On the Civil Rights Memorial are inscribed the names of individuals who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom during the modern civil rights movement 1954 to 1968. Between the first and last entries is a space that represents civil rights heroes who died before or after this period and others whose stories were not known when the Memorial was created. The martyrs include those who were targeted for death because of their civil rights activities; those who were random victims of vigilantes determined to halt the movement; and those who, in the sacrifice of their own lives, brought a new awareness of the struggle to people allover the world.
May 7, 1955 Belzoni, Mississippi
August 13, 1955 Brookhaven, Mississippi
August 28, 1955 Money, Mississippi
October 22, 1955 Mayflower, Texas
January 23, 1957 Montgomery, Alabama
April 25, 1959 Poplarville, Mississippi
September 25, 1961 Liberty, Mississippi
April 23, 1963 Attalla, Alabama
June 12, 1963 Jackson, Mississippi
September 15th, 1963 Birmingham Alabama
September 15, 1963 Birmingham, Alabama
January 31, 1964 Liberty, Mississippi
March 23, 1964 Jacksonville, Florida
Apri17, 1964 Cleveland, Ohio
May 2, 1964 Meadville, Mississippi
June 21, 1964 Philadelphia, Mississippi
July 11, 1964 Colbert, Georgia
February 26, 1965 Marion, Alabama
March 11, 1965 Selma, Alabama
March 25, 1965 Selma Highway, Alabama
June 2, 1965 Bogalusa, Louisiana
July 18, 1965 Anniston, Alabama
August 20,1965 Hayneville, Alabama
January 3,1966 Tuskegee, Alabama
January 10, 1966 Hattiesburg, Mississippi
June 10, 1966 Natchez, Mississippi
July 30, 1966 Bogalusa, Louisiana
February 27, 1967 Natchez, Mississippi
May 12, 1967 Jackson, Mississippi
February 8, 1968 Orangeburg, South Carolina
April 4, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee
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REV. GEORGE WESLEY LEE, an NAACP leader and one of the first
black people registered to vote in Humphreys County, used his pulpit and
his printing press to urge others to vote. White officials offered Lee
protection on the condition he remove his name from the list of
registered voters and end his voter registration efforts, but Lee
refused and was murdered.
LAMAR SMITH was shot dead on the courthouse lawn by a white man
in broad daylight while dozens of people watched. The killer was never
indicted because no one would admit they saw a white man shoot a black
man. Smith had organized blacks to vote in a recent election.
EMMETT LOUIS TILL, a 14-year-old boy on vacation from Chicago,
reportedly flirted with a white woman in a store. That night, two men
took Till from his bed, beat him, shot him, and dumped his body in the
Tallahatchie River. An all-white jury found the men innocent of murder.
JOHN EARL REESE, 16, was dancing in a cafe when white men fired
shots into the windows. Reese was killed and two others were wounded.
The shootings were part of an attempt by whites to terrorize blacks into
giving up plans for a new school.
WILLIE EDWARDS JR., a truck driver, was on his way to work when
he was stopped by four Klansmen. The men thought Edwards was another man
who they believed was dating a white woman. They forced Edwards at
gunpoint to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River. Edwards' body was
found three months later.
MACK CHARLES PARKER, 23, was accused of raping a white woman.
Three days before hls case was set for trial, a masked mob took him from
his jail cell/ beat him, shot him, and threw him in the Pearl River.
HERBERT LEE, who worked with civil rights leader Bob Moses to
help register black voters, was killed bya state legislator who claimed
self-defense and was never arrested. Louis Allen, a black man who
witnessed the murder, was later also killed.
WILLIAM LEWIS MOORE, a postman from Baltimore and CORE activist,
was shot and killed during a one-man march against segregation. Moore
had planned to deliver a letter to the governor of Mississippi urging an
end to intolerance.
MEDGAR EVERS, who directed naacp operations in Mississippi, was
leading a campaign for integration in Jackson when he was shot and
killed by a sniper at his home.
ADDlE MAE COLLINS, DENISE McNAIR, CAROLE ROBERTSON and CYNTHIA
WESLEY were getting ready for church services when a bomb exploded
at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing all four of the school-
age girls. The church had been a center for civil rights meetings and
marches.
VIRGIL LAMAR WARE, 13, was riding on the handlebars of his
brother's bicycle when he was fatally shot by white teen-agers. The
white youths had come from a segregationist rally held in the aftermath
of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing.
LOUIS ALLEN, who witnessed the murder of civil rights worker
Herbert Lee, endured years of threats, jailings and harassment. He was
making final arrange-ments to move North on the day he was killed.
JOHNNIE MAE CHAPPELL, who cleaned houses to help support her
family, was shot by four white men as she searched for a lost wallet
along a roadside. The murder occurred during an outbreak of racial
violence in downtown Jacksonville. Her story was not known when the
Memorial was dedicated.
REV. BRUCE KLUNDERwas among civil rights activists who protested
the building of a segregated school by placing their bodies in the way
of construction equipment. Klunder was crushed to death when a bulldozer
backed over him.
HENRY HEZEKIAH DEEand CHARLES EDDIE MOORE were killed by
Klansmen who believed the two were part of a plot to arm blacks in the
area. (There was no such plot.) Their bodies were found during a massive
search for the missing civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman and
Schwerner.
JAMES EARL CHANEY, ANDREW GOODMAN, and MICHAEL HENRY
SCHWERNER, young civil rights workers, were arrested bya deputy
sheriff and then released into the hands of Klansmen who had plotted
their murders. They were shot, and their bodies were buried in an
earthen dam.
Lt. Col. LEMUEL PENN, a Washington, D.C., educator, was driving
home from U.S. Army Reserves training when he was shot and killed by
Klansmen in a passing car.
JIMMIE LEE JACKSON was beaten and shot by state troopers as he
tried to protect his grandfather and mother from a trooper attack on
civil rights marchers. His death led to the Selma-Montgomery march and
the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act.
REV. JAMES REEB, a Unitarian minister from Boston, was among many
white clergymen who joined the Selma marchers after the attack by state
troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Reeb was beaten to death by white
men while he walked down a Selma street.
VIOLA GREGG LlUZZO, a housewife and mother from Detroit, drove
alone to Alabama to help with the Selma march after seeing televised
reports of the attack at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. She was driving
marchers back to Selma from Montgomery when she was shot and killed bya
Klansmen in a passing car.
ONEAL MOORE was one of two black deputies hired by white
officials in an attempt to appease civil rights demands. Moore and his
partner Creed Rogers were on patrol when they were blasted with gunfire
from a passing car. Moore was killed and Rogers was wounded.
WILLIE BREWSTER was on his way home from work when he was shot
and killed by white men. The men belonged to the National States Rights
Party, a violent neo-Nazi group whose members had been involved in
church bombings and murders of blacks.
JONATHAN MYRICK DANIELS, an Episcopal Seminary student in Boston,
had come to Alabama to help with black voter registration in Lowndes
County. He was arrested at a demonstration, jailed in Hayneville and
then suddenly released. Moments after his release, he was shot to death
bya deputy sheriff.
SAMUEL LEAMON YOUNGE JR., a student civil rights activist, was
fatally shot by a white gas station owner following an argument over
segregated rest rooms.
VERNON FERDINAND DAHMER, a wealthy businessman, offered to pay
poll taxes for those who couldn't afford the fee required to vote. The
night after a radio station broadcasted Dahmer's offer, his home was
firebombed. Dahmer died later from severe burns.
BEN CHESTER WHITE, who had worked most of his life as a caretaker
on a plantation, had no involvement in civil rights work. He was
murdered by Klans- men who thought they could divert attention from a
civil rights march by killing a black person.
CLARENCE TRIGGS was a bricklayer who had attended civil rights
meetings sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He was
found dead on a roadside, shot through the head.
WHARLEST JACKSON, the treasurer of his local NAACP chapter, was
one of many blacks who received threatening Klan notices at his job.
After Jackson was promoted to a position previously reserved for whites,
a bomb was planted in his car. It exploded minutes after he left work
one day, killing him instantly.
BENJAMIN BROWN, a former civil rights organizer, was watching a
student protest from the sidelines when he was hit by stray gunshots
from police who fired into the crowd.
SAMUEL EPHESIANS HAMMOND JR., DELANO HERMAN MIDDLETON and
HENRY EZEKIAL SMITH were shot and killed by police who fired on
student demonstrators at the South Carolina State College campus.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., a Baptist minister, was a major
architect of the civil rights movement. He led and inspired major non-
violent desegregation campaigns, including those in Montgomery and
Birmingham. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated as he
prepared to lead a demonstration in Memphis.
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