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[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1293 Introduced in House (IH)]

110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
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 became known as ``Freedom Summer''.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 20, 2008

Mr. Lewis of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Cohen, 
 Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mr. Towns, Mr. McDermott, Ms. Eddie Bernice 
   Johnson of Texas, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. Linda T. 
   Sanchez of California, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, and Ms. Sutton) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                            on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
   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 became known as ``Freedom Summer''.

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.
                                 <all>
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