You are invited to attend the 41st annual Memorial Service for the three slain civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The service will be held on June 19 at 1:00 pm at the location of the former Longdale community center on County Road 632 in the Longdale community in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The location can be reached from Philadelphia by going east approximately 2 miles on highway 16, then turning left on county road 482 and proceeding about 7 miles, then turning right on county road 632 and proceeding for about 1 1/2 miles. The former community center site is on the right.
Although the formal service will begin at 1 p.m. we encourage people to come as early as 10 a.m. and visit with old and new friends.
The service will be conducted outdoors on the Steele family's land. There is ample shade and ample parking. Since we will have a tent, in the event of rain, there will not be a problem. The community on the road people will travel to get to the site is friendly to our cause. There will be much and varied food, from barbeque to healthy salads, for attendees. Thanks in advance to the food committee.
This will be an event for remembering, conversation, exchanging thoughts and ideas, strategizing and calling for justice.
Concerns and Issues
We shall remember and honor James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
We shall address issues that are of concern in the year 2005, including:
Speakers and Program Participants
Confirmed speakers thus far for this year's service are:
Ben Chaney — Director of the James Earl Chaney Foundation; native of Meridian, MS; younger brother of slain civil rights worker James Chaney.
Rev. James Lawson — Considered to be the leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the US civil rights movement and continues today as an advocate for the power of collective nonviolent struggle in furtherance of campaigns for peace, justice, freedom, equality, and human rights. In 1960 in Nashville, Tennessee he mentored a number of young students who were future leaders of the Civil Rights Movement including Diane Nash, Marion Barry, James Bevel, and John Lewis. The activists trained by Lawson launched a series of sit-ins to challenge segregation in Nashville's downtown stores in 1960. These activists and others from Atlanta and elsewhere in the South joined to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1968, while pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis, Reverend Lawson served as chairman of the sanitation workers' strike committee. He invited Dr. King to Memphis in April 1968 to dramatize their struggle. He continues to train activists in nonviolence and to work in support of a number of causes, including opposition to the war in Iraq, and workers' rights to a living wage. Rev. Advial McKenzie — Pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Quitman, Clarke County, Mississippi.
Curtis Muhammad — Civil rights movement veteran (SNCC) and native Mississippian. In the early 1960s he worked in voter registration and direct action projects throughout Mississippi. Bodies of work that he helped organize include the Mississippi freedom vote, R.L.T. Smith Congressional Campaign, Jackson Bus Boycott, Adult Literacy, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Freedom Corps, Mississippi Freedom Labor Union, and Tent City. From his early days in the movement he learned how to be a freedom fighter for life.
Diane Nash — Chairperson of the student nonviolent sit-in movement in the first southern city to desegregate its lunch counters (Nashville, 1960). One of the founding students of SNCC (1960). Coordinator of the Freedom Ride from Birmingham to Jackson in 1961. Director of the direct action arm of SNCC in 1961. Worked in voter registration and direct action projects in many counties in Mississippi. Activist in the peace movement that worked to end the Vietnam War. Co- developer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's (SCLC) initial strategy for the Selma Right-to-Vote movement. Recipient of the J.F. Kennedy Library Distinguished American Award and of the L.B. Johnson Library Civil Rights Award. (Ms. Nash says that even though she received the awards, in fact, they belong to all movement participants.) A native and current resident of Chicago she currently works in support of several issues related to liberation and peace.
George Roberts — Long-time human rights activist. Native of Kemper County, Mississippi. President, Kemper County NAACP.
Bernice Sims — Ms. Sims began work in Civil Rights Movement while a teenager in Meridian, Mississippi. Early on she worked under the leadership of Medgar Evers and Charles Darden. Later she worked closely with Matt "Flukey" Suarez, James Chaney, and Michael and Rita Schwerner in Meridian. During those early years she was a member of the NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). She is a professional social worker, artist, actress, teacher, and writer. In 1989 Ms. Sims became the first African-American trustee for Hempstead, New York.
John Steele — Human rights activist and Neshoba County native. The Steele family worked closely with James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. The family has been the key organizers in the annual memorial services from the beginning and through 40 years. John Steele, his mother and his sister are the only three church members still living who were at Mt. Zion Methodist Church the night of June 16, 1964, when church members were beaten by Klansmen and the church burned.
Jimmie Travis — Presently associated with Visions Physical Therapy in Jackson, MS; civil rights movement veteran, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Rev. C.T. Vivian — Rev. Vivian whose civil right activism began in the 1940s continues today, tirelessly working for the progress of African Americans and the civil and political rights of all peoples. He founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, organizing the first sit-ins there in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. Rev. Vivian was a rider on the first "Freedom Bus" into Jackson, Mississippi, and went on to work along-side Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his Executive Staff in Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, Nashville, the March on Washington; Danville, Virginia; and St. Augustine, Florida.
Hollis Watkins — Native of Mississippi. Civil rights movement veteran, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Co-founder and President of Southern Echo, Inc., a leadership development, education, training, and technical assistance organization headquartered in Jackson, MS.
In addition to formally addressing the gathering, Hollis Watkins will facilitate freedom singing by the entire gathering.
Additional speakers, including more civil rights movement pioneers and veterans, family members of the three young men, and others, will be added.
As always at the memorial service, there will be an invitation for others who may wish to speak.
We hope you will join us.
Please share this information. The service is open to the general public.
Sincerely,
|
Curtis Muhammad muhammadcurtis@bellsouth.net (504) 236-4703
Diane Nash
Rev. C.T. Vivian |
John Steele johnora32@msn.com (925) 497-9868
John Gibson |
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Last Modified: May 31, 2005.
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