Editing Freedom Summer murders (section)

===Murders===
On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, all members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), travelled to Neshoba County to help African-Americans register to vote. [[Samuel Bowers]], Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, ordered his followers to deal with Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. Several Klansmen [[Arson|burned down]] the Mount Zion Methodist Church in Longdale, the location of a previous voting drive, in order to lure the three there.

Following a visit to Longdale, the activists were on their way to Meridian when Sheriff's Deputy [[Cecil Price]] pulled them over for speeding and arrested them. While they were in jail, a group of local Klansmen began conspiring to kill them. Deputy Price and Klansman [[Edgar Ray Killen]] assembled a group of men to deal with the activists. The three were released from jail at 10 p.m. and drove towards the town of Meridian, tailed by Deputy Price. Two other cars, driven by [[Billy Posey]] and [[Horace Barnette]], were waiting nearby with the lynch mob members inside drinking and arguing about who would kill the activists. Police officer Other N. Burkes drove up to Barnette's car and told the group "They're going on 19 towards Meridian. Follow them!". The two carloads then set out after the activists, although Posey's car broke down and the inhabitants were forced to transfer to Barnette's car.

Deputy Price caught up to the activist's station wagon on Road 492, forced them to stop and get in his car and drove them to the secluded intersection between County Road 515 and County Road 284. They were then forced to get out. One of the Klansmen, [[Alton Wayne Roberts]], grabbed Schwerner and asked "Are you that nigger lover?". Schwerner replied "Sir, I know how you feel" and was shot in the heart by Roberts. He then shot Goodman in the chest. Chaney attempted to run but was shot down by Roberts and another Klansman, [[James Jordan]]. The mob beat Chaney and castrated him before Roberts shot him in the head. The bodies were driven to the Old Jolly Farm, where they were buried in an earthen dam. The station wagon was then taken away and burned.