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Three Lives for Mississippi
In the civil rights movement, 1964 was the year of Freedom Summer. On June 21, Mississippi, one of the last bastions of segregation in America and a bloody battleground in the fight for civil rights, reached the low point in its history. On that steamy night three young activists were abducted and murdered in Neshoba County near the small town of Philadelphia.
Their names were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Two were from the North and labeled locally as “outside agitators.” Chaney was a Mississippi black. The murders not only shook the nation and shamed the state of Mississippi but also forced loose the iron grip of white supremacy in the South.
William Bradford Huie was sent to this seething community by the New York Herald Tribune to cover the breaking story. Probing for answers and conducting interviews, he wrote this documentary account in the heat of the dangerous and dramatic moment, not in the safe zone of retrospection.
This is not a political or sociological study, a collection of articles or a diary, but a journalist's fact-filled story of people that fate brought together in a tragic confrontation. Huie tells the history of each young man and studies the personalities of the killers. He reveals not only the harrowing events in this heinous case but also the prejudice of ordinary citizens who allowed murder to serve as their defense of prejudice. He helps us know the young martyrs closely and introduces us to their killers and to the hatred and suspicion that led inexorably to murder. This edition includes Huie's report on the trial three years later. Nineteen local men were charged. Seven were found guilty of conspiracy but none of murder.
Their names were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Two were from the North and labeled locally as “outside agitators.” Chaney was a Mississippi black. The murders not only shook the nation and shamed the state of Mississippi but also forced loose the iron grip of white supremacy in the South.
William Bradford Huie was sent to this seething community by the New York Herald Tribune to cover the breaking story. Probing for answers and conducting interviews, he wrote this documentary account in the heat of the dangerous and dramatic moment, not in the safe zone of retrospection.
This is not a political or sociological study, a collection of articles or a diary, but a journalist's fact-filled story of people that fate brought together in a tragic confrontation. Huie tells the history of each young man and studies the personalities of the killers. He reveals not only the harrowing events in this heinous case but also the prejudice of ordinary citizens who allowed murder to serve as their defense of prejudice. He helps us know the young martyrs closely and introduces us to their killers and to the hatred and suspicion that led inexorably to murder. This edition includes Huie's report on the trial three years later. Nineteen local men were charged. Seven were found guilty of conspiracy but none of murder.
186 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1964
About the author
William Bradford Huie
56 books16 followersWilliam Bradford Huie was an American writer, investigative reporter, editor, national lecturer, and television host. His credits include 21 books that sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In addition to writing 14 bestsellers, he wrote hundreds of articles that appeared in all of the major magazines and newspapers of the day. Huie wrote several books about controversial topics related to World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. Six of Huie's books were adapted as feature films during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 27, 2019
“When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
-William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar
Three young activists gave up their lives in Philadelphia, Mississippi in the summer of 1964. This book is the story of a large group of Northern college students-activists who decided to go to Mississippi to teach local African Americans about their voting rights. The mission was called “The Freedom Summer Project” under a group called CORE. CORE is a African American civil rights organization that was founded in Chicago in 1942. The unhappy Mississippi locals called it a “summer invasion.” Change was coming and LBJ was to sign the Civil Rights bill in July of that year. In Mississippi, men began to join the Klu Klux Klan to get ready for this “invasion.” They were not about to change their beliefs, their hatred or their way of life. The students were naive and did not understand what firestorm they were walking into.
One of the New York CORE civil rights workers workers was to be sent to Mississippi early to set up a base camp and to start registering African American voters. He was Michael Schwerner, a twenty four year old married young man. He also happened to be Jewish. He arrived in Mississippi with his wife, and two CORE members Jewish, twenty-year old Andrew Goodman and African American twenty-one yer old James Chaney.
All three of them never returned home instead they were kidnapped then murdered. They will never be forgotten. The late novelist and journalist, William Bradford Huie, wrote this book in 1965 at a cost. He and his family were living in Alabama, where he is from, when in 1967, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in his lawn and he was physically threatened. He decided that this story was more important than his safety and I agree with him.
The state of Mississippi did not pursue justice for the victims so unfortunately, the nineteen men ( the local police and the Ku Klux Klan) who did this, were not fully brought to justice. Seven men were convicted but eight were set free including Ku Klux Klan leader, Edgar Ray Killen who planned and directed the murders. He was sentenced to forty-one years after the crime in 2005 and he died at 92 years of age in jail. The entire world knows the evil that this group did that night.
The cost that summer of 1964 for civil rights was staggering: Over 1,000 people were arrested, 80 Freedom Summer workers beaten, 37 churches were bombed or burned; 3 civil right workers were murdered, 1 civil rights worker was killed in a car accident, 4 people critically injured and at least three African Americans were killed due to their support for the movement.
Anyone who is interested in activism and civil rights should read this great book on a piece of American history. I gave it four stars and I think the author, William Bradford Huie was a very brave man.
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
-William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar
Three young activists gave up their lives in Philadelphia, Mississippi in the summer of 1964. This book is the story of a large group of Northern college students-activists who decided to go to Mississippi to teach local African Americans about their voting rights. The mission was called “The Freedom Summer Project” under a group called CORE. CORE is a African American civil rights organization that was founded in Chicago in 1942. The unhappy Mississippi locals called it a “summer invasion.” Change was coming and LBJ was to sign the Civil Rights bill in July of that year. In Mississippi, men began to join the Klu Klux Klan to get ready for this “invasion.” They were not about to change their beliefs, their hatred or their way of life. The students were naive and did not understand what firestorm they were walking into.
One of the New York CORE civil rights workers workers was to be sent to Mississippi early to set up a base camp and to start registering African American voters. He was Michael Schwerner, a twenty four year old married young man. He also happened to be Jewish. He arrived in Mississippi with his wife, and two CORE members Jewish, twenty-year old Andrew Goodman and African American twenty-one yer old James Chaney.
All three of them never returned home instead they were kidnapped then murdered. They will never be forgotten. The late novelist and journalist, William Bradford Huie, wrote this book in 1965 at a cost. He and his family were living in Alabama, where he is from, when in 1967, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in his lawn and he was physically threatened. He decided that this story was more important than his safety and I agree with him.
The state of Mississippi did not pursue justice for the victims so unfortunately, the nineteen men ( the local police and the Ku Klux Klan) who did this, were not fully brought to justice. Seven men were convicted but eight were set free including Ku Klux Klan leader, Edgar Ray Killen who planned and directed the murders. He was sentenced to forty-one years after the crime in 2005 and he died at 92 years of age in jail. The entire world knows the evil that this group did that night.
The cost that summer of 1964 for civil rights was staggering: Over 1,000 people were arrested, 80 Freedom Summer workers beaten, 37 churches were bombed or burned; 3 civil right workers were murdered, 1 civil rights worker was killed in a car accident, 4 people critically injured and at least three African Americans were killed due to their support for the movement.
Anyone who is interested in activism and civil rights should read this great book on a piece of American history. I gave it four stars and I think the author, William Bradford Huie was a very brave man.
January 21, 2016
This book had a major impact on me when I first read it -- you might say I was traumatized. Interestingly, it was the only book on the Civil Rights movement in our Middle School library on the edge of one of the nation's great Black cities. I never forgot it, and years later got my own copy. It's a terrifying glimpse into a now mostly-vanished world, and good riddance. I was an infant when these events transpired, and a snaggle-toothed old hag when one of the ringleaders of the atrocity was brought to justice, in his eighties. I wonder what the three victims of this crime would say if I could ask them what they think of president Obama's election...
July 8, 2013
Actually finished reading Three Lives For Mississippi by William Bradford Huie some time ago. Since I was in the C R Movement at that time I was familiar with most of the events stated. I recommend the book to all.
May 27, 2014
I chose to read this as it has been just 50 years since this happened. I wanted to see if my memory of the events had held up, They had. It seems like it was yesterday when these terrible times took place. Book well written
April 12, 2018
I was drawn to this old book because it was written by William Bradford Huie from Hartselle, Alabama. This book was a fresh today as it must have been back then in terms of explaining race, religion and resentment.
September 12, 2009
Amazing journalism written from the perspective of a southern author.
September 6, 2025
Now I understand why Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the introduction to this seemingly small and overlooked book: this was nothing but Amazing!
"Mickey," his mother said, "are you sure you want to buy a German-made car? You know about Auschwitz and you know that some of your relatives were murdered there. So soon after Auschwitz are you sure you'll feel comfortable driving a Volkswagen?"
"I know how you feel, Mother," Mickey said, “but I want to spend my life relieving hate, not preserving it. I see reason to hope that there will never be another Auschwitz."
“I never met Mickey Schwerner. Had I met him I might have suggested that he limit his belief in Man. He does not see the hard-working, law-abiding citizen who gets carried away by his religious hate and race hate and becomes capable of driving the car or helping hold the victim.”
“Mickey Schwerner was incapable of believing that a police officer in the United States would arrest him on a highway for the purpose of murdering him, then and there, in the dark.
That, I suppose, must be the answer. It leaves me with this melancholy thought. James Chaney’s instinct to run from a police car might have saved three lives. But Chaney’s simpler instinct apparently was overruled by Schwerner’s reasoned and civilized judgement. So maybe Chaney’s devotion to Schwerner cost him his life. Or maybe Schwerner, by taking Chaney to his death, gave meaning to Chaney’s life.”
“They didn’t do it for money, and they think they did right. The crimes against humanity which are hardest to understand, and therefore hardest to punish, have always been those committed by “good” men.”
“Schwerner’s parents had wanted him buried in Mississippi with Chaney. But this proved impossible. There is no way to bury a white man with a Negro in Mississippi - unless you bury them at night in a dam.”
"Mickey," his mother said, "are you sure you want to buy a German-made car? You know about Auschwitz and you know that some of your relatives were murdered there. So soon after Auschwitz are you sure you'll feel comfortable driving a Volkswagen?"
"I know how you feel, Mother," Mickey said, “but I want to spend my life relieving hate, not preserving it. I see reason to hope that there will never be another Auschwitz."
“I never met Mickey Schwerner. Had I met him I might have suggested that he limit his belief in Man. He does not see the hard-working, law-abiding citizen who gets carried away by his religious hate and race hate and becomes capable of driving the car or helping hold the victim.”
“Mickey Schwerner was incapable of believing that a police officer in the United States would arrest him on a highway for the purpose of murdering him, then and there, in the dark.
That, I suppose, must be the answer. It leaves me with this melancholy thought. James Chaney’s instinct to run from a police car might have saved three lives. But Chaney’s simpler instinct apparently was overruled by Schwerner’s reasoned and civilized judgement. So maybe Chaney’s devotion to Schwerner cost him his life. Or maybe Schwerner, by taking Chaney to his death, gave meaning to Chaney’s life.”
“They didn’t do it for money, and they think they did right. The crimes against humanity which are hardest to understand, and therefore hardest to punish, have always been those committed by “good” men.”
“Schwerner’s parents had wanted him buried in Mississippi with Chaney. But this proved impossible. There is no way to bury a white man with a Negro in Mississippi - unless you bury them at night in a dam.”
April 3, 2023
Three Lives for Mississippi reminded me of how good unabashed liberalism once felt. Three Lives for Mississippi was about an atrocity that occurred on June 21, 1964, which I hazily remember since I was seven. The weather was almost scorching that day in suburban New York as it was in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were that day arrested for "speeding", released into the hands of terrorists who wanted at least Michael Schwerner, to quote the book, exterminated, killed and buried under an earthen dam.
The book is powerfully written by a journalist whom, along with many others,went to the scene to investigate. The bodies were not found until August 4, 1964. In those days (and this may be the subject of another thread in History or elsewhere), the issues were simple and seemingly lacked the complexity and ambiguity of modern issues. Right was right, wrong was wrong. There was nothing appealing or defensible about murdering three helpless young men and throwing their body into the mud, and burying it. There was nothing good that could be said about politicians who converted "NAACP" into a string of unprintable epithets.
The closest thing to any ambiguity that one can find is that the perpetrators were "life's losers." And yet, they enjoyed adulation among low-lifes. What I do remember, from the haze of seven-year old childhood, was that in liberal, upper-middle class New York being on the side of right and decency never felt so good, and was rarely, ever again, to feel so good.
The book is powerfully written by a journalist whom, along with many others,went to the scene to investigate. The bodies were not found until August 4, 1964. In those days (and this may be the subject of another thread in History or elsewhere), the issues were simple and seemingly lacked the complexity and ambiguity of modern issues. Right was right, wrong was wrong. There was nothing appealing or defensible about murdering three helpless young men and throwing their body into the mud, and burying it. There was nothing good that could be said about politicians who converted "NAACP" into a string of unprintable epithets.
The closest thing to any ambiguity that one can find is that the perpetrators were "life's losers." And yet, they enjoyed adulation among low-lifes. What I do remember, from the haze of seven-year old childhood, was that in liberal, upper-middle class New York being on the side of right and decency never felt so good, and was rarely, ever again, to feel so good.
November 28, 2023
Huie, a native of Alabama, knew the south and its mores and how to talk with people and see the cruel and savage hatred nurtured in the human heart by a class structure that made the lowest, economically and socially, whites pawns in the game of Jim Crow race laws and attitudes. The most sickening part of the book is in Huie’s own home state where he describes a Ku Klux Klan chapter in a small rural town which has a handful of members and the requirement to hold office is to do violence to a randomly chosen black man, in this case castrating a middle aged poorly educated simple poor single black man with a razor blade and turpentine.
Read the whole book slowly and let it sink in, including black ministers who don’t want ‘rock the boat’ because many blacks have constructed reasonably successful lives within the existing system and are protected from the worst violence. Huie reports this all in an even temper inviting us to look, look how it goes down. Truly a masterpiece.
Huie also did the Look magazine interview with Milan and Bryant, the torturers and murderers of Emmett Till, after they were found not guilty and could not be tried again for telling the truth.
Should be standard reading in all American high schools but of course won’t ever be.
Read the whole book slowly and let it sink in, including black ministers who don’t want ‘rock the boat’ because many blacks have constructed reasonably successful lives within the existing system and are protected from the worst violence. Huie reports this all in an even temper inviting us to look, look how it goes down. Truly a masterpiece.
Huie also did the Look magazine interview with Milan and Bryant, the torturers and murderers of Emmett Till, after they were found not guilty and could not be tried again for telling the truth.
Should be standard reading in all American high schools but of course won’t ever be.
March 29, 2025
Three Lives for Mississippi explores the impact and cost of an individual’s actions in the face of national change. It asks: was it worth it?
This is a well-written book by a journalist who takes care to publish the work of others on this topic- notably local newspapers reporting at the time of the 3 boy’s disappearance in 1964.
A book I would highly recommend. After completion, it pairs well with the movie “Mississippi Burning”, which follows the federal investigation into the disappearance and relies on the book heavily for material.
This is a well-written book by a journalist who takes care to publish the work of others on this topic- notably local newspapers reporting at the time of the 3 boy’s disappearance in 1964.
A book I would highly recommend. After completion, it pairs well with the movie “Mississippi Burning”, which follows the federal investigation into the disappearance and relies on the book heavily for material.
March 5, 2024
One of the most eye-opening reads of all time. Their murders and the ways in which they were carried out will never fail to absolutely shock me. A horrendous time in history that still continues in America’s current political climate.
December 8, 2018
4.5 stars
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May 12, 2017Interlibrary loan
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews