H. Res. 1293 

In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

June 23, 2008. 

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; 
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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 
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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; 
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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 
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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. 

Attest: 

Clerk.