Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Posthumous Presidential Medal Of Freedom Going To Civil Rights Activists Who Died During "Freedom Summer"
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 24, 2014
Modified Nov 24, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Getty Images
View all 12
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 24, 2014
Modified Nov 24, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Today, President Obama is presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the county's highest civilian honor, to a number of people, like economist Robert Solow, actress Meryl Streep, musician Stevie Wonder, choreographer Alvin Ailey (in a posthumous honor) and composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. But three people are not celebrities, notable scientists or politicians—they were three young men who were murdered while registering black voters during the "Freedom Summer" of 1964.
The White House press release noted that the medal is "presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors" and noted the honorees' work:
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were civil rights activists and participants in “Freedom Summer,” an historic voter registration drive in 1964. As African Americans were systematically being blocked from voter rolls, Mr. Chaney, Mr. Goodman, and Mr. Schwerner joined hundreds of others working to register black voters in Mississippi. They were murdered at the outset of Freedom Summer. Their deaths shocked the nation and their efforts helped to inspire many of the landmark civil rights advancements that followed.
Chaney, from Mississippi, and Goodman and Schwerner, of New York, were traveling in Philadelphia, Mississippi, to investigate the burning of a black church, when they were arrested for speeding. They were, the NY Times reports, "slain after their release from jail in what is believed to have been a Ku Klux Klan ambush. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam." Their deaths are "widely seen as helping inspire the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act the same year."
The men who shot and buried the three were convicted of civil rights violations, but not murder. In 2005, Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood revisited the case and tried Edgar Ray Killen, considered the ringleader in the murders. Killen was ultimately convicted of manslaughter, but not murder. During Killen's trial, Goodman's mother read a postcard her son, an Upper West Sider who had been a student at Queens College, sent to her on June 21, 1964, the last day of his life, "Dear Mom and Dad, I have arrived safely in Meridian, Miss. This is a wonderful town, and the weather is fine. I wish you were here. The people in this city are wonderful, and our reception was very good. All my love, Andy."
Killen, 89, is serving a 60-year prison sentence.
A four block stretch of the Upper West Side, west of the West End Avenue, was carved out in 1967 to created "Freedom Place," to pay tribute to Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. A plaque pay tribute to their how the men gave "their lives in the unending struggle for freedom and democracy."
Tagged
Andrew Goodman
civil rights
Edgar Ray Killen
Freedom Summer
James Chaney
Michael Schwerner
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NYC looks to grow involvement in Open Streets as applications open for 2027
The Mamdani administration bolstered funding this year and is asking applicants to suggest infrastructure upgrades.
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 14, 2026 at 12:52 p.m. ET
New Yorkers are paying $300 million for natural gas they don't even use
A new study found that nearly 2% of the city's natural gas is leaking into the air and causing climate pollution.
By
Rosemary Misdary
News
New Yorkers are paying $300 million for natural gas they don't even use
A new study found that nearly 2% of the city's natural gas is leaking into the air and causing climate pollution.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Early Addition: Eric Adams did not convince a Wisconsin town to build a data center
By
James Ramsay
Hit-and-run driver arrested trying to flee to Uzbekistan after deadly crash, NYPD says
By
Brittany Kriegstein
NY measles outbreak more widespread than official count, health officials say
By
Caroline Lewis
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .