Mississippi: Living Down The Past

Though eight members of the Ku Klux Klan served prison sentences on federal charges of conspiring to deny the civil rights of Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, no state charges were ever filed against the killers of the three civil rights workers, who were slain near Philadelphia, Miss., during the Freedom Summer of 1964. That may now change. Two weeks ago, Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore announced that he is considering reopening the case.

Philadelphia has been trying to live down its reputation for racial violence, which was revived by the movie Mississippi Burning, loosely based on the case. Last week several hundred people gathered to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the crime. Relatives of the slain workers then journeyed to Washington for another commemoration and a White House meeting with President Bush, who described the young men as heroes. But when the families implored Bush to promise that he would support attempts to reverse a recent Supreme Court ruling widely considered to be a setback for civil rights, the President declined.