Of Civil Rights and Human Integrity: Jesse Owens Wins but 3 Civil Rights Workers Die
Thus begin the dogged days of August:
On August 4, 1936, Jesse Owens wins the long jump in the Olympics, the Berlin Olympics presided over by Adolph Hitler and the politics of racism. This win was the first of four gold medals for Owens this week. (More to come.)
Jesse Owens is African American but he is, first and foremost, a superb athlete, one who could break world records even under this kind of intense political and psychological pressure.
Today in 1964, the bodies of three civil rights workers are found in a shallow grave in Mississippi:
• Michael Schwerner, 24, nicknamed “Goatee” and “Jew-Boy” by the KKK.
• Andrew Goodman, 20, like Schwerner, also from New York.
• James Chaney, 21, an African American from Mississippi.
Schwerner and Goodman had traveled to Mississippi on behalf of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). They were helping to register African American voters. Chaney was a local man and recent CORE volunteer.
The three men disappeared June 21 after being released from jail on trumped up charges related to a recent church burning.
Given the violence accompanying efforts to register the black vote and organize citizens in support of civil rights, the disappearance of these men was national news and the subject of an FBI manhunt.
The code name for the investigation was MIBURN. It stood for “Mississippi Burning”, also the name of a movie about this same event
• Seven men were eventually convicted of the murder. These included a local police officer and the local KKK Imperial Wizard.
• Nine men were acquitted. The jury never could decide on the guilt of three others.
• The sentences for these convicted murderers ranged from 3-10 years.
The verdict, for the time, was considered a victory. The longest prison time anyone actually served was 6 years.
Judge Cox, the local judge responsible for the sentencing, said this after the trial:
“They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them what I thought they deserved.”
On a happier note, and just to add balance to sports and politics, the birthday babes today are poets and musicians:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792
Louis Armstrong, 1901
