Advertisement

Editorial: Civil rights martyrs honored

 
Published Nov. 25, 2014

Three martyred civil rights workers received long-overdue honors on Monday when they were posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were killed by klan members during Freedom Summer in 1964 as they sought to secure civil rights for blacks throughout Mississippi. It is appropriate for the nation to pause and reflect on the contributions of the three young men who earned the nation's highest civilian honor. The award brings fresh attention and much-needed context to one of America's oldest yet still festering wounds.

The lives of Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney came to a terrifying end on a dark Mississippi road surrounded by klan members. Schwerner had moved from New York to Mississippi to help with voter registration efforts. He raised the ire of local law enforcement when he attempted to organize in rural areas. Chaney, who was black and a Mississippi native, was Schwerner's assistant. The pair met Goodman, a white Queens College student, at a training session in Ohio for voter registration volunteers. On June 21, 1964, the trio went to Neshoba County to investigate the burning of a black church that was to be site of a school and voter registration center. On their way out of the county, they were arrested, thrown into jail and later released into an ambush. It took the FBI 44 days to find their bodies.

Some relatives of the civil rights workers have expressed reservations about President Barack Obama's decision to include them among this year's Medal of Freedom recipients. They worry that it signals the end of a fight rather than the existence of an intense, ongoing battle. Although the civil rights movement helped bring much needed change for blacks in America, significant work remains. Floridians still need to deal with issues that disproportionately affect African-Americans such as narrowing the education achievement gap and restoring felons' voting rights. Still, it is right to pause and offer recognition where it most certainly is due — to three men who in life and death pushed the country toward the fulfillment of one of its most fundamental goals, liberty and justice for all.