JACKSON, Miss. — This state, whose civil rights history is marred with negatives, wants to name its new Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters after slain civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman.
“Given our state and its history, it would do a lot to show that Mississippi has changed,” said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat.
“I think it’s an excellent idea and one that I would support,” Thompson said.
The Jackson City Council will vote today on a resolution supporting the move. Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman were killed June 21, 1964, while participating in Freedom Summer, an intensive voter registration drive aimed at breaking Mississippi’s resistance to civil rights for African Americans.
FBI building in Miss. may be named for slain civil rights trio - USATODAY.com
I’m having some trouble feeling this. There are other things the FBI could have done in the past or could be doing in the present regarding these and other civil rights murders that would be more meaningful than this symbolic gesture. What will it actually symbolize?
Source: USA Today
