For Civil Rights Crusaders, Arrest Brings Relief

[TacticalPeek]

For Civil Rights Crusaders, Arrest Brings Relief

By Carol Morello
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 8, 2005; Page B01

For Lawrence Guyot Jr., Thursday's arrest of a suspect in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi was not only a philosophical vindication but also something deeply personal.

Four decades ago, as a field worker with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Guyot almost joined Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney in their drive to the Mississippi town of Philadelphia to investigate the bombing of a black church. At the last moment, he decided not to go. But he advised them that with all the national media attention to a voter registration drive in the state that summer, they would be perfectly safe.

Their bodies were found 40 days later. More than 40 years would pass before authorities would arrest a reputed Ku Klux Klan member on murder charges.

"I prayed to live until this day," Guyot, a program monitor with the D.C. Office of Childhood Development, said yesterday. "We fought for this. We dreamed of this. And now it is reality. It's a statement that political assassinations are not acceptable in the state of Mississippi. Never again."

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"I think this ranks up there with the passage of the Voting Rights Act," he said. "This is a tremendous achievement for the state of Mississippi."

Today's Mississippi bears little resemblance to the state in which Guyot was born, he added.

"In 1964, the state policy of Mississippi was one of apartheid," he said. "It brought terror on black and white citizens. I've seen the state change to such an extent that it convicted the killer of Medgar Evers, and it will be moving now to bring justice in the murders of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman.

"I am proud to be a Mississippian."


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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57434-2005Jan7.html




A long long time coming . . . oh, for a hanging judge.