The racism in the Deep South was so ingrained that it persists to this day.
Back in the sixties it was a dangerous place. The Ku Klux Klan still rode about threatening, brutally beating people and intimidating. They placed their burning crosses, burnt down churches and murdered. But brave young men still went into that inferno to help sign up black to enable them to vote. They were violently opposed.
The Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner sent shockwaves around America. Two young white boys and their black companion were brutally beaten and murdered. Their bodies buried in the mud of a dam.
The arrogant attitude of the police, who were complicit in the murders, was indicative of the attitude.
The outrage swept the nation. Those murders were a stain on America.
These are the same right-wing fascists and white supremacists that need opposing today.
The spirit of those brutally murdered young men lives on!!
Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney
Words and Music by Tom Paxton
The night air is heavy, no cool breezes blow.
The sounds of the voices are worried and low.
Desperately wondering and desperate to know,
About Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
Calm desperation and flickering hope,
Reality grapples like a hand on the throat.
For you live in the shadow of ten feet of rope,
If you’re Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.
The Pearl River was dragged and two bodies were found,
But it was a blind alley for both men were brown.
So they all shrugged their shoulders and the search it went on,
For Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.
Pull out the dead bodies from the ooze of the dam.
Take the bodies to Jackson all accordin’ to plan.
With the one broken body do the best that you can,
It’s the body of young James Chaney.
The nation was outraged and shocked through and through.
Call J. Edgar Hoover. He’ll know what to do.
For they’ve murdered two white men, and a colored boy too
Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney.
James Chaney your body exploded in pain,
And the beating they gave you is pounding my brain.
And they murdered much more with their dark bloody chains
And the body of pity lies bleeding.
The pot-bellied copper shook hands all around,
And joked with the rednecks who came into town
And they swore that the murderer soon would be found
And they laughed as they spat their tobacco.