Mississippi Burning Trial 1967) Flashcards
Brown v. board of education
1954
• Supreme court rules unanimously but equal is inherently unequal
Little rock 9
(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
Greensboro sit-ins
(1960)
• Lasts 6 months, eventually includes blacks and white college students and inspires similar protests across the south.
Student non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• Inspired by the sit ins, Ella Baker and students from Shaw University form a national organization to coordinate student protests
1960
Bull Connor
• Attack dogs and powerful water hoses
o Aimed at the blacks at a peaceful gathering
March on Washington
August 28, 1963
Birmingham Church Bombing
September 15, 1963
James Meredith & Ole Miss
• Sends in unarmed Marshalls then met with much violence from the students
• President sends in armed troops
(1962)
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlaws segregation in public accommodations and schools
Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
(1964)
James Chaney and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner
- 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
Andrew Goodman
- 21 yrs old
- June 21
- Drive from Core office in Meridian to Nashoba Count and ruins of the Mt. Zion church
- Arrested for speeding
Wayne Roberts
- 26 year old dishonorably discharged ex marine
* identified later as the triggerman
Edgar Ray Killen
- Klan Kleagle and Preacher
- Calls young Klansmen together
- Tells them to bring rubber gloves
- But then goes to local funeral home to establish alibi.
Sheriff Lawrence Rainey
~jailed the three.
~later arrested for beating blacks while in his custody
Cecil Price
• Held schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman in jail until 10pm
~ helped unload the dead bodies
Delmar Dennis
- 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
Sam Bowers
Imperial Wizard of the KKK
Jim Doar
• 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
John Proctor
Local FBI agent in “MIBURN”
Gregory “the Grim Reaper” Scarpa
- FBI informant
- Hitman for the mafia
- Admits to having killed at least 20 people
Olen Burrage
~ owner of the dam that the bodies were found in
• “hell, I’ve got a dam that will hold a hundred of them”
Enforcement act of 1870
• Made it a crime to conspire to violate the civil rights of citizens without due process of law
Judge William Harold Cox
Federal judge
~ rejects many prosecution challenged including juror challenges who admitted having once been a KKK member
“Allen Charge”
- 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”
United States v. Cecil Price et. al.
- 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
