Where is jessup county mississippi

On June 21, , three young civil rights workers were murdered in Neshoba County. The trio had come here to investigate the burning of the Mt. The night the church was burned, parishioners were beaten, some severely.

The civil rights workers were part of a broader national movement that hoped to begin a voter registration drive in the area, part of the Mississippi Summer Project that became known as Freedom Summer. Chaney, a plasterer, had grown up in Meridian in nearby Lauderdale County, and even as a young student had been interested in civil rights work.

Schwerner, a Jewish New Yorker, came south to Meridian to set up the COFO office because he believed he could help prevent the spread of hate that had resulted in the Holocaust, an event that had taken the lives of his family members. Chaney volunteered at the Meridian office, and the two young men began to make visits to Neshoba County searching for residents to sponsor voter registration drives and freedom schools. After contacting members of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church and Mt.

The state was a powder keg, as the recently-reformed Ku Klux Klan increasingly made its presence known, and fears were heightened among both blacks and whites. In April , the Klan burned about a dozen crosses in Neshoba County. The Neshoba Democrat condemned the cross burnings and the coercion and intimidation employed by the Klan. Killen, who died less than a week from his 93rd birthday, worked much of his life cutting trees and on Sundays preached in so many rural Baptist churches that he became known as "Preacher" Killen.

Thomas Blanton, who turns 80 this year, remains at the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Alabama. A year later, a Neshoba County grand jury indicted Killen for murder in the slayings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. In a compromise verdict, the jury voted unanimously to convict Killen on three counts of manslaughter on June 21, — the anniversary of the killings. In the years after his conviction, Killen remained defiant in interviews with The Guardian, the Associated Press and the Greenwood Commonwealth, insisting he would be exonerated and freed from prison.

David Goodman said that "the history of this country has a shadow over it because this case and many others like it have never been resolved to bring justice to these families and especially black citizens who were murdered and killed because of white supremacy and racism.

Contact Jerry Mitchell at or jmitchell gannett. Nineteen men were indicted on federal charges in the case. Seven were convicted of violating the victims' civil rights.

None served more than six years. In , the Mississippi Attorney General's office reopened the investigation. During his state trial in , witnesses testified that on June 21, , Killen went to Meridian to round up carloads of klansmen to ambush Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, telling some of the klan members to bring plastic or rubber gloves.

Witnesses said Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as an alibi while the fatal attack occurred. Killen died in prison in Mississippi then-Attorney General Jim Hood officially closed the investigation in Please enter email address to continue.