The records on this page concern the life of Andrew Goodman, his murder, and the subsequent memorials and related legal proceedings in both federal and state court. Materials on this page are copyrighted by The Andrew Goodman Foundation or reproduced with permission from other copyright owners. For permission requests, or to inquire about other historic materials compiled by Andrew’s mother, Carolyn Goodman, or brother David Goodman, please contact us.
I. Andy’s Life
Andrew Goodman was born in New York City on November 23, 1943. His parents were Robert Goodman, a writer and civil engineer, and Carolyn Goodman, a psychologist and social activist. From the age of three up until the 12th grade, Andrew studied at The Walden School in New York City at 1 West 88th Street; The Walden School would later become the Trevor Day School, whose building is named after Andrew Goodman.
In 1961, Andrew began college at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Considering a dramatics major, he participated in extracurricular theatrical activities, until pneumonia forced him to drop out during his freshman year. Returning to New York City, he recovered his health and won a part in an off-Broadway show, “The Chief Thing” by the Russian playwright Nikolaí Evreninov. In 1962, he enrolled at Queens College, majoring in anthropology.
During his junior year at Queens, Andrew was recruited for a summer voter registration project in Mississippi by Aaron Henry, President of the Mississippi NAACP, and co-founder of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). At the time, Aaron was a student recruiter at Queens and other northern colleges for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The project was sponsored by COFO, whose member organizations included the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), SNCC, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and whose leaders included Martin Luther King and Ella Baker. Training sessions for the SNCC volunteers were held at the Western College for Women, now part of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Leaders from COFO trained over 1,000 SNCC volunteers, among them Andrew Goodman. The volunteers were instructed about the importance of aligning with, and assisting in any way possible, Black Americans in the South as they attempted to register, vote, and bring about change in the State of Mississippi.
Childhood and Upbringing
Photographs
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- Photo of Andy as a young boy
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- Photo of Andy taken in January 1947
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- Andy’s father, Robert Goodman, and his two brothers David, 3 years younger (on left) and Jonathan, 3 years older (on right)
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- Andy and his two brothers, taken in 1954
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- Portrait taken in March 1959
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- Andy in Wachabuck, NY in 1964
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- Andy with his co-trainees in 1964 at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio
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- Andy’s last headshot was taken in 1964
Miscellaneous Items
Final Years
College Essays
Items Related to Freedom Summer
Funeral & Memorial
II. The Murders and Aftermath
On Sunday, June 21, 1964 (Father’s Day), Andrew set out with veteran CORE workers Michael Schwerner and James Chaney to investigate the ruins of The Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. The church, a “Freedom School” for voter registration meetings, had been burnt to the ground by the KKK. After Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney left the church ruins, they were arrested by the local sheriff, detained, and released–only to be led into a Ku Klux Klan ambush. Chaney, the only African American of the trio, was then savagely beaten, and all three were shot to death. Their bodies were buried under an earthen dam that was under construction nearby.
After a forty-four day search by the State Highway Patrol, the FBI, the U.S. Navy and other law enforcement agencies, the bodies were located on August 4, 1964. The U.S. Justice Department, acting on orders from Attorney General Robert Kennedy, brought charges in federal court against 18 persons identified by the FBI. These individuals were charged with denying Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner their civil rights without due process of law. On October 20, 1967, seven of the 18 were found guilty of these federal offenses. However, none of these individuals who were physically present at the scene of the crime, were indicted, tried, or convicted of murder in a Mississippi court. (Forty years later, one of the 18 who was not present at the scene was convicted of manslaughter, a lesser charge than murder.) The 1967 case was a landmark decision because it was an application of a law enacted during the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, and because it was one of the first convictions of KKK members in a Southern court.
Statements, Correspondence, and Condolences
Condolences From Elected Officials and Organizations
Poems and Songs to Andy Written by Members of the Public
Hate Mail Received by the Goodman Family
Items Related to the Search and United States v. Cecil Price
III. Keeping the Legacy Alive
In 1966, Robert and Carolyn Goodman started The Andrew Goodman Foundation to carry on the spirit and purpose of their son’s life. After the death of Robert Goodman in 1969, Carolyn continued the work of the Foundation, focusing on projects like a reverse march to Mississippi and a 25th Anniversary Memorial in June 1989. The memorial, which took place at St. John The Divine Church in NYC, was attended by 10,000 people and was presided by Governor Mario Cuomo, Maya Angelou, Peter Seeger, Aaron Henry, Harry Belafonte, Robert Kennedy Jr., then Mississippi Secretary of State Dick Molpus, and others closely associated with the Civil Rights movement. After Carolyn’s death in August 2007, David Goodman, Andrew’s younger brother, and Sylvia Golbin-Goodman, David’s wife, took up the work of the Foundation and are currently serving pro-bono as Vice Chairman of the Board and President, respectively.
For nearly 50 years, the organization was a private foundation acting in the public interest. With their eyes set on the future, the Board of Directors of The Andrew Goodman Foundation elected to convert the organization into a public charity in 2012. In 2014, Vote Everywhere was formally launched on the fiftieth anniversary of the murders; the program inspires college students to take a stand in the spirit of Freedom Summer, making young voices and votes a powerful force in democracy.
2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom
Letters & Related Documents
White House Photographs
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- David Goodman with the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Andy
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- President Obama speaking about Andy, James, and Michael’s tragic story with (in order from left to right) Angela Lewis, David Goodman, and Rita Schwerner seated behind
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- Close-up of President speaking about Andy, James, and Michael before awarding them the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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- David Goodman, Andrew’s brother (left), with Rita Schwerner, widow of Michael Schwerner (center), and Angelia Lewis, only daughter of James Chaney (right)
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- David Goodman accepting the award from President Obama
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- David Goodman hugging President Obama after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Andy
Goodman Family Speeches
Interviews & Speeches