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  • Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights
  • Brian K. Landsberg
Murder in Mississippi: United States v. Price and the Struggle for Civil Rights. By Howard Ball (Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2004) 192 pp. $29.95 cloth $12.95 paper

Murder in Mississippi tells the story of the federal prosecution of persons charged with conspiracy to deprive three civil-rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, of their civil rights. Although the case led to a Supreme Court decision interpreting Reconstruction criminal statutes, its significance lies more in what it says about the history of the civil-rights era, the condition of Mississippi society in the 1960s, the growing national consciousness of racial discrimination, and the structure and problems of enforcing federal laws in a resistant and hostile environment.

Ball draws on his personal knowledge of Mississippi, along with the papers of Supreme Court justices, presidents, civil-rights organizations, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, and numerous secondary sources to develop a compelling narrative. Ball does not purport to present a comprehensive historical, social, and legal analysis. Instead, he paints the picture in broad strokes, selecting dramatic examples to illustrate the story, rather than providing every fact and nuance.

After short chapters introducing the book and explaining Ball's own experiences in Mississippi beginning in 1976, Ball describes the legal and social structure of racial segregation, choosing Plessy v. Ferguson as the seminal Supreme Court decision legitimating segregation. He presents Brown v. Board of Education as the decisive point of change and the beginning of a new era of racial conflict in the deep South, inspiring the formation of White Citizens Councils and the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and the revival of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Predictably, African-Americans became impatient with the slow litigation strategy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee emerged to organize direct action against racial discrimination. The white majority in Mississippi was "comfortable with the folkways of their state," but were afraid of the KKK (33). Into this tinderbox came KKK Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who preached, "If it is necessary to eliminate someone, it should be done with no malice, in complete silence, and in the manner of a Christian act" (34). When the civil-rights organizations opened an office in Meridian, Mississippi, as part of their 1964 Mississippi Summer project, Bowers issued an order to kill Schwerner, the office head.

Ball provides descriptions of each of the protagonists and of the Klan plot to arrest, release, re-arrest, kill, and dispose of their bodies. He then discusses the national reaction and the swift and intensive FBI investigation that led to the discovery of the bodies and the federal criminal prosecution of KKK members for violation of 18 U.S.C. 241 (conspiracy against rights) and 242 (deprivation of rights under color of law). He [End Page 298] traces the twists of the case in a hostile district court and the direct appeal to the Supreme Court. In seventeen pages, he describes the Supreme Court arguments, deliberations, and decision upholding the indictments. The last two chapters are devoted to the trial, which led to conviction of some of the defendants, and to the state of racial justice in Mississippi today.

Ball's approach is descriptive rather than analytical, though he does offer some conclusions. The book could be a valuable teaching tool in courses on criminal justice, federalism, law enforcement, social change, and race relations. Occasionally additional context would be helpful. For example, Ball cites federal prosecutor John Doar's closing argument, which quotes Gloucester begging Queen Anne in Shakespeare's King Richard III: "Say I slew him not." She replies, "Then say they were not slain, but they are dead." Doar continued, "If you find that these men . . . [are] not guilty of this conspiracy, it would be as true to say that there was no night time release from jail by Cecil Price, that there were no White Knights, there are no young men dead, there was no murder" (130...

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