This Day in History

Aug. 4, 1964: Civil Rights Workers Bodies Found

Time Periods: 1961

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Racism & Racial Identity

On Aug. 4, 1964, the bodies of three lynched civil rights workers (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman) were found, after disappearing more than a month before.

On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by the KKK with help from the deputy sheriff near Philadelphia in Neshoba County, Mississippi. They were killed defending the right to learn and human rights for all.

The three young men had traveled to Neshoba County to investigate the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been a site of a CORE Freedom School. While searching for the three civil rights workers, bodies of other African Americans were found including Henry Dee and Charles Moore.

Learn More

Read “Lynching of Chaney, Schwerner & Goodman” at the Civil Rights Movement veterans (crmvet.org) website, a detailed description of their arrest, the complicity between the “law enforcement” and the Klan, their murder, and the fight to have their bodies found, autopsied, and the murderers charged.

See the Southern Poverty Law Center list of Civil Rights Martyrs for more names of people murdered in the fight for voting rights and human rights in the United States.

Listen to the Democracy Now! broadcast, “After Over Four Decades, Justice Still Eludes Family of 3 Civil Rights Workers Slain in Mississippi Burning Killings.”

Find related lessons and other teaching resources below.

Related Resources

Teaching Activities (Free)

Teaching SNCC: The Organization at the Heart of the Civil Rights Revolution

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. 24 pages.
A series of role plays that explore the history and evolution of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, including freedom rides and voter registration.

Teaching Activities (Free)

Who Gets to Vote? Teaching About the Struggle for Voting Rights in the United States

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 2020.
Unit with three lessons on voting rights, including the history of the struggle against voter suppression in the United States.

Woman screaming at Elizabeth Ann Eckford | Zinn Education Project

Teaching Activities (Free)

“A School Year Like No Other”: Eyes on the Prize: “Fighting Back: 1957-1962”

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 7 pages.
A companion lesson to the Eyes on the Prize segment on school integration.

Victoria Gray and MFDP delegates demonstrating | Zinn Education Project

Teaching Activities (Free)

Sharecroppers Challenge U.S. Apartheid: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Teaching Activity. By Julian Hipkins III, Deborah Menkart, Sara Evers, and Jenice View.
Role play on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) that introduces students to a vital example of small “d” democracy in action. For grades 7+.

Articles

The Voting Rights Act: Ten Things You Should Know

Article. By Emilye Crosby and Judy Richardson. 2015.
Key points in the history of the 1965 Voting Rights Act missing from most textbooks.

Books: Non-Fiction

Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi

Book — Non-fiction. By John Dittmer. 1995. 560 pages.
A detailed, grassroots description of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.

This Day in History

May 7, 1955: Murder of Rev. George W. Lee

Rev. George W. Lee, one of the first African Americans registered to vote in Humphreys County since Reconstruction and head of the Belzoni, Mississippi NAACP, was murdered.

This Day in History

Aug. 13, 1955: Lamar Smith Murdered

Lamar Smith, 63-year-old farmer and WWI veteran, was shot dead in Brookhaven, Mississippi, for urging African Americans to vote.

Missing persons poster created by the FBI in 1964, shows the photographs of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.

This Day in History

June 21, 1964: Three Civil Rights Workers Murdered in Mississippi

James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

This Day in History

July 12, 1964: Henry Dee and Charles Moore Case

The bodies of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, were found in the Mississippi River. They had been tortured and murdered by the Klan two months earlier.

This Day in History

Feb. 26, 1965: Jimmie Lee Jackson Murdered

Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by an Alabama state trooper during a peaceful voting rights march on Feb. 18. He died eight days later.

This Day in History

Jan. 10, 1966: Voting Rights Activist Vernon Dahmer Murdered

Vernon Dahmer was killed when the Ku Klux Klan fired bombed his home. This was one day after Dahmer offered to pay the election poll tax for anyone who could not afford it.

This Day in History

July 22, 1966: Lawful Demonstrators Threatened by Klan and Police in Grenada, Mississippi

U.S. District Judge issued an injunction ordering police in Grenada, Mississippi to stop interfering with lawful protest. This ruling followed weeks of arrests and beating of demonstrators who had been attempting to desegregate businesses in the town.