Not Forgotten: Searching for Justice in NESHOBA
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What is the meaning of justice? How long does it take for wounds to heal? How does a community apologize for crimes that took place 40 years ago? How does a community remake itself into a better place? These complex questions are at the heart of the new documentary, Neshoba: The Price of Freedom, which will be released in theaters in August, after a successful festival run.
In June, 1964, three young civil rights workers who were in Mississippi on a voter registration drive were murdered in Neshoba County. Their killers were never brought to justice. Neshoba follows the attempts of present-day Neshoba residents to find both reconciliation and justice, 40 years later.
Most of the film is devoted to the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, a local minister and unrepentant racist. Now in his 80s, Killen still insists on his innocence, but he, and many others in the town, also believe the boys “got what was coming to them” by “sticking their nose where they didn’t belong.”
But there is change afoot in Neshoba County. Killen’s trial was instigated by the Philadelphia Coalition (so named for the town where the murders took place), a group of citizens who have come together to look for understanding across the boundaries of race.
The civil rights workers—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner—were in their early 20s when they were killed, and many of their close relatives, including parents, are still alive. Some of the most moving moments in the film involve seeing the families at the time of the murders, and then again in the present day, having waited so long for official acknowledgment of their loss.
There was significant press coverage of the incident when it occurred—as one family member points out, this was probably due to the fact that two of the young men murdered were white. But the viewer benefits from the filmmakers’ access to rich archival sources, including heart-wrenching footage of James Chaney’s funeral.
When Killen’s trial is complete, we are left wondering if justice has really been served, and what the future looks like for Neshoba County. The film ends with a long list of murdered civil rights workers whose killers have never been brought to trial—a reminder that our country’s brutally racist past continues to haunt us, and that there are many stories left to be told.
by Mattie Akers
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| Posted on July 13, 2010
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