Dear Commons Community,

On this first day of summer, we should remember that forty-six years ago, three civil rights workers were reported missing in Philadelphia, Mississippi.   The men, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman,  and James Chaney,  were involved with Freedom Summer activities sponsored by the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE).  In August, 1964, their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam.  In 1967, nineteen men including known members of the Ku Klux Klan, were indicted,  seven of them  were found guilty of conspiring to deprive Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney of their civil rights and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to ten years.    On June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of the manslaughter of the three men.  A number of books, movies, and songs have dealt with the death of these three young men.   Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were New York City residents.  Goodman was a student at Queens College.

Tony