On June 20, 1964 Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner met in Mississippi to help train volunteers for a statewide voter registration drive, as part of "Freedom Summer." One day later, they lost their lives at the hands of Ku Klux Klan members in rural Neshoba County. This act of violence spurned one of the largest F.B.I. manhunts in US history, lasting six weeks, and culminating with the discovery of the bodies of the victims. Although seven men were convicted on federal civil rights charges, the perpetrators never faced state murder charges.
Join Pulitzer prize-winning author Dr. David Oshinsky for a discussion of his New York Times investigation that helped bring justice to the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" civil rights murders. A leading historian of modern American politics and culture, Dr. Oshinsky was the 2009 Jacob K. Javits Visiting Professor at New York University and holds the Jack S. Blanton Chair in History at the University of Texas. His essays and reviews appear regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other national publications.