On June 21, 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, volunteers for Mississippi Freedom Summer's drive to register black voters, were murdered near here by members of the Ku Klux Klan and local law enforcement. While investigating the burning of nearby Mount Zion Church, they were arrested and shot. Their bodies were found August 4, 1964. Though no one was indicted for their murder until 2005, the crime sparked national outrage that helped spur passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.