It was 43 years ago this past Friday that three men who were trying to help black people in Mississippi register to vote, were murdered by the Klan. It was June 22, 1964 when James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were arrested, held for several hours, and then handed over to the KKK. They were beaten and then killed, their bodies buried in a berm in the woods near Philadelphia, Mississippi. It took six weeks for the FBI to find the bodies even though the killers had bragged about the murders and virtually everyone in the area knew where the bodies were buried. It took 41 years to convict Edgar Ray Killen, the man who planned the murder of these men, and even then, a jury refused to find him guilty of murder but would only convict him of manslaughter. The judge, however, was less unsure and sentenced Killen to 60 years, 20 for each murder.

What amazes me is that this happened, not in some far off time in some far off land, but in the United States and within my lifetime. This article about the killings was written by someone who was involved in the Civil Rights movement back in 1964 and was in Mississippi when Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were murdered. It is well worth reading.