Seven found guilty in ‘Mississippi Burning’ trial 50 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Oct 20 1967)


Image: Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey, right, and deputy Cecil Price, center, pass a Meridian policeman en route to court on Oct. 11, 1967.

(Friday, October 20, 1967, 9:12 a.m. CDT; during the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1954–68)) — A federal jury of white Mississippians convicted Mississippi Deputy Sheriff Cecil R. Price and six other defendants today in Meridian, Mississippi, for participating in a Ku Klux Klan conspiracy to murder three young civil rights workers in 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Another eight defendants were acquitted, including Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey (click to watch reaction to the verdict from two of the victims’ parents, including James Chaney’s mother and Andrew Goodman’s father.