Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were part of the civil rights movement focusing on voter registration in the South. They were in Mississippi as part of a Freedom Summer initiative aimed at increasing black voter registration in state where longstanding discriminatory practices had suppressed these efforts. The trio was abducted on June 21 from a church in Neshoba County while assessing the damages done to a black church. Their disappearance raised alarms, leading to a massive search effort involving the FBI, local law enforcement, and the community, yet preliminary efforts yielded no leads. Weeks passed until their bodies were uncovered by law enforcement on August 4, buried in a dam, tragically highlighting the dangers faced by activists. Their case garnered significant media attention and revealed the brutal reality faced by those who sought to challenge systemic racism in the Deep South.The investigation that followed was marked by controversy and resistance, with state officials reluctant to pursue leads tied to local Klan members. It was not until months later that evidence and testimonies began to corroborate who had murdered the three men, and ultimately, federal justice was sought. The effects of their killings rippled across the nation. They became symbols of the struggle for civil rights and galvanized public opinion against the injustices that were rampant in the southern United States during this period.