Regarding “Spy files: Last gasp of racist state” (Page 1, June 7):
The Tribune is to be commended for the article detailing the activities of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, an agency created by the Mississippi legislature in 1956 to thwart the civil rights movement and block integration in the state.
After lengthy litigation initiated by the American Civil Liberties Union, the commission’s files have been opened up, revealing a pattern of nefarious activities to recruit spies, steal documents, tamper with juries and imprison innocent people.
It now appears that the murder of three civil rights workers in 1964 by the Ku Klux Klan–Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman–occurred as a result of complicity of the commission in gathering information on their identity and the license plates of their vehicle registered to the Congress of Racial Equality.
Surely it is now appropriate for lawsuits to be filed by the estates of the three deceased civil rights workers against the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Justice may be delayed, but it should now be done.
