Freedom Summer and the Deaths of Andrew Goodman, James Cheney and Mickey Schwerner

Civil Rights leaders considered Mississippi to be “the heart of the [Jim Crow] beast.” (Seeger and Reiser, p. 141.) It was far more dangerous than any of the other Southern states. (Id.)

There were four primary pieces of federal civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s: The Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1964, and 1968, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 1957 act established a commission to investigate civil rights violations and authorized federal injunctions when violations were found. The 1964 statute dealt with discrimination in places of public accommodations, rather than voting rights, which were secondary to the public accommodations issues. The 1965 act was primarily concerned with voting rights issues; it banned literacy tests and called for the creation of federal examiners to oversee elections. The 1968 legislation addressed voting, housing and education issues.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, civil rights groups led by CORE organized a get out the vote campaign that came to be known as Freedom Summer. Characteristic of the South in general, in 1958 only nine percent of blacks were registered to vote and in Mississippi it was just four percent. In 16 southern counties, a majority of the voters were black, but not one of them was registered to vote. (Anderson, p. 27.)

Thousands of college students, black and white, came to Mississippi to register black voters. “A number of professional folksingers (Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Peter LaFarge, Julius Lester, and Judy Collins) … participate[d] in Project Mississippi …, traveling throughout the state giving performances at freedom schools and community centers and attempting to instill an interest in the music of Mississippi among its people. “ (Cohen, Wasn’t That a Time, p. 207.)

Among the college students who were involved in the Mississippi voter registration activities were Andrew Goodman, James Cheney and Mickey Schwerner, all members of CORE. There were many violent reactions from the conservative white establishment to CORE’s efforts. During the Freedom Summer, Mississippians beat 80 civil rights workers and shot at 30 other volunteers, killing 4. Southern policemen arrested over a thousand civil rights workers on trumped-up charges. In McComb, Mississippi there were 17 bombings in three months and 37 black churches were burned. (Anderson at 79.)

The most notorious of the violence was the killing of the aforementioned three young CORE members by the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan. The physician who examined Cheney’s body filed a report that stated Cheney “…had been beaten to a pulp…. In my twenty-five years as a pathologist and medical examiner, I have never seen bones so severely shattered, except in tremendously high-speed accidents or air plane crashes.” (Id. at p. 78.)

Phil Ochs wrote a couple of songs about the Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner killings and other injustices that occurred in Mississippi, “Going Down to Mississippi” and “Here’s to the State of Mississippi.Other songs relating to the same events include Richard Farina‘s, “Michael, Andrew and James” (1965); Tom Paxton’s “Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney” (1965); and, Simon & Garfunkel‘s “He Was My Brother” (1964), which is dedicated to Andrew Goodman, who was their friend and a classmate of Simon’s at Queens College.

“Going Down to Mississippi”, written and sung by Phil Ochs. (http://youtu.be/vRe2GHwJdd4?list=PLIeRRviu1HMm86IWgUQUEQFxdlpwKjnUA)

I’m going down to Mississippi
I’m going down a southern road
And if you never see me again
Remember that I had to go
Remember that I had to go

It’s a long road down to Mississippi
It’s a short road back the other way
If the cops pull you over to the side of the road
You won’t have nothing to say
No, you won’t have nothing to say

There’s a man waiting down in Mississippi
And he’s waiting with a rifle in his hand
And he’s looking down the road for an out-of-state car
And he thinks he’s fighting for his land
Yes, he thinks he’s fighting for his land

And he won’t know the clothes I’m wearing
And he doesn’t know the name that I own
But his gun is large and his hate is hard
And he knows I’m coming down the road
Yes, he knows I’m coming down the road

It’s not for the glory that I’m leaving
It’s not trouble that I’m looking for
But there’s lots of good work calling me down
And the waiting won’t do no more
No, the waiting won’t do no more

Don’t call me the brave one for going
No, don’t pin a medal to my name
For even if there was any choice to make
I’d be going down just the same
I’d be going down just the same

For someone’s got to go to Mississippi
Just as sure as there’s a right and there’s a wrong
Even though you say the time will change
That time is just too long
That time is just too long

So I’m going down to Mississippi
I’m going down a southern road
And if you never see me again
Remember that I had to go
Remember that I had to go

“Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney, written and sung by Tom Paxton. (http://youtu.be/gCHjV4IodY4)

The night air is heavy, no cool breezes blow.
The sounds of the voices are worried and low.
Desperately wondering and desperate to know,
About Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.

Calm desperation and flickering hope,
Reality grapples like a hand on the throat.
For you live in the shadow of ten feet of rope,
If you’re Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

The Pearl River was dragged and two bodies were found,
But it was a blind alley for both men were brown.
So they all shrugged their shoulders and the search it went on,
For Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

Pull out the dead bodies from the ooze of the dam.
Take the bodies to Jackson all accordin’ to plan.
With the one broken body do the best that you can,
It’s the body of young James Chaney.

The nation was outraged and shocked through and through.
Call J. Edgar Hoover. He’ll know what to do.
For they’ve murdered two white men, and a colored boy too
Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.

James Chaney your body exploded in pain,
And the beating they gave you is pounding my brain.
And they murdered much more with their dark bloody chains
And the body of pity lies bleeding.

The pot-bellied copper shook hands all around,
And joked with the rednecks who came into town
And they swore that the murderer soon would be found
And they laughed as they spat their tobacco.

“He Was My Brother, written by Paul Simon, sung by Simon & Garfunkle. (http://youtu.be/daPpeLKdGSw)

He was my brother
Five years older than I
He was my brother
Twenty-three years old, the day he died

Freedom writer
They cursed my brother to his face
Go home, outsider
Mississippi’s gonna be your buryin’ place

He was singing on his knees
An angry mob trailed along
They shot my brother dead
Because he hated what was wrong

He was my brother
Tears can’t bring him back to me
He, he was my brother
And he died so his brothers could be free
Oh God, he died so his brothers could be free

“Here’s to the State of Mississippi,written and sung by Phil Ochs (http://youtu.be/K7fgB0m_y2I)

Here’s to the state of Mississippi,
For underneath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
Whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
The calendar is lyin’ when it reads the present time.
Whoa here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!

Here’s to the people of Mississippi
Who say the folks up north, they just don’t understand
And they tremble in their shadows at the thunder of the Klan
The sweating of their souls can’t wash the blood from off their hands
They smile and shrug their shoulders at the murder of a man
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Here’s to the schools of Mississippi
Where they’re teaching all the children that they don’t have to care
All of rudiments of hatred are present everywhere
And every single classroom is a factory of despair
There’s nobody learning such a foreign word as fair
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

Here’s to the cops of Mississippi
They’re chewing their tobacco as they lock the prison door
Their bellies bounce inside them as they knock you to the floor
No they don’t like taking prisoners in their private little war
Behind their broken badges there are murderers and more
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And, here’s to the judges of Mississippi
Who wear the robe of honor as they crawl into the court
They’re guarding all the bastions with their phony legal fort
Oh, justice is a stranger when the prisoners report
When the black man stands accused the trial is always short
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here’s to the government of Mississippi
In the swamp of their bureaucracy they’re always bogging down
And criminals are posing as the mayors of the towns
They’re hoping that no one sees the sights and hears the sounds
And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here’s to the laws of Mississippi
Congressmen will gather in a circus of delay
While the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
Unwed mothers should be sterilized, I’ve even heard them say
Yes, corruption can be classic in the Mississippi way
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

And here’s to the churches of Mississippi
Where the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust
And the Sunday morning sermons pander to their lust
The fallen face of Jesus is choking in the dust
Heaven only knows in which God they can trust
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

“Mississippi Goddamn, written and sung by Nina Simone (http://youtu.be/fVQjGGJVSXc) expresses the anger of the black community about the goings-on in Mississippi and the south in general. The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was the impetus for the writing of the song. Ms. Simone debuted the song in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1964. (Neal, p. 47.) Simone also wrote “Young, Gifted and Black,and “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free, which expressed her growing frustration with America in general. Simone left the United States in 1970, eventually settling in France where she died in 2003.

The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it

Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can’t you see it? Can’t you feel it?
It’s all in the air
I can’t stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

This is a show tune
But the show hasn’t been written for it, yet

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day’s gonna be my last

Lord, have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don’t belong here, I don’t belong there
I’ve even stopped believing in prayer

Don’t tell me, I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I’ve been there so I know
They keep on saying, “Go slow!”

But that’s just the trouble, do it slow
Washing the windows, do it slow
Picking the cotton, do it slow
You’re just plain rotten, do it slow

You’re too damn lazy, do it slow
The thinking’s crazy, do it slow
Where am I going? What am I doing?
I don’t know, I don’t know

Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

I bet you thought I was kiddin’

Picket lines, school boy cots
They try to say it’s a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister, my brother, my people and me

Yes, you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you’d stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh, but this whole country is full of lies
You’re all gonna die and die like flies
I don’t trust you any more
You keep on saying, “Go slow! Go slow!”

But that’s just the trouble, do it slow
Desegregation, do it slow
Mass participation, do it slow
Reunification, do it slow

Do things gradually, do it slow
But bring more tragedy, do it slow
Why don’t you see it? Why don’t you feel it?
I don’t know, I don’t know

You don’t have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

That’s it!

“In the Mississippi River,written by Marshall Jones and sung by The SNCC Freedom Singers is about dragging the river for Goodman, Werner and Chaney and finding bodies of other murdered blacks. (https://youtu.be/g_HIof3irK0)

In the Mississippi River,
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord
In the Mississippi River,
Well, you can count them one by one,
It could be your son,

Well, you can count them two by two,
It could be me or you
Well, you can count them three by three,

Do you wanna see?
Well, you can count-a them four by four,

Oh, well-a into the river they go (2X)

Well, you can count them five by five,
With their hands tied
and they don’t come out alive
And their feet tied

Well, you can count them six by six,
Holes throughout the body
In the Mississippi, they got it fixed
Like Goodman

Well, you can count them seven by seven,
Like Schwerner
The Mississippi River sure ain’t heaven
And Chaney…

And you can count them eight ‎
And they are gone because of hate ‎
And you can count them nine by nine ‎
In Mississippi this ain’t no crime ‎
And you can count them ten by ten ‎
And we wonder when the right will win ‎

In the Mississippi River ‎
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord ‎
In the Mississippi River ‎
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord ‎
In the Mississippi River ‎

We’re going stop them from going in the river ‎
We’re going stop them from going in the river ‎
With their heads cut off ‎
Tied by their hands ‎
Tied by their feet

“In the Mississippi River” is also a part of a YouTube video of a performance of The Freedom Singers at UCLA on April 8, 1965. This video is more than an hour long and includes other civil rights songs and commentary about the civil rights scene at the time. (http://youtu.be/_QmZcO4s6yo)

Richard Farina‘s song, “Michael, Andrew and James, sung by Richard and Mimi Farina can be found at http://youtu.be/06YCqfPwV08. (looking for lyrics)

The local state authorities would not bring charges against any of those who were suspected of the Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner killings. But, because they, the local sheriff Lawrence Rainey, his deputies and some state police, a total of 21 men, bragged about their acts, they were tried in federal court for civil rights violations and conspiracy to commit murder. Seven people were convicted, but not the sheriff. They were sentenced to three to ten years in prison, but six years was the longest any of them served. The trial judge said, “They killed one nigger, one Jew and a white man. I gave them what they deserved.” (Hakim, pp. 350-51.) Decades later, the State of Mississippi brought murder charges against one of the killers, who was still alive, 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen. He was convicted of manslaughter and given three 20-year prison sentences. (Id.)