Impossibility of Justice in Mississippi Slayings

Re “Arrest Made in 1964 Civil Rights Killings,” Jan. 7: I was stunned and thrilled to read of the arrest in Mississippi of a reputed Ku Klux Klan leader in connection with the 1964 deaths of young civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The Times refers to that heinous crime as “one of the most infamous episodes of the civil rights era.” But to the families of those men and the many civil rights activists, it was not a mere “episode” but an act of terror and premeditated murder.

Goodman’s mother is still hoping that justice will be done. Justice would have been done if someone had been convicted 40 years ago. This 79-year-old man, who still denies any complicity in the crime, lived his long life unimpeded. And three young [men] still remain very much dead.

Wendy Cohen

Fountain Valley