Billy Wayne Posey, a key suspect in the Ku Klux Klan’s killings of three civil rights workers in 1964 in Mississippi, has died, but Justice Department officials say they’re continuing their investigation of the remaining suspects.
The 73-year-old Posey died Thursday of natural causes, according to friends. That leaves four living suspects in the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in the Justice Department’s investigation….
Goodman’s brother, David, of New York City, said Friday that he hopes the Justice Department will continue to pursue the matter. “This is still the country of law and order, and the laws are clear,” he said. “There is no statute of limitations on murder.”
Time is passing by, he said, “but I never rejoice over a person’s passing. I’ve never felt any animosity toward the specific individuals who murdered my brother. They just pulled the trigger.”
In the summer of 1964, hundreds of FBI agents investigated the trio’s disappearance, leading to the grisly discovery of their bodies buried 15 feet beneath an earthen dam. In 1967, 18 men went on trial on federal conspiracy charges, and seven of them were convicted.
But the only murder prosecution took place in 2005 when a Neshoba County jury convicted reputed Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of manslaughter. He is serving 60 years in prison.
Civil rights activists repeatedly have called for the prosecution of others besides Killen.
Posey came within one vote of being indicted by that same Neshoba County grand jury that indicted Killen, with a deciding vote against indictment cast by his relative. In a 2007 series, “Buried Secrets,” The Clarion-Ledger revealed three potential new witnesses against Posey.
In a 2000 statement, Posey told investigators there were “a lot of persons involved in the murders that did not go to jail.”
He did not name those people.
Posey admittedly was among those who pursued the trio that night, was there when they were killed and helped haul their bodies to the dam to bury them.
But the statement could never be used against Posey in state court because he was given immunity.
Then-Neshoba County Deputy Cecil Price told authorities prior to his 2001 death that he told Posey in 1964 he had just jailed the three civil rights workers and asked Posey to get in contact with Killen, who helped to orchestrate the killings.
In 1967, Posey was one of the seven men who was convicted of conspiracy to deprive Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner of their civil rights. Though his admission of taking part in the Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner murders could not be used as evidence, state and federal charges were still possible.
[W]hat Posey said wouldn’t be barred from federal court if federal authorities could pursue a case, said former state and federal prosecutor Patricia Bennett, a professor at Mississippi College School of Law. “And even if there was a state prosecution, authorities may be able to develop other evidence and not use that particular statement.”
Earlier this year, Chaney’s brother, Ben, met in Washington with Justice Department officials, asking them to pursue the case against the living suspects: Posey and Pete Harris, both of Meridian; Olen Burrage of Philadelphia; former Philadelphia police officer Richard Willis of Noxapater; and Jimmie Snowden of Hickory.
I spoke with Ben Chaney in 2007, two days after he buried his mother, Fannie Lee Chaney, next to her murdered son, James. Ben Chaney said:
My mother grew up in the time and period of Mississippi where it was believed that the death the murder of a black man by a white man would never be prosecuted. She had a great uncle lynched. When she was child she watched she saw a black male hanging from a tree who was lynched. When she was bout 5 or 6 years old she saw this. In her time of growing up it was just natural…. You could kill a black man if you were white and get away with it.
And unfortunately she took that to her grave….
This should have been over 40 years ago. Most definitely it should have been over with 1989, and without a doubt it should have been over in 2005. Everybody should have been prosecuted in 2005 and it hasn’t happened.
It hasn’t happened; it needs to happen; time is running out.
investigate whether the Valley Club violated federal civil rights laws when it kicked out a group of children from the Creative Steps Day Camp and canceled the camp’s contract.
“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”
The next day the club told the camp director that the camp’s membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.
One of the most astounding of many astounding moments in this story was the public statement from John Duesler, president of the Valley Swim Club, which said:
“There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.”
As the ColorOfChange.org letter to Holder notes, canceling the Creative Steps Day Camp’s contract
after learning that the children at the camp were largely African-American and Latino [is] a possible violation of section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
[T]he staff at Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding school for children who live in low-income and single parent homes, stepped in and offered their pool.
“We had to help,” said Girard College director of Admissions Tamara Leclair. “Every child deserves an incredible summer camp experience.”
The school already serves 500 campers of its own, but felt they could squeeze in 65 more – especially since the pool is vacant on the day the Creative Steps had originally planned to swim at Valley Swim Club.
“I’m so excited,” camp director Alethea Wright exclaimed. There are still a few logistical nuisances — like insurance — the organizations have to work out, but it seems the campers will not stay dry for long.
NBC Philadelphia also reports that US Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) will investigate the discrimination claim.
“The allegations against the swim club as they are reported are extremely disturbing,” Specter said in a statement. “I am reaching out to the parties involved to ascertain the facts. Racial discrimination has no place in America today.”
Oh, lastly, kudos to the owners of Gumdrops & Sprinkles in Wayne, PA who gave the Creative Steps kids a free day of candy and ice cream making while they are waiting for all the the details with Girard College to be worked out. If you want to show Gumdrops & Sprinkles some love for showing the Creative Steps kids some love, click on the store photo and leave Gumdrops & Sprinkles a comment on their Yelp page.
§ Posted by Benjamin T. Greenberg on July 9, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I had a knot in my stomach and could not sleep last night after watching those three white punks go after Jay Phillips. But telling over 60 kids that they are not welcome at a swimming pool that they have paid to use is a whole other level of cruelty—especially when the president of the swim club reportedly gave as reason that
[t]here was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.
The kids don’t need to know their history to be hurt by this, but it is also the case that they all have parents and grandparents who were alive when Blacks were kept out of white swimming areas. I hope to hear that the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice is investigating this incident.
Exciting developments in the notorious case of the 1964 murders of the three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. Jerry Mitchell reports in the Clarion Ledger:
Authorities should reopen the Klan’s 1964 killings of three civil rights workers because of newly discovered evidence, family members say.
“Without a doubt,” said Ben Chaney of New York City, a Meridian native whose brother was among those slain. “There is enough to warrant the state attorney general to reopen the case and begin to pursue other people who committed this crime.”
Six people are still alive who have been accused of playing a part in the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, which led to a massive FBI investigation code-named Mississippi Burning. The probe later was depicted in the 1988 fictional film of the same name.
The Clarion-Ledger has found three potential new witnesses in the case, including a former FBI agent who said reputed Klansman Billy Wayne Posey admitted he was a guard for the Klan’s killing party.
Upon hearing about the possible testimony, Ben Chaney said he believed this was enough evidence to put the case in front of a grand jury again, particularly since the 2005 Neshoba County grand jury came within one vote of indicting Posey.
He encouraged Attorney General Jim Hood to ask for the FBI’s help in investigating the case. “By doing so, I think he can get indictments against the people who are still alive,” he said.
Authorities say they’re interested in what the newspaper has found.
“Any new evidence we will certainly follow it up,” said Hood, whose office investigated the case, leading to the 2005 conviction of Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen, now serving 60 years in prison for manslaughter.
The Clarion Ledger has also published several related article today:
I am on deadline for an article on another Civil Rights Era murder case in Mississippi and do not have time to comment on this development just yet. See my past coverage of the Neshoba Murders case (aka Mississippi Burning) for more background.
§ Posted by Benjamin T. Greenberg on December 2, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Folks I've got them hungry blues
And nothin' in this to lose
People tellin' me to choose
Between dyin' and lyin' and
keep on cryin'
Tired of them hungry blues
Listen ain't you heard the news
There's another thing to choose
A brand new world
clean and fine
Where nobody's hungry
And there's no color line
A thing like that's worth
anybody dyin'
I ain't got a thing to lose
But them doggone hungry blues
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