1964, they gave their lives in a struggle for voting rights in America. There was a time, just 44 years ago, when it was almost impossible in the American south for people of color to register and vote. Then, I was 24 years old and the chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, better known as SNCC. I traveled around the country encouraging young people to come to Mississippi to get involved with the Freedom Summer. It was the summer of 1964. At that time, the State of Mississippi had a black population of voting age of more than 450,000, but only about 18,000 blacks were registered to vote. It was dangerous, very dangerous, for those of us who believed that everyone should have the right to vote. But in spite of the risks, there were people--young and old, black and white, rich and poor--people like Andy Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, who put aside the comfort of their own lives to make sure that every citizen had free and fair access to the ballot, not only in Mississippi, but throughout America. Mickey Schwerner was a 24-year-old white man from Brooklyn, New York, who was already a participant in the movement. Andy Goodman was also white, a 21-year-old student at Queens College in New York. James Chaney was a 21-year-old African American man from Meridian, Mississippi, who decided to take a stand for justice in his own community, in his own State. On the morning of June 21, 1964, these three young men drove to Longdale, Mississippi to investigate the burning of an African American church. On their way back, they were arrested, at least stopped and detained by the sheriff and taken to jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That same evening they were released from the jail by the sheriff and turned over to the Klan. They were beaten, shot and killed. Their burnt blue Ford station wagon was pulled from a creek just 2 days later. I joined in the search for them that night with a very heavy heart. Their bodies were found a few weeks later, about 6 weeks later, on August 4, 1964, buried under a mound of dirt. Madam Speaker, I share this story today so that Members of Congress will realize that the struggle for civil rights has been a long, hard road littered by the battered and broken bodies of countless men and women who paid the ultimate price for a precious right, the right to vote, the right to participate in a democratic process. [[Page 13344]] Andy Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner did not die in Europe; they did not die in Asia or in Africa; they did not die in Central America or in the Middle East. They died right here in America, in the American south. I knew these three young men. So, Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote for this resolution to pay tribute to these three young men and so many others who died in the struggle for voting rights in America. We must never forget their sacrifices, their suffering, their pain, and their death. As Members of the United States House of Representatives, it is our duty, our mission, our mandate to make sure that these three young men did not die in vain. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I'm delighted now to yield 2 minutes to Dr. James McDermott of Washington State, a dedicated leader for universal health coverage and a civil rights activist. We were at the United Nations together not too many years ago. Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I am really very proud to rise in support of a resolution put forward by my friend and colleague, John Lewis. This is a man who has risked his own life fighting for civil rights, helping to bridge a racial divide during one of America's worst times. This was a time when it took real courage to go out in the streets and do things. John walked with Martin and with John and with Bobby as they dealt with the threats of racial violence. There was clearly fear in everyone. Anybody who went out was fearful; if they didn't, they didn't know what they were doing. John Lewis is a towering figure who, in his own right, has left his mark in this country. And it is fitting and proper that he should bring a resolution honoring these three civil rights workers whose lives ended 44 years ago in Mississippi at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were killed in that Freedom Summer of 1964. The widow of one of them is now a distinguished lawyer and a good friend in Seattle. She lives on in the memory of her husband. Their deaths sparked a national firestorm of anger and awareness that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Honoring them honors everyone who fought for civil rights and those who suffered great personal sacrifice during times when justice was neither blind nor fair in America. It reminds me of the injustice America is only beginning to correct for a group of African American soldiers stationed in Fort Lawton in Seattle. Because of the color of their skin, they were denied equal justice and they were wrongly convicted of a crime that they did not commit, were sent to prison, and were given bad conduct discharges. We must never forget the lessons of history or we risk repeating them. The resolution Mr. Lewis of Georgia offers will help us remain vigilant in defending civil rights and civil liberties, and help us protect the Nation these people died to defend. I urge my colleagues to strongly support the resolution offered by Mr. Lewis of Georgia. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Washington State. I now yield 2\1/2\ minutes to a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, the gentlelady from Dallas, Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson). Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. I thank the gentleman from Michigan. I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 1293, a bill commemorating the lives of three civil rights activists who were murdered outside Philadelphia, Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan in June of 1964. In 1964, Mississippi had the lowest percentage of registered African American voters in the country. Rampant fear and intimidation, along with literacy tests and poll taxes, had kept more than 90 percent of the African Americans in Mississippi from registering to vote. In June of 1964, thousands of young people volunteered to go to Mississippi in order to register African American voters and fight educational disparities. What would come to be known as ``Freedom Summer'' ignited backlash and violence against these volunteers and civil rights activists. Many homes and black churches were firebombed or burned down that summer, and more than 1,000 volunteers were arrested. Among these Freedom Summer volunteers were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who went to Mississippi to investigate the fire-bombing of the Mount Zion Methodist Church. On June 21, these three men were arrested and held for several hours on alleged traffic violations, but later that evening they were taken from the jail and turned over to the Ku Klux Klan, where they were beaten, shot and killed. These men gave their lives in the name of freedom and justice. The media coverage surrounding their deaths sparked outrage amongst Americans, millions of them all over the country. Their deaths and the activities of Freedom Summer helped set the stage for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I would like very much to thank Congressman Lewis for introducing this resolution, who himself has a closer experience than most of us in this body, and as a matter of fact paved the way for many of us to be here today. I thank you, Congressman Lewis, for the many sacrifices you have made. And it is an honor to serve alongside Congressman Lewis, who coordinated the Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee's efforts to organize voter registration drives and community action programs during Freedom Summer. I strongly support this resolution to honor the sacrifices of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, and all of the volunteers of the Mississippi Freedom Summer who helped to pave the way of voting rights for all Americans. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased now to yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from the District of Columbia, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a brilliant lawyer who argues in the Supreme Court frequently and is a civil rights leader in her own right. Ms. NORTON. This entire House has you, Mr. Chairman, to thank for a lifetime of work in civil rights and human rights for all people, I thank you here on the floor. I thank my good colleague who serves on the Judiciary Committee. And I especially thank my colleague, John Lewis, who was chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee when I first joined. And I think I can say for John and me that either of us expected to be on the floor of this House at that time. I thank you, John. I'm not surprised that you would come forward with this resolution. For me, it would be too poignant an occasion but for the progress that I think we can say assures that these brutal murders, the murders that we came to call the ``Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman murders,'' certainly have not been in vain. In 1963, Bob Moses, a legendary figure of the Mississippi movement, recruited me while I was in law school to go to Mississippi. SNCC had opened up virtually everyplace else, but not Mississippi because, frankly, it was terrorist country. And to show you the extent to which Mississippi was a different place, it took the NAACP and Medgar Evers to lead the sit-ins there, and they got beat unmercifully. And that was in Jackson. I came to the Mississippi Delta that year for an express purpose, to prepare for the 1964 Freedom Summer, by conducting the prototype ``freedom school'' to be used in 1964, when we knew we would be able to gather thousands of students to come down. It was the high point of student activism. John and others went throughout the United States and students came in huge numbers. We had the highest hopes. I was particularly working on the 1964 Democratic Convention with my mentor, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Larry Guyout, who now lives here, the cochairs of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and, working indeed, on the brief that would be used to [[Page 13345]] say that this delegation, rather than the official delegation which excluded African Americans, should be recognized by the 1964 Democratic National Convention. {time} 1515 And why was there a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party? Because, indeed, in the summer of 1964, so many had come down to risk their lives for whom that had to have been their choice. Those high hopes were not extinguished when our delegation did not get seated. Those high hopes were not even extinguished when these brutal murders occurred. It took authorities weeks to find the three young men. Those high hopes remained high and, if anything, thrust the civil rights movement forward in a way it had not been before. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman's time has expired. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman the balance of my time. Ms. NORTON. How much time do we have, please, Madam Speaker? I don't want to go over. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman has 4\1/2\ minutes. Ms. NORTON. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I won't take much longer, but this is a very special moment. In 1963 when I went to Mississippi, I first worked for the March on Washington under Bayard Rustin, then went to the Mississippi Delta. That was, I must say, the most eventful summer of my life, more eventful even than 1964. The great chief of the Mississippi NAACP Medgar Evers put me on a bus. Medgar Evers tried to convince me to stay in Jackson, but I said, no, that I had promised I was coming to the Delta. So he put me on a bus to go to the Delta. He then turned around, went back home, and he was shot and killed in his driveway that same evening. That was a year I shall never forget. But the fact is that the 1964 summer, in fact, happened. The students did not go home after the murders. We continued to organize. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, with Fannie Lou Hamer leading the way at the convention, was the high point of that convention. And the country has never forgotten it. It democratized the Democratic Party. It democratized even the Republican Party. And I must say that both parties then recognized that they had to have representative delegations. Steve Schwerner Michael's brother was one of my classmates in college. When I have met with the families, what has been extraordinary about them is to see that they understand the contributions they personally made to the freedom struggle. They have no regrets. They understand that the loss of Cheney and the two youngsters from the north was the last thing we expected and that that loss helped to waken the country. Do not forget what happened in 1964. The passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and that act contained Title VII. Something else I could never have imagined--I would one day come to enforce a major civil right's law, the 1964 Civil Right's Act as a Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This was the first civil rights legislation since the radical Republicans gave us our first civil rights legislation after the Civil War, and look what happened afterwards: the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Oh, no, these three young men died for a great and noble purpose. And in case the national panorama doesn't drive that point home, surely the fact that Mississippi today has the largest number of black public officials will help you to see that they did not die in vain, and surely the fact that their relatives now see the first African American to secure the nomination of a major party for President of the United States will drive home the reality that these three young men, at the dawn of their lives, not only did not die in vain but for generations to come and, yes, for this generation, have left a legacy of their own. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Once again, I rise in support of H. Res. 1293. David McCullough, the distinguished writer and historian, said, ``We run the risk of being a Nation of historic illiterates.'' And he was referring to our lack of knowledge of the beginnings of this country, the lack of knowledge of the Founding Fathers and that generation. But he need not look back that far. All he needs to do is to look back 40 some years, as the gentleman from Georgia has mentioned to us and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia and the gentleman from Michigan. We cannot allow these real-life tragedies, events, sacrifices to be lost in the midst of memory. We have to make sure that not only do we understand them but that we understand their import and that we teach our children that this is part of America's history and America is what it is today because of the sacrifices of many great men and women, these three included among them: Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner. Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to support the commemoration of the 44th Anniversary of the death 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 would become known as Freedom Summer. I would like to thank my fellow Judiciary member and the gentleman from Georgia, Congressman John Lewis for introducing this legislation. The right to vote has held a central place in the black freedom struggle. After emancipation, African Americans sought the ballot as a means to in American society. During the summer of 1964, thousands of civil rights activists, many of them white college students from the North, descended on Mississippi and other Southern states to try to end the long-time political disenfranchisement of African Americans in the region. Although blacks had won the right to vote in 1870, thanks to the Fifteenth Amendment, for the next 100 years many were unable to exercise that right. White local and state officials systematically kept blacks from voting through formal methods, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, and through cruder methods of fear and intimidation, which included beatings and lynchings. Freedom Summer marked the climax of intensive voter-registration activities in the South that had started in 1961. Organizers chose to focus their efforts on Mississippi because of the State's particularly dismal voting-rights record: in 1962 only 6.7 percent of African Americans in the State were registered to vote, the lowest percentage in the country. The Freedom Summer campaign was organized by a coalition called the Mississippi Council of Federated Organizations, which was led by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Freedom Summer activists faced threats and harassment throughout the campaign, not only from white supremacist groups, but from local residents and police. Freedom School buildings and the volunteers' homes were frequent targets; 37 black churches and 30 black homes and businesses were firebombed or burned during that summer, and the cases often went unsolved. More than 1000 black and white volunteers were arrested, and at least 80 were beaten by white mobs or racist police officers. But the summer's most infamous act of violence was the murder of three young civil rights workers--a black volunteer, James Chaney, and his white coworkers, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. On June 21, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner set out to investigate a church bombing near Philadelphia, Mississippi, but were arrested that afternoon and held for several hours on alleged traffic violations. Their release from jail was the last time they were seen alive before their badly decomposed bodies were discovered under a nearby dam six weeks later. Goodman and Schwerner had died from single gunshot wounds to the chest, and Chaney from a savage beating. These savage attacks were perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan. The FBI investigation that uncovered the deaths of these three brave young men, white and black, also led to the discovery of the bodies of several other African-Americans from Mississippi, whose disappearances over the years had not attracted much attention. On December 4, 1964, 21 White Mississippians from Philadelphia, Mississippi, including [[Page 13346]] the sheriff and his deputy, were arrested and charged with conspiring to deprive Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner of their civil rights, because murder was not a Federal crime. Ironically, on the very same day, December 4, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. Later, a District Court judge dismissed the charges against the 21 Whites. After three years, and an appeal to the Supreme Court, seven individuals were found guilty, but 2 of the defendants, including Edgar Ray Killen, who had been implicated by witnesses, were acquitted because the jury was deadlocked on charges. Over twenty years later, on June 21, 2005 after new evidence, a jury convicted Edgar Ray Killen on 3 counts of manslaughter. These freedom riders made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of all people, black and white. It is fitting that we recognize them and pay tribute, respect, and homage to them, and to the legacy that they have left behind. We commemorate and acknowledge the legacy of these brave Americans who participated in the civil rights movement and the role they played in changing the hearts and minds of Americans. We also celebrate these Americans for their decision to create a political environment necessary to pass legislation to expand civil rights and voting rights for all Americans. Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1293. The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. ____________________