This week on Tuesday, August 4, I voted in a primary election in Virginia. The process was easy and quick. It took about 10 minutes from the time I arrived at the polling place to the time I headed back to the car.
Later that day I realized that this date was significant in the history of securing civil and voting rights for Black Americans. On August 4, 1964, the bodies of three civil rights workers were found buried in an earthen dam in rural Mississippi. Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were three of the young adults who participated in Freedom Summer. A major focus of that project was registering Black people to vote in a state that actively and often violently worked to prevent Black people from voting. The three men went missing on June 21, the first day of Freedom Summer. After a massive search that lasted for weeks, information provided by an informant led to the discovery of their bodies. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman who were white had been shot through the heart while James Chaney who was Black had been brutally tortured before being shot. In the process of the weeks long search, nine bodies of Black people were discovered in the local river. The first two short videos posted below feature footage from Freedom Summer including the discovery of the three young men’s bodies on August 4, 1964. Please take time to watch and reflect on the sacrifices not only of the three who died, but all those who decided to continue with Freedom Summer after the three went missing.
These three young men are among many others whose lives were lost while working to expand voting rights throughout our nation’s history. The current administration’s efforts to limit and suppress voting rights, including the so called Save Act, dishonor their lives and legacies. The third video posted below features Senator and Pastor Raphael Warnock explaining the potential negative consequences of this unnecessary proposed legislation. Such attempts not only restrict rights for which people gave their lives. They also deny the inherent equality and dignity of people made in the image of God.