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The Mississippi Burning Trial united States vs. Price et al.): A Trial Al. .unt
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beating the departing blacks. Ten gallons of gasoline were removed from one of the Klan members cars and spread around the inside of the church. Mount Zion Church was soon engulfed in flames.
News of the beatings and fire reached Michael Schwerner in Oxford, Ohio. Schwerner and his twenty-one-year-old chief aide , a native black Meridian named James Chaney, were in Ohio to attend a three-day program sponsored by the National Council of Churches to train recruits for the Mississippi Summer Project. Among those being trained for a summer of work aimed at improving the lives of black Mississippians was a Queens College student named Andrew Goodman, who Schwerner convinced to come to Meridian. Anxious to get back to Mississippi to learn what they could about the disturbing events in Longdale, Schwerner, Chaney, and the newly-recruited Goodman loaded into a blue CORE-owned Ford station wagon in the early morning hours of June 20 for long trip back to Meridian. The next day, after a short night's sleep and a breakfast in Meridian, the three civil rights workers were again in the CORE wagon heading northwest towards Longdale.
Longdale was in Neshoba County, known as a high risk area for civil rights workers. Lawrence Rainey, Neshoba County Sheriff, and his deputy, Cecil Price, were both members of the Klan. Although their Klan membership was not generally known, both had reputations as being tough on blacks. Rainey had been elected sheriff the previous November after campaigning as "the man who can cope with situations that might arise." In Neshoba County, it was well understood that the "situations" Rainey referred to meant meddlesome interference by outsiders with Mississippi's state-enforced policy of segregation. Schwerner told Meridian CORE worker Sue Brown that they should be back in the CORE office in Meridian by 4:00. If they weren't back by 4:30, she should start making phone calls.
Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman began their Midsummer's Day visit to Neshoba County with an inspection of the burned out remains of Mount Zion Church. They then visited the homes of four black members of the congregation to learn more about the incident. At one of the homes, the three civil rights workers were warned that a group of white men were looking for them. About 3 p.m., the trio was ready to head back to the relative safety of their Meridian office. There were two possible routes to Meridian. The most direct route was the road they had come up, Highway 491, a narrow clay road intersected by numerous dirt roads. An ambush would be easy on 491. The other, less direct route, was a black topped Highway 16, which would take them west through Philadelphia, the county seat. Chaney turned onto Highway 16.
Deputy Sheriff Price was at that time heading east on Highway 16. A few miles outside of Philadephia, Price spotted the well-known CORE wagon heading in his direction. Schwerner and Goodman most likely were crouched low in their seats, allowing Price to see only the black driver, James Chaney. Price shouted over his radio, "I've got a good one! George Raymond!"
(Raymond was a black civil rights leader hated by Klan throughout Mississippi.) Price did a quick U-turn and headed back after his quarry. Chaney pulled the CORE wagon over to the side of the road just inside the Philadelphia city limits. Price arrested Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, allegedly for suspicion of having been involved in the church arson, and deposited the three in theNeshoba County jail. Soon thereafter he met with the Neshoba County Klan kleagle, or recruiter.Edgar Rav Killen to tell him of
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/Account.html
6/18/2013