James Chaney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Earl "J.E." Chaney (May 30, 1943 – June 21, 1964) was one of three American civil rights workers who was murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The others were Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
Contents |
[edit] First Trial
The US government charged ten men with conspiracy to deprive the men of their civil rights under the Force Act of 1870. Seven men were convicted, including Deputy Sheriff Price, and three were acquitted.
[edit] Reinvestigation of murders
Journalist Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, had written extensively about the case for many years. Mitchell had earned renown for helping secure convictions in several other high profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the assassination of Medgar Evers, the Birmingham church bombings and the murder of Vernon Dahmer. He developed new evidence about the civil rights murders, found new witnesses, and pressured the State to take action.
Barry Bradford, an Illinois high school teacher, and three students, Allison Nichols, Sarah Siegel, and Brittany Saltiel, joined Mitchell's efforts. They created a documentary about their work. Their documentary, produced for the National History Day contest, presented important new evidence and compelling reasons for reopening the case. They also obtained an interview with Edgar Ray Killen, which helped convince the State to reinvestigate.
In addition, Mitchell determined the identity of "Mr. X", the mystery informer who had helped the FBI discover the bodies and smash the conspiracy of the Klan in 1964. In part Mitchell used evidence developed by Bradford and his students.
When the trial opened on January 7, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, once an outspoken white supremacist nicknamed the "Preacher," pleaded "Not Guilty" to Chaney's murder. Fannie Lee Chaney and Carolyn Goodman, mothers of two of the civil rights workers, were the last witnesses for the prosecution. The jury found Killen guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 20, 2005, and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison--twenty years for each count, served consecutively.
[edit] Popular culture
- Meridian 1976, a novel by Alice Walker, dealt with issues of the civil rights era.
- The 1975 2-part TV movie, Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan was based on Don Whitehead's book (Attack on Terror: The F.B.I. Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi) detailing the events a week before the assassinations and up to the conclusion of the Federal trial of the conspirators. Actor Hilly Hicks portrayed "Charles Gilmore," a fictionalized representation of James Chaney.
- The 1988 film, Mississippi Burning, was loosely based upon these events.
- The circumstances surrounding the deaths of the activists were the subject of the 1990 TV movie Murder in Mississippi, which featured Blair Underwood as James Chaney.
- In the Season 13 episode of the series Law & Order entitled "Chosen," defense lawyer Randy Dworkin (played by Peter Jacobson) prefaces a speech against affirmative action with the phrase, "Janeane Garofalo herself can storm into my office and tear down the framed photos of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, that I keep on the wall over my desk..."[1]
- Mentioned in the band, Flobots, song "Same Thing", the song asks to bring back Chaney.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Movement That Reopened The Case
- Biography of James Chaney, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School
- James Earl Chaney Foundation
- CNN article on Killen plea
- James Chaney's Gravesite
