The Chisholm Project would like to share this image as we approach the 50th anniversary of the 1964 lynching of civil rights activists James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner. Rockwell's paintings are generally known as depicting slices of Americana for The Saturday Evening Post. In truth, Rockwell was interested in telling our nation's whole story which sadly includes a past steeped in racism and a struggle for equality. In the painting Murder in Mississippi he re-tells the horrific events on the night and early morning of June 21-22 when the KuKluxKlan brutally murdered Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. This image helps to keep the memory of the three young men as well as their fight for civil justice alive, which is even more meaningful in 2013 USA than ever.
July 16, 2013