By June Boyd
Guest Column
To give a lesson in black history, on June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers were abducted and murdered by the KKK, only for their attempt to register Black people to vote. I will say their names;
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The African American, James, was also castrated.
Of all the lynchings, murders and civil rights violations, along with Emmit Till, the foregoing has been the most disturbing to me. Research has shown that even the county sheriff was involved in the murders. The murderers made an effort to send a message: “if you engage in registration and voting, you will die.’
Their bodies were discovered August 4, 1964. There were eight to 10 men involved the murders; seven men were convicted of federal civil rights violations, but not murder.
In 2005, Klan leader Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter of the three. The irony of this horror is that 41 years to the day of the murders, Killen was sentenced to prison for 60 years. He died in prison January 11, 2018, at the age of 93 which was 54 years after he murdered John, Andrew and Michael.
Following the tragedy, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act in 1965, giving our people an equal chance to exercise our God given right to vote. If you have kept up with the news, you are aware the U. S. Supreme Court Judges, (six of them), handily “gutted” the Voting Rights Act, which puts us back to square one.
Where We Are Now.
If this issue does not make you angry enough to vote, I do not know what it will take. Personally, I have always felt the action that would have our people believe is if our rights are taken away, and believe it, we are at that point in our lives today, we must fight. We owe it to all the civil rights fighters before us, we will not go back, not be afraid and continue to get justice.
The late John Lewis must have known what we did not, the reason he fought so hard prior to his death for the passage of a stronger Voting Rights Act. In his memory, we must continue the struggle.
A major strategy must be implemented to combat what is taking place. I do not see any white hoods, however, I see the ghost of what they represented. African American communities across this nation must rise up, and we have some partners. Those who see the injustice, and are in power, must demand laws are changed that disrupt our freedom.
In memory of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, and so many others, VOTE. There has never been a more precise reason than to realize what those young men suffered, but their memory shall never die.