Philadelphia, Miss.
Edgar Ray Killen, a former Ku Klux Klansman and Baptist preacher, was convicted of manslaughter this week in the civil-rights-era killings that inspired the film Mississippi Burning. The verdict came 41 years to the day after three young activists—James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24—were beaten and shot by Klansmen after trying to investigate a fire at a black church. Their bodies were found 44 days later, buried in a ditch. Prosecutors said Killen, 80, was the one who had rounded up the mob. But Schwerner’s widow, Rita Schwerner Bender, said the case should not be declared closed. “Preacher Killen didn’t act in a vacuum,” Bender said. “The state of Mississippi was complicit in these crimes.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
July 6 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include paying for school lunch by enlisting, and the banality of evil
-
5 biting editorial cartoons about 'Alligator Alcatraz'Cartoons Artists take on dangerous green things, historical precedent, and more
-
A journey into the deep past on beautiful ArranThe Week Recommends New Unesco Global Geopark played a 'key role' in the birth of modern geological science
