Numerous works portray or refer to the stories of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, the aftermath of their murders and subsequent trial, and other related events of that summer.
Film • In the 27-minute documentary short,
Summer in Mississippi (1964 Canada, 1965 U.S.), written and directed by
Beryl Fox • The two-part CBS made-for-television movie,
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975), co-starring
Wayne Rogers and
Ned Beatty, is based on
Don Whitehead's book (
Attack on Terror: The F.B.I. Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi). Actor
Hilly Hicks portrayed "Charles Gilmore", a fictionalized representation of James Chaney, actor
Andrew Parks portrayed "Steven Bronson", a fictionalized representation of Andrew Goodman, and actor
Peter Strauss portrayed "Ben Jacobs", a fictionalized representation of Schwerner. • The feature film
Mississippi Burning (1988), starring
Willem Dafoe and
Gene Hackman, is loosely based on the murders and the ensuing FBI investigation. Goodman is portrayed in the film by actor Rick Zieff and is simply identified as "Passenger". Schwerner, simply identified in the credits as "Goatee", is portrayed in the film by Geoffrey Nauffts. • The television movie
Murder in Mississippi (1990) examines the events leading up to the deaths of the activists. In this film,
Blair Underwood portrays Chaney;
Josh Charles portrays Goodman; and
Tom Hulce portrays Schwerner.
Royce D. Applegate portrays a character named "Deputy Winter", who is an obvious stand in for Cecil Price. • The documentary
Neshoba (2008) details the murders, the investigation, and the 2005 trial of Edgar Ray Killen. The film features statements by many surviving relatives of the victims, other residents of Neshoba county, and other people connected to the civil rights movement, as well as footage from the 2005 trial. • The TV movie,
All the Way (HBO, 2016) about the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency depicted through the 1964 Civil Rights agenda, evokes the implication of the Johnson administration in the investigation around these murders.
Art •
Norman Rockwell depicted the murders in his painting,
Murder in Mississippi (1965), to illustrate Charles Morgan's investigative article in
Look, titled "Southern Justice" (June 29, 1965). The article was part of a series on civil rights.
Literature • The economists
Samuel Bowles and
Herbert Gintis dedicated their book
A Cooperative Species (2011) to Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. •
George Oppen dedicated his poem, "The Book of Job and a Draft of a Poem to Praise the Paths of the Living" (1973), to Schwerner. •
Alice Walker's novel
Meridian (1976) portrays issues of the civil rights era. •
Don Whitehead's nonfiction book,
Attack on Terror: The F.B.I. Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi (1970), details the events a week before the assassinations and concludes with the Federal trial of the conspirators. The book was adapted as a two-part television movie in 1975. •
Howard Cruse's graphic novel
Stuck Rubber Baby (1995) deals with issues of the civil rights era. After a stare down with a policeman, the protagonist recalls the murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner and reflects on the "price that can get exacted when you look bigotry too squarely in the eye" (p. 201). • David J Dennis Jr's (in collaboration with David J Dennis Sr) non-fiction book
The Movement Made Us (2022) describes the events unfolding in chapter XIII, "Vote".
Theatre • April 2024 the play
Three Mothers had its world premiere at
Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, New York. The play, written by Ajene D. Washington, offers a potential glimpse into the conversations that the mothers of the men who were murdered might have had. Its inspiration is based on the photograph of the women leaving the final funeral of their boys.
Music Concert drama •
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer
Steven Stucky's evening-long concert drama,
August 4, 1964, was based on the events of that date: the discovery of the bodies of the three civil rights workers and the reported attack on two American warships in the
Gulf of Tonkin. Commissioned to commemorate the centennial of the birth of
Lyndon B. Johnson, it premiered to excellent reviews.
Songs • Music researcher Dr. Justin Brummer, founding editor of the
Vietnam War Song Project and the Post-War American Political Songs Project, has identified 17+ songs related to the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. •
Richard Fariña's song, "Michael, Andrew and James", performed with
Mimi Fariña, was included in their first Vanguard album,
Celebrations for a Grey Day (1965). •
Tom Paxton included the tribute song, "Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney" on his ''
Ain't That News'' (1965) album. •
Pete Seeger and
Frances Taylor wrote the song, "Those Three are On My Mind", about the murders, to commemorate the three workers. •
Phil Ochs wrote his song, "Here's to the State of Mississippi", about these events and other violations of civil rights that took place in that state. • Although it was written a year before the murders,
Simon & Garfunkel's song, "He Was My Brother" from
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964), has become associated with Andrew Goodman, who attended Queens College near the end of Simon's years at the school. Simon may have known Goodman only slightly, but they shared many friends. • The band
Flobots' song, "Same Thing", asks to bring back Chaney. • The
Vietnam War Song Project has identified the song "Eve of Tomorrow" by
Tony Mammarella, an answer to
Barry McGuire's
Eve of Destruction, which contains the line: "Why did the three kids come from the north, they didn't have to join in the fight, but they marched down to Mississippi and they died for what they knew was right"
Television • In the
Dark Skies episode "We Shall Overcome". It aired December 14, 1996. •
The FBI Files discussed this case in its final episode of season 1, entitled "The True Story of Mississippi Burning". It aired February 23, 1999. • The murder was among the 10 events that were shown on the History Channel's
10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America miniseries in April 2006. • In
Mad Men: "Public Relations" (season 4, episode 1),
Don Draper's date Bethany mentions knowing Andrew Goodman, stating "The world is so dark right now" and "Is that what it takes to make things change?". •
All the Way, a 2016
HBO film, briefly portrays the kidnapping and murders, and portrays the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 in their aftermath.
Audio • Season 3 of the CBC podcast,
Someone Knows Something, revolves around the discovery in July 1964 of the bodies of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, African-American men who had been murdered two months earlier by the Klan, while the FBI was searching for the bodies of the three missing civil rights workers. == See also ==