MLK Association Juneteenth Lunch & Learn Event
Asheville honors the legacy of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman.
This Juneteenth Lunch and Learn Event, a memorial to the three young men killed for their Civil Rights work, will be held Monday, June 17, 2024, noon until 1:30 p.m., at the Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center, 121 Shiloh Road in Asheville.
On June 21, 1964, three young men, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman disappeared near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Schwerner and Chaney worked for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Goodman was a college student from New York who volunteered to work on voter registration, education, and Civil Rights as part of the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project.
During the summer of 1964, the Ku Klux Klan burned 20 Black churches in Mississippi, including Neshoba’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, where Schwerner had once worked. Before setting Mt. Zion ablaze, the Klan severely beat several people attending a meeting there. Upon hearing this news, the three civil rights workers traveled from Ohio, where they were training, to Mississippi.
At 4 p.m., on the drive to Meridian, they were stopped by police. Chaney, the driver, was arrested for speeding, and the other two men were detained. At 10 p.m., they were permitted to pay the fine and were instructed to leave the county. They were never seen alive again.
Schwerner and Goodman, Jewish men from up north, and Chaney, a Black man from Mississippi, shared a passion for justice and racial equality, a pursuit for which they lost their lives. On the 60th Anniversary/Yahrzeit of their deaths, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Asheville and Congregation Beth Israel have joined to honor the legacy of these men during the week of Juneteenth.
The memorial, which is free to attend, will include a candle lighting ceremony by community representatives who have worked to advance social justice, Gospel and Jewish liturgical music, and a panel discussion with Sheriff Quentin Miller, Dr. Jonathan McCoy, and former SNCC employee Carol Rogoff-Hallstrom, followed by a light lunch. A voter registration table will also be available.
Additional sponsors include the City of Asheville, Congregation Beth Ha Tephila, and Carolina Jews for Justice.
