Andrew Young On The Killen Trial

I watched as Edgar Killen, after being convicted of the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, slapped angrily at reporters microphones as he was being wheeled out of the courtroom, to await a potential sentence of anywhere from 3 years to 60 years for manslaughter. It had been justice delayed for 41 years for the former Klansman, part time preacher, and sawmill operator. But in the final analysis there was not enough evidence to convict him of the charge of murder, but only of manslaughter. His lawyers have promised an appeal of the verdict handed down by the Philadelphia, Mississippi jury of nine whites and three blacks.

But former U.N. ambassador and civil rights activist Andrew Young was circumspect at the decision. He referred to Killen as a "long lost soul", and derived "no satisfaction" from his conviction. At the same time, he stated that the event was "important for Mississippi". He expressed hope that it was a sign of the changing times in the state, and of the south in general. Noting the increase in black football and basketball coaches, as an example of the strides blacks have made in the south during the forty one years since the murder of civil rights workers
James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, he said simply that Missisippians "may not believe in God, but they sure believe in football and basketball."