Goodies to Go ™
June 14, 2004– Newsletter #289

1964 Civil Rights Workers Disappear

After investigating the burning of an African American church by the
Klu Klux Klan, three civil rights workers disappeared in Neshoba
County, Mississippi on this day in 1964. At the time, Mississippi
was a very segregated state, rife with prejudicial racial hatred.
The civil rights activists, members of the Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) included two white men from New York, twenty-four
year old Michael Schwerner and twenty year old Andrew Goodman and a
twenty-one year old black Mississippian, James Cherney. The three
men, who had become known to the local KKK, were returning to
Meridian after investigating the burning of a church in Neshoba
county when they were stopped by Neshoba County Sheriff’s Deputy
Cecil Price, a member of the KKK, who jailed them allegedly for
suspicion of church arson. The men spent seven hours completely
isolated in jail after which Price and a Philadelphia (Mississippi)
police officer escorted them out of the city of Philadelphia (the
county seat). Price returned the police officer to the city and then
rushed back alone to the three men. He captured them just inside the
county and held them in his car. Two other cars joined him and they
drove them onto an unmarked dirt road where the three men were shot
to death and their bodies buried. The incident drew national
attention and started an FBI investigation operation known as MIBURN,
an abbreviation of "Mississippi Burning". The investigation, which
personally involved Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover, led eventually to the December 4th
indictment of nineteen men, including Price. On October 27th, 1967
an all white jury convicted nine of the nineteen, including Price
and KKK Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers. This was the first time in
Mississippi’s history that anyone had been convicted for action
against civil rights workers or for the murder of a black man. Judge
Cox sentenced the convicted men to terms ranging from three to ten
years, of which, none served more than six. Following the
sentencing, Judge Cox said "They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a
white man. I gave them what I thought they deserved."

Today was also the day that in: 1498 Emperor Maximillian
expelled the Jews from Nuremberg, Bavaria; 1633 the
Inquisition forced Galileo Galilei to "abjure, curse, & detest" his
Copernican, heliocentric theory ("I do not feel obliged to believe
that the same god who has endowed us with sense, reason and
intellect has intended us to forgo their use." – GG); 1879
F.W. Woolworth opened his first store (which quickly failed);
1887 was the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria; 1939
Doctors disclosed that Lou Gehrig was suffering from amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis; 1945 Japanese forces on Okinawa
surrendered to the US; 1948 the first stored computer program
was run, on the "Manchester Mark I"; 1948 Dr Peter Goldmark
of CBS demonstrated the "long playing record" (CBS committed to 33
1/3 rpm records, announcing they would phase out 78’s); 1968
Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren resigned; 1977 Former White
House Chief of Staff HR Haldeman entered prison; 1982 a jury
found John Hinkley Jr not guilty, by reason of insanity, of the
attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan; 1986
President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in defense of his Judicial
appointments; 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that the right to
burn the US flag as a political expression is protected by the First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (freedom of
speech), declaring the Texas’ Federal Flag Protection Act of 1989
unconstitutional ("If there is a bedrock principle underlying the
First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the
expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself
offensive or disagreeable…We have not recognized an exception to
this principle even where our flag has been involved." – Justice
William Brennan, and "The hard fact is that sometimes we must make
decisions we do not like… It is poignant but fundamental that the
flag protects those who hold it in contempt." – Justice Kennedy);
1990 25,000 people died in a earthquake in Iran; 1990
Little Richard got a star on Hollywood’s walk of fame;

Born today were: in 1732 the first first lady of the US,
Martha Washington; 1905 French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
("death is a continuation of my life, without me"); 1921
actress Jane Russell; 1921 English actress Jean Kent; 1922
actress Judy Holliday; 1923 actor John Compton; 1925
actress Jean Stapleton; 1935 French novelist Francoise Sagan;
1944 English musician Ray Davies; 1947 actor Michael
Gross; 1950 musician Joey Kramer; 1953 first female leader of
a Muslim nation (Pakistan) Benazir Bhutto; 1982 Prince
William of Wales (son of Prince Charles & Princess Diana of the UK);