50 years ago three civil rights workers were kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner had taken the summer off from school so as to help eligible citizens register to vote. While driving through Philadelphia, Mississippi, they got a flat tire and were pulled over by the town’s deputy sheriff, who in turn called two highway patrolman. Forty-four days later, the FBI found the young men’s bodies buried within an earthen dam. The two white students had been shot, the African-American student from Mississippi was beaten to death. Seven were convicted of the crime, the longest sentence served was six years.
After a prolonged period of civil unrest in St. Augustine, Florida, the “St. Augustine Movement” came to a head on June 18, 1964. In protest to Martin Luther King’s arrest on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge, white and African-American protestors jumped into the motel’s whites-only pool. In an attempt to control the protestors, the manager of the hotel poured acid into the pool. The images of this horrific event are some of the most famous from the civil rights movement.
The above described represent only but two of the unimaginable events creating the entirety of the civil rights movement. The events of the summer of 1964 marked a turning point for the movement though. It was the summer of 1964 that congress ended the filibuster and approved the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making it unlawful to discriminate based on an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.