Mitchell, Don. The Freedom Summer Murders. New York: Scholastic, 2014. 978-0-545-47725-3. 250p. $18.99. Gr. 6-9.
The Freedom Summer Murders was published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the murder of three civil rights activists by local politicians and the KKK in Mississippi. In June 1964, Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney traveled to Neshoba County, Mississippi, to facilitate black voter registration. What happened to them was unthinkable. The story opens with a discussion of the State’s entrenched racism and a recounting of the events that led to the murders of the three men. Each man’s life is described in a separate chapter; something that helps the reader appreciate how devoted each was to racial equality. The book then describes the investigation of the murders and the long road to achieving justice for the three civil rights workers (Edgar Ray Killen, who came up with the plot, wasn’t convicted until 2005).
Clearly, many activists were killed during the Civil Rights movement. Mitchell argues that the murders of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney captured the Country’s attention because Schwerner and Goodman were white. Most Americans at the time didn’t pay close attention to the deaths of black activists. One of the reasons this book is significant is that Mitchell implies that we still don’t place as much value on a black life as a white life. The question of whether or not racism is still as institutionalized today as it was in the 1960’s is a relevant one.
The amount of research that went into this book is impressive. Mitchell interviewed most of the living witnesses to the events in Neshoba County. He also utilized a number of primary sources of information and obtained relevant photographs. One especially disturbing photograph shows the bodies of Shwerner, Goodman, and Chaney after their shallow grave was unearthed. The book contains an “Author’s Note on Sources”, which provides web addresses for a number of very interesting sites including the Andrew Goodman and James Earl Chaney Foundations, telephone recordings of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s conversations regarding the murders, and televised coverage of Edgar Ray Killen’s 2005 trial on C-SPAN. These resources, and others mentioned in the author’s note, will appeal to today’s technology savvy student.
This book is a necessary inclusion in any secondary school library. It compels students to consider race relations in the United States and it also encourages them to contemplate their role in promoting a better society for all.
Politics/Government (323) Susan Fox, Washington Jr. /Sr. High School