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Student wins fame for civil rights documentary
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An 11-minute phone call was a Mississippi man’s ticket to spending the rest of his life in prison.
After a University of Wisconsin student and two friends made a documentary in high school exploring an unsolved murder case in Mississippi in 1964, the main suspect from more than 40 years ago was finally convicted.
In June 2005, Klu Klux Klan organizer Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of the murder of the three activists who had traveled south as part of the “Freedom Summer” campaign. He was sentenced to serve three consecutive 20-year terms in prison.
Brittany Saltiel, the UW sophomore who helped create the documentary, said the interview with Killen showed he was not too old to recall the events that took place in the summer of 1964 and he was still a likely suspect in the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Saltiel appeared on “The Montel Williams Show” Thursday and has been featured on “The Today Show,” “CBS Nightly News” and “ABC World News Tonight.”
Although the documentary included interviews with various people involved in the civil rights movement, the interview with Killen revealed much more than the girls expected.
Yet, because Saltiel and her friends were only sophomores in high school at the time, the girls asked their history teacher from Stevenson High School, Barry Bradford, to conduct the interviews instead.
Bradford convinced Killen to conduct a phone interview by saying he was interested in hearing the “Southern perspective” on the Civil Rights Movement.
In the brief telephone conversation, Bradford said every second felt surreal, knowing he was talking to the main suspect in a brutal murder case.
“[Killen’s] guilt was long known,” Bradford said. “Two of his co-conspirators had [already] named him in their confessions as the ringleader of the terrorist plot.”
In the conversation, Killen admitted his animosity toward the civil rights activists, something he had constantly denied in the past.
“We discussed why many whites of the time disliked the civil rights movement,” Bradford said. “He discussed how the Freedom Summer volunteers were hated and feared.”
According to Bradford, Killen said many Southern whites thought the volunteers were trying to recruit blacks for the communist movement.
“The call (between Bradford and Killen) was eventually disconnected,” Saltiel said. “We didn’t know if it was because of a poor connection or if [Killen] was getting suspicious.”
Despite the abrupt ending, the call had been recorded and the girls had Killen’s revealing audiotape to use for their documentary. Saltiel and her two friends finally put together the 10-minute video complete with Killen’s insights.
“We proved that he was still competent in his old age,” Saltiel said. “He was aware of his actions and he was capable of testifying.”
The video was brought to the attention of Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia; Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois; and Mississippi Gov. Harley Barbour.
These three men, among others, were instrumental in reopening the murder cases, which had remained unsolved for the past 40 years.
“After we told the story of what they (the volunteers) had gone through, it clearly showed that justice had not been brought to the case,” Saltiel said. “It was something that had to be resolved.”
Saltiel said it was a rewarding experience because the girls knew they had played a part in the whole thing.
“Everyone had been surprised that three teens were interested in something that had happened 40 years ago,” Saltiel said. “But it was our interest that brought justice once and for all.”
According to Saltiel, the project to make the video was not assigned through school but was done in the girls’ free time as part of the National History Day Competition.
“The documentary had to tie back to Chicago on both a local and national level,” Saltiel said. “We knew we wanted to focus on the civil rights movement in the South, but we had to find the loophole to be able to work on that topic.”
The girls found their answer when they learned about a man named James Farmer who founded Congress of Racial Equality, a civil rights organization in Chicago, in 1942.
“James Farmer was our local connection to Chicago,” Saltiel said. “Farmer was also our connection between Chicago and the South.”
Saltiel said she and her friends were outraged upon learning the three volunteers were murdered by the Klu Klux Klan in the summer of 1964, yet their case had never been completed.
“When we discovered that justice had not been brought to these murder cases we saw it as a call to action,” Saltiel said.
Saltiel has received national recognition for her work on the documentary, including appearing on the Today Show, being honored in a Congressional Tribute by Sen. Barack Obama and, most recently, by appearing on the Montel Show.
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As a member of the Philadelphia Coalition, I appreciate the work done by Ms. Saltiel & her classmates, however, your piece is not accurate in mamy ways. The facts reveal that it was a tri-racial committee of Neshoba County citizens (Philadelphia Coalition) working with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation that were primarily responsible for the the conviction of Killen. The Coalition, working with Dr Carolyn Goodman (Andy’s mother) and Rita Bender (Mickey’s widow), convinced MS Attorney General Jim Hood to try the case. For the record, MS Gov Haley Barbour had no part in the conviction. This is not to criticize the young women who did a great thing but to correct a miscarriage of the truth….were it not for the Coalition of local people seeking redemption and reconciliation for what happened in their community, Killen would still be free. Fenton DeWeese
Any contextual information about the actual murders? Like who the victims were, what they were doing, where they were, etc? The whole article is irrelevant if you don’t mention them. Sloppy.
Whoever posted the comment from Feb 11 @ 11:31am should consider the irony of their referring to someones work as ‘sloppy’ when they should learn to read before posting comments and exercise objectivity before judging. Contextual information about the actual murders aren’t relevant to the title of this article, which states its subject. This article is about the student’s documentary. Who the victims were, what they were doing and where they were are noted very early in the very article being criticized. If you want to know more, acknowledge the details of this well written article and look into it yourself. The case the documentary refers to is world famous and it does NOT take great effort to find anything about it.