12 Facts About James Chaney

James Earl Chaney was an American civil rights activist.

James Chaney was one of three Congress of Racial Equality civil rights workers murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan on June 21,1964.

James Earl Chaney was born on May 30,1943, in Meridian, Mississippi, the eldest son of Fannie Lee and Ben Chaney, Sr.

James Chaney's brother Ben was nine years younger, born in 1952.

James Chaney's parents separated for a time when James was young.

In 1962, James Chaney participated in a Freedom Ride from Tennessee to Greenville, Mississippi, and in another from Greenville to Meridian.

James Chaney started volunteering in late 1963, and joined the Congress of Racial Equality in Meridian.

James Chaney organized voter education classes, introduced CORE workers to local church leaders, and helped CORE workers get around the counties,.

James Chaney said she believed that if only Chaney were missing, the case would not have received nearly as much attention.

In 1970, he went to Florida with two friends to buy guns; the two friends killed three white men in South Carolina and Florida, and James Chaney was convicted of murder in Florida.

James Chaney developed new evidence about the civil rights murders, found new witnesses, and pressured the State to prosecute.

James Chaney had been an outspoken white supremacist nicknamed the "Preacher".