Sixty Years Later, The Klan Rides (Flies) Again

“They killed one N-gger, one Jew, and a White man. I gave them all what I thought they deserved.” These shocking words were uttered exactly 60 years ago by “the most openly racist judge ever to sit on a federal court bench”, William Harold Cox, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi. Those two phrases were his own description of the lenient sentences he handed down to two Mississippi Sheriffs, Cecil Price and Lawrence Rainey for the torture and premeditated murder of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

Fast forward to May 20, 2025 when 31 year old Elias Rodriguez packed his licensed 9 mm pistol in his checked baggage in accordance with TSA regulations and boarded a United Airlines in Chicago for Washington DC. Two days later he shot and reloaded 29 rounds into Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, thereby securing his place in America’s homicidal, racist history next to the famous Southern judge and the two convicted sheriffs.

Back in 1965 the three murdered activists (Chaney was Black, Goodman and Schwermer were Jewish) were part of the Freedom Summer Project, a campaign launched the previous year by SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) in an effort to register as many African-American voters as possible in the state of Mississippi. More than 1,000 out-of-state volunteers participated in Freedom Summer alongside thousands of Black Mississippians. The volunteers were the brightest of their generation coming from the best universities in the largest cities in the North. Ninety percent were White but due to the fact that Jews were at the forefront of the civil rights movement over 500 of them were Jewish, bolstering by tenfold SNCC’s original goal of 100 White volunteers. 

Yaron Lischinsky, likewise was the brightest of his generation before his murder in Washington DC last month. He commanded four languages- Hebrew, Japanese, English, and of course, his native German, and was known as a thoughtful, brilliant, caring peacemaker throughout the International DC young diplomatic community. He was described as a “kind and generous friend, a devout Christian, and a defender of Israel” by Mariam Wahba, who after any attack on a church on Christians in her native Egypt – and there are many of them – would get a message from him. Nothing long. Just “Are you okay?” 

By 1964, at the young age of 22, New Yorker Michael Schwerner had already volunteered at numerous human rights organizations scattered throughout the Lower East Side, many of which focused on nonviolent direct-action protests.

Sarah Milgrim was a shining star, an academically accomplished member of her generation. Born in 1998. She held two master’s degrees; one in international studies from American University (2023) in global sustainability and international studies in which she spent two semesters in Costa Rica. The Honors thesis of her second master’s degree from the United Nations University of Peace (2022) focused on peace efforts between Israeli and Palestinian organizations and she was a participant in Tech2Peace, a program that brings Israelis and Palestinians together to promote technological innovation and conflict dialogue. Locally, she was also active in the DC Jewish community events, organizing with a LGBTQ synagogue on several occasions. About the last night of his daughter’s life, her father Robert Milgrim told a reporter that,“ the meeting was about getting more supplies into Gaza.”

Back in the 50’s and 60’s the two youngest of the five murdered activists were James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, both born in 1943. When he was 15, Chaney sported an NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) badge on his shirt at his segregated school in Meridian, Mississippi. He was suspended for one week by his principal who feared the reaction of the all White school board.  Goodman left NYC at age 17 in 1960 for a summer to study working conditions of agricultural workers in Europe. Upon his return he enrolled in the Honors Program at the University of Wisconsin, and he even acted in off Broadway theater in his home city.

As the Freedom Summer addressed the all consuming discrimination and voter disenfranchisement in the South over half a century ago, the Young Diplomats Event sponsored by The American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum addressed the glaring hunger and catastrophe of war in today’s Middle East. It similarly brought together diverse communities –  the best and brightest from the International Diplomatic community and American Jewish young professionals. American, Israeli, French, and Moroccan leaders focussed on advancing relations in the Middle East and North Africa and relieving suffering from Syria to Gaza.

Rodriguez targeted a young, beautiful, activist woman, reloading his weapon while she tried to crawl away, injured and defenseless, only to open fire a second time in her back. Whereas Chaney had been tortured by Klansmen before his death, some could categorize the sadistic nature of Rodriguez’s antisemitic shooting as femicide, as well.

In the 1960’s the Klan rode freely in the South on horseback, trucks and cars. After the murders, Sheriff Cecil Price told his co -conspirator Klansmen, “Well, boys, you’ve done a good job. You’ve struck a blow for the White man. Mississippi can be proud of you.” In 2025, Rodriguez presented his photo ID and boarding pass to ‘fly the friendly skies’ on his chosen carrier halfway across the country to kill. Sixty years after the murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schweremer, the college graduate and former Black Lives Matter activist, self absorbed in the same hate as his Southern predecessors, committed double homicide and then yelled “Free Free Palestine.”

In the words of Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist George Santayana( 1863 – 1952), “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”