on June 21, 1964, the three men in the car were an unlikely trio. James Earl Chaney, a 21-year-old Black Mississippian, had a 10th-grade education and worked as an apprentice plasterer.

Michael (Mickey) Schwerner and James Chaney worked for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in nearby Meridian; Andrew Goodman was one of the hundreds of college students from across the country ...