In April 1963 William Lewis Moore took on a solo march from Tennessee to Mississippi to deliver a letter urging the governor to support civil rights.
Moore’s journey ended in Attalla, Alabama. On April 23, about 70 miles into his march, Moore’s body was found by the side of the road. The postal worker and former Marine had been shot twice in the head. The killers were never charged.
Almost half a century has passed and the case has been re-opened and evidence re-examined in hopes of finding a conclusion to the crime.
The FBI’s civil rights division took charge of the case along with dozens of others in 2006 with a solemn goal—to reopen long dormant cases from when blacks and whites were killed in the American South’s fight to maintain segregation.
Since February 2007 the FBI has been investigating over 100 unsolved racially motivated homicides as part of the Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative.
Included in the FBI’s investigation are the slayings of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman whose bodies were found buried in Mississippi in 1964.
“There is merit in reopening those cases,” said Leroy Clemmons, chair of the Philadelphia Coalition. “It is necessary.”
However, pursuing a conviction in many of the cases may prove to be difficult. Over the years, evidence was lost or tampered with and those involved are gone or simply may not wish to speak of it.
“People felt like if they didn’t talk about, it would just go away. The memory of the murders would just disappear,” said Mr. Clemmons. “We realized that we can never forget. We have to acknowledge what we did in the past.”
According to federal officials, individuals identified as suspects in almost half of the homicides are now dead. Officials have also determined that about 20 deaths were not racially motivated. Of the 108, three have made it to state prosecution.
In November, the investigation came to a dead end in the search for relatives in their last 33 cases. The FBI is now appealing to the public in hopes of finding the whereabouts of the family of the victims.
Despite the possible challenges and dead ends, the news that forgotten cases are being revisited is welcomed by many.
“I’m very happy to see it happening,” said Jewel McDonald, whose mother and brother were beaten by the Ku Klux Klan. “So many young black people were killed back then. Many people just disappeared. We didn’t know where they were. As time went on you find out about this person being killed and that person killed.”
McDonald was 18 years old in 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi at the time. Her mother and brother were leaving the Mount Zion Methodist Church that night when they were surrounded and beaten. That evening, the church was burned.
“When they came home from church, we could tell something had happened,” said Ms. McDonald. “They had blood on them. We asked what was wrong and that’s when they told us that some people had attacked them at the church when they came out.”
According to Clemmons, who continues seeking an end to the case, the perpetrators were Klansmen searching for three civil rights workers Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman. The three of them occasionally held meetings with local residents in the same church.
McDonald’s brother was contacted by Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman who urged him to take legal action just days before they were reported missing. In 2005, a supremacist part-time preacher was convicted of the murders, but investigations continue.
“Justice comes when people can acknowledge what happened [in the past] and own up to it,” said Clemmons.
Moore’s journey ended in Attalla, Alabama. On April 23, about 70 miles into his march, Moore’s body was found by the side of the road. The postal worker and former Marine had been shot twice in the head. The killers were never charged.
Almost half a century has passed and the case has been re-opened and evidence re-examined in hopes of finding a conclusion to the crime.
The FBI’s civil rights division took charge of the case along with dozens of others in 2006 with a solemn goal—to reopen long dormant cases from when blacks and whites were killed in the American South’s fight to maintain segregation.
Since February 2007 the FBI has been investigating over 100 unsolved racially motivated homicides as part of the Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative.
Included in the FBI’s investigation are the slayings of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman whose bodies were found buried in Mississippi in 1964.
“There is merit in reopening those cases,” said Leroy Clemmons, chair of the Philadelphia Coalition. “It is necessary.”
However, pursuing a conviction in many of the cases may prove to be difficult. Over the years, evidence was lost or tampered with and those involved are gone or simply may not wish to speak of it.
“People felt like if they didn’t talk about, it would just go away. The memory of the murders would just disappear,” said Mr. Clemmons. “We realized that we can never forget. We have to acknowledge what we did in the past.”
According to federal officials, individuals identified as suspects in almost half of the homicides are now dead. Officials have also determined that about 20 deaths were not racially motivated. Of the 108, three have made it to state prosecution.
In November, the investigation came to a dead end in the search for relatives in their last 33 cases. The FBI is now appealing to the public in hopes of finding the whereabouts of the family of the victims.
Despite the possible challenges and dead ends, the news that forgotten cases are being revisited is welcomed by many.
“I’m very happy to see it happening,” said Jewel McDonald, whose mother and brother were beaten by the Ku Klux Klan. “So many young black people were killed back then. Many people just disappeared. We didn’t know where they were. As time went on you find out about this person being killed and that person killed.”
McDonald was 18 years old in 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi at the time. Her mother and brother were leaving the Mount Zion Methodist Church that night when they were surrounded and beaten. That evening, the church was burned.
“When they came home from church, we could tell something had happened,” said Ms. McDonald. “They had blood on them. We asked what was wrong and that’s when they told us that some people had attacked them at the church when they came out.”
According to Clemmons, who continues seeking an end to the case, the perpetrators were Klansmen searching for three civil rights workers Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman. The three of them occasionally held meetings with local residents in the same church.
McDonald’s brother was contacted by Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman who urged him to take legal action just days before they were reported missing. In 2005, a supremacist part-time preacher was convicted of the murders, but investigations continue.
“Justice comes when people can acknowledge what happened [in the past] and own up to it,” said Clemmons.
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