Cashing In On Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman

Now that a year has passed since Edgar Ray Killen was put behind bars for the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, Philadelphia, MS is ready to cash in.

In June, 2005, forty-one years after a band of racists murdered the three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, MS, James E. Prince III said he was telling his fellow white townspeople that

if they can't be behind the call for justice because it's the right thing to do--and that's first and foremost--then they need to do it 'cause it's good for business.

Another year later, in July 2006, Prince, along with Stanley Dearman, Prince's predecessor as editor and publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, and State Senator Gloria Williamson have launched a public relations campaign to bring a proposed civil rights museum to Philadelphia, MS.

Jeff Edwards, staff reporter for the Neshoba Democrat, writes:

In the coming months, members of the committee [charged with studying the possibility of a museum] will decide on a location and possible funding sources. . . .

"The Killen trial . . . made more people aware that we needed such a museum. It had a great deal to do with attention on the civil rights era and I suspect Neshoba County will be a lead character at the museum," [Williamson said].

Stanley Dearman, who covered the civil rights murders and subsequent investigation, said a museum would be very important for the state and Neshoba County.

"It's important to preserve that history and have it in one place for scholars and school groups to see," Dearman said.

He hopes Philadelphia will be considered for the museum site, noting the importance it played in the civil rights movement.

"It would be an excellent choice for it," Dearman said. "Neshoba County is on the map as far as the civil rights movement is concerned. It was put on the map by what the Klan did in 1964."

Dearman thinks he can support both a Mississippi civil rights museum and a monument to the Confederacy, but why does the Klan get to decide where the civil rights museum will go?

The way Prince tells it, Philadelphia has redeemed itself from its own history and is now a light unto the nations, for which a civil rights museum is its just reward:

After 40 years, business and civic leaders here called for justice because it was the right thing. Soon there was a statewide chorus that crossed racial, political and religious lines.

Mr. Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison last year for orchestrating the 1964 murders of James Earl Chaney, Michael H. Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, young men who had been organizing a black voter registration drive.

To the whole world Philadelphia was long a symbol of hatred, yet now has become a symbol of hope and reconciliation.

Though Philadelphia is largely a city of good, God-fearing souls, Prince cannot appeal to devout sentiment for very long without returning to crass promises of earthly rewards.

Such a museum could be another spoke in our tourism-driven economy while telling a story that much of the world wants - and needs - to hear.

The world doesn't want to hear that Mississippi in 2006 is protecting white, racist murderers. Let's tell the world that we're done with racism and make us some cash.

Prince got himself onto the subject of redemption in the first place by mentioning a recent article in the NY Times.

Even the normally critical New York Times observed about us recently that the June 2005 conviction of Edgar Ray Killen was "a redemption for the small town of Philadelphia, Miss."

But this only half true. The full sentence in the NY Times reads:

Mr. Killen’s manslaughter conviction in June 2005 was hailed as a long-awaited victory for the civil rights movement and a redemption for the small town of Philadelphia, Miss., outside of which the killings occurred (emphasis added).

Was hailed as a redemption by whom? Perhaps by Prince but not by the NY Times.

As the saying goes, a half truth is simply a lie.

The NY Times article, which Prince quoted out of context, covered Judge Marcus Gordon's rejection of Edgar Ray Killen's latest request to be released from prison on appeal bond. Before Gordon's decision, when it looked like Killen might get to live the rest of his days as a free man, many of Prince's journalist colleagues thought it important to take a moral stand, decrying the possible outrage. Prince was silent.

My advice to Prince, if he wants to pull off his next PR stunt, is get a little more comfortable saying "Black" and "African American." He managed it once in the first 100 words of his editorial, when he mentioned that Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman "had been organizing a black voter registration drive." But mentioning Blacks again, 100 words later was a little more than he could handle.

Successfully lobbying for the museum would benefit this entire region of the state as we embrace our rich cultural heritage, from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to the Jewish influence in Meridian and beyond statewide.

Who were those civil rights for again?

James Prince: "This is a real opportunity for East Mississippi."

Whose culture and history are we remembering?

James Prince: "This is a real opportunity for East Mississippi."