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KMOD

(7,906 posts)

11. Mississippi Burning

Tue Nov 11, 2014, 10:43 PM

Nov 2014

[img]1964-06-21-postcard.jpg[/img]

The postcard looks ordinary enough. It's a message written from a 20-year-old to his parents, informing them that he'd arrived safely in Meridian, Mississippi for a summer job.

"This is a wonderful town and the weather is fine. I wish you were here," Andrew Goodman wrote to his mom and dad back in New York City. "The people in this city are wonderful and our reception was very good. All my love, Andy."

The card was postmarked June 21, 1964. That was the day Andy Goodman was murdered.

Fifty years have passed since Goodman and two other civil rights workers, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, were ambushed and shot dead by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen damn in rural Neshoba County - 44 days after they went missing.

The three young men had been volunteering for a "Freedom Summer" campaign to register African-American voters. Their efforts helped pave the way for the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 and their murders were dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mississippi-burning-murders-resonate-50-years-later/

Way overdue.

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Highlight:

The Medal of Freedom...Finally! [View all] sheshe2 Nov 2014 OP

... shenmue Nov 2014 #1

Yes~ sheshe2 Nov 2014 #2

More~ sheshe2 Nov 2014 #3

These 3 beautiful people died for the Right to Vote.. so appreciative that Pres Obama is Awarding Cha Nov 2014 #4

They were truly Martyrs for the Civil Rights Movement, yes they were Cha. sheshe2 Nov 2014 #6

That's will be so poignant, she.. Cha Nov 2014 #9

Deserved, well deserved. They are heroes. Raine1967 Nov 2014 #5

Yes they did Raine and it is long past due. sheshe2 Nov 2014 #7

I Predict Some Mississippi Republican Will Cry Stallion Nov 2014 #8

Way overdue LeftInTX Nov 2014 #10

Mississippi Burning KMOD Nov 2014 #11

Thanks for the link. It gives some details I'd never heard before and this picture: freshwest Nov 2014 #17

my pleasure. KMOD Nov 2014 #34

They were helping people register to vote. lovemydog Nov 2014 #12

Never forget - Philadelphia, MS was Reagan's first stop on his 1980 election campaign: scarletwoman Nov 2014 #13

Yes, never forget, not only Philadelphia, for it was only one place.. mountain grammy Nov 2014 #14

They deserve it, but more than that, they deserved to live. mountain grammy Nov 2014 #15

Yes mountain grammy, sheshe2 Nov 2014 #16

+ till the end of time. William769 Nov 2014 #25

I saw a video of Robert Reich, weeping after all these years, about one of them: freshwest Nov 2014 #18

He was~ sheshe2 Nov 2014 #20

A long time coming. William769 Nov 2014 #19

So true sheshe2 Nov 2014 #22

I will be full time again in the morning. William769 Nov 2014 #24

Damn I missed you! sheshe2 Nov 2014 #28

Just call my name... William769 Nov 2014 #30

Thank you~ I will do just that. sheshe2 Nov 2014 #31

Pathetic that it's taken this long. Spitfire of ATJ Nov 2014 #21

Freedom Summer victims...like it was yesterday... FailureToCommunicate Nov 2014 #23

Here was three young mrn, they gave their lives trying to get the right of Thinkingabout Nov 2014 #26

What you just said Thinkingabout!!!! sheshe2 Nov 2014 #29

K & R! Iliyah Nov 2014 #27

Kick sheshe2 Nov 2014 #32

Kick sheshe2 Nov 2014 #33

Kick. nt msanthrope Nov 2014 #35

K&R Scuba Nov 2014 #36

I grew up less than an hour from these murders Fly by night Nov 2014 #37

Got it! sheshe2 Nov 2014 #38

Thanks kindly. Much appreciated. Fly by night Nov 2014 #39