James Earl “J.E” Chaney was born in Meridian, Mississippi, May 30th, 1943, the eldest son of Fannie Lee and Ben Chaney, Sr. He grew up as a Black American in the segregated South, which allowed him to experience racial prejudice firsthand. Chaney was raised Catholic, and was extremely pious. He was one of the three American civil rights workers who were killed during “Freedom Summer” by Ku Klux Klan members near Philadelphia, Mississippi. He attended a Catholic school for Negroes, but began to encounter problems soon after enrolling. Chaney was always in support of civil rights for African Americans, wearing NAACP patches during this time to show his support for the organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was founded in 1910. He and 10 other students were suspended from their segregated high school, merely because the principal feared the repercussions from the all-white school board if they heard of this incident. He did not let this hinder him. He worked as a trade union apprentice after high school, aged 19, and began to actively involve…show more content… They had been shot. Authorities refused to investigate this case, due to a “lack of evidence”. The federal government pursued civil rights charges against several law enforcement officers, and a group of men. While the legal battle went on for several years, none of the men found guilty were held accountable for the murders of these men.
Mississippi Burning was a film based on the incident, and A Clarion-Ledger report shed light on the case for the first time in years. . A defendant, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged in connection with these three murders. He was a Methodist minister, and a Klan leader. He was found guilty of manslaughter in 2005, and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Chaney was only 21 years old when he was
