Mississippi Burning Trial 1967)

Question 1

Brown v. board of education

Answer 1

1954

• Supreme court rules unanimously but equal is inherently unequal

Question 2

Little rock 9

Answer 2

(1957)
• Arkansas, little rock
• 9 of the best black students
• governor doesn’t want them there
o will not let the police protect the 9 students
• Eisenhower orders in troops from the 101st airborne to escort the black students in the school.
• Closes school at the end of the year because they didn’t want to integrate

Question 3

Greensboro sit-ins

Answer 3

(1960)

• Lasts 6 months, eventually includes blacks and white college students and inspires similar protests across the south.

Question 4

Student non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

Answer 4

• Inspired by the sit ins, Ella Baker and students from Shaw University form a national organization to coordinate student protests
1960

Question 5

Bull Connor

Answer 5

• Attack dogs and powerful water hoses

o Aimed at the blacks at a peaceful gathering

Question 6

March on Washington

Answer 6

August 28, 1963

Question 7

Birmingham Church Bombing

Answer 7

September 15, 1963

Question 8

James Meredith & Ole Miss

Answer 8

• Sends in unarmed Marshalls then met with much violence from the students
• President sends in armed troops
(1962)

Question 9

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Answer 9

Outlaws segregation in public accommodations and schools

Question 10

Mississippi Freedom Summer Project

Answer 10

(1964)

Question 11

James Chaney and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner

Answer 11

• Congress of racial equality field workers
• Memorial day 1964
• Speak to congregation of the MT Zion Methodist Church about the voting rights campaign
• Head north to help train freedom summer workers in Ohio

Question 12

Andrew Goodman

Answer 12

• 21 yrs old
• June 21
• Drive from Core office in Meridian to Nashoba Count and ruins of the Mt. Zion church
• Arrested for speeding

Question 13

Wayne Roberts

Answer 13

• 26 year old dishonorably discharged ex marine

* identified later as the triggerman

Question 14

Edgar Ray Killen

Answer 14

• Klan Kleagle and Preacher
• Calls young Klansmen together
• Tells them to bring rubber gloves
• But then goes to local funeral home to establish alibi.

Question 15

Sheriff Lawrence Rainey

Answer 15

~jailed the three.

~later arrested for beating blacks while in his custody

Question 16

Cecil Price

Answer 16

• Held schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman in jail until 10pm

~ helped unload the dead bodies

Question 17

Delmar Dennis

Answer 17

• 24 yrs old Baptist minister and Klan Kludd (chaplain)
• says he attended Klan meeting interrupted so armed volunteers could head to Mt. Zion church
• return saying no sign of “goatee”
• “it was the first time the Christians had planned and carried out the execution of ta Jew.”
• Also testifies he attended Klan meeting in pasture owned by a philly mayor clayton Lewis
• Lewis serving as one of the defense attorneys
• On cross examination, defense portrays Dennis as a snothchpain 15,00 for his testimony
• Compare him to Judas from the bible

Question 18

Sam Bowers

Answer 18

Imperial Wizard of the KKK

Question 19

Jim Doar

Answer 19

• Justice Departments Mississippi representative
o CORE calls Doar’s office when Schwerner doesn’t check in
o Willem Dafoe character in Mississippi Burning loosely based on Doar
o When clerk at Neshoba county jail admits three had been there, Doar calls Washington

Question 20

John Proctor

Answer 20

Local FBI agent in “MIBURN”

Question 21

Gregory “the Grim Reaper” Scarpa

Answer 21

• FBI informant
• Hitman for the mafia
• Admits to having killed at least 20 people

Question 22

Olen Burrage

Answer 22

~ owner of the dam that the bodies were found in

• “hell, I’ve got a dam that will hold a hundred of them”

Question 23

Enforcement act of 1870

Answer 23

• Made it a crime to conspire to violate the civil rights of citizens without due process of law

Question 24

Judge William Harold Cox

Answer 24

Federal judge

~ rejects many prosecution challenged including juror challenges who admitted having once been a KKK member

Question 25

“Allen Charge”

Answer 25

• Cox reminds juries that trials are expensive, that a second jury is just as unlikely to be capable of reaching a verdict, and that while jurors shouldn’t surrender honest convictions they should deliberate and not hesitate to change opinions
• Known as the “dynamite charge”

Question 26

United States v. Cecil Price et. al.

Answer 26

• Cecil price and 7 others found guilty
• 8 acquitted 3 hung juries. “I could never convict a preacher”
• cox sentences Roberts and Bowers to 10 yrs, the rest to 3 and 5 yrs