An incident that woke the sleeping conscience of a nation. In
1964, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Andrew Goodman
volunteered for Freedom Summer, a program that mobilized
hundreds of young volunteers to the South to register African
American citizens to vote. At that time, African Americans were
not permitted to vote unless they paid an exorbitant poll tax
and passed an unconstitutional literacy test. They were also
faced with outright intimidation, physical violence and murder.
These appalling tactics were used to prevent them from voting,
one of the many acts of injustice and segregation that were
occurring blatantly in the Jim Crow South. Freedom Summer
volunteers were determined to turn that racist policy around by
assisting with voter registration. On his first day in
Mississippi, June 21, 1964, Andy along with James Chaney and
Michael Schwerner, went to visit a church in Neshoba County that
had been burned under suspicious circumstances. They never
returned. After being arrested on speeding