By Philip Newman
As chimes pealed at Queens College President Obama paid homage Monday at the White House to Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, the three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi more than four decades ago.
The sound of chimes issued forth from Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner clock tower on Benjamin Rosenthal Library at Queens College, Goodman’s alma mater.
The Medal of Freedom ceremony was conducted by Obama, who praised 19 people who, in his words “made extraordinary contributions to our country and the world.”
“On June 21,1964, three young men – two white, one black – set out to learn more about the burning of a church in Neshoba County, Miss.,” President Obama said.
“These three Americans refused to sit on the sidelines Their brutal murders by a gang of Ku Klux Klan members shook the conscience of our nation,” Obama said.
Andrew Goodman’s brother David attended the ceremony along with other relatives of his two companions.
“The entire Queens College community is extraordinarily proud that President Obama has recognized one of our own in this unprecedented way,” said Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, president of Queens College. “Andrew Goodman sacrificed his life for the cause of civil rights during Freedom Summer, which helped fuel the struggle and ultimately changed history. He and his co-workers are true American heroes and an inspiration to us all.”
Queens College has a long association with the civil rights movement. Dr. Carolyn Goodman, Andrew’s mother, received the President’s Medal at the college’s 1996 commencement for her lifelong civil rights activism. She died in 2007.
Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner were pulled over by local police near Philadelphia, Miss., on June 21, 1964, then released after which they were subsequently kidnapped by Ku Klux Klansmen. Their bodies were dug up 15 feet beneath an earthen dam 44 days later.
Of the 18 suspects in the slayings originally arrested in 1967, none served more than six years.
Many years afterward, Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter for the Clarion Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss., wrote a series of stories that led to the arrest of Edgar Ray “Preacher” Killen, a former Ku Klux Klansman. On June 24, 2006, Killen, 80, was sentenced to 60 years for his role in the slayings of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner.
Schwerner was also connected with Queens College. His brother worked at the counseling center and his wife was a student.
“And while they are often remembered for how they died, we honor them today for how they lived – with the idealism and the courage of youth,” Obama said. “ James, Andrew and Michael could not have known the impact they would have on the civil rights movement or on future generations. And here today, inspired by their sacrifices, we continue to fight for the ideals of equality and justice for which they gave their lives.
Among other Medal of Freedom recipients were Tom Brokaw of NBC, songwriter Stephen Sondheim, actress Meryl Streep, Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, author Isabel Allende, and songwriter-singer Stevie Wonder.
