The recent arson that destroyed Beth Israel, Jackson, Miss.’s only synagogue, evokes that state’s dark legacy of violence toward those supporting racial equality — one stretching back more than 60 years.

In spring 1964, a Duke University sophomore from Connecticut, Dick Landerman, and a Harvard senior from New York, Nick Fels, joined the civil rights movement in Mississippi. As idealistic foot soldiers, they were unwittingly marching into history. 

Landerman’s family was apolitical. His civil commitment was more interpersonal than ideological — a function of friendships made at a racially mixed YMCA summer camp and on Hartford basketball courts.

But casual campus racism repelled and incited him. What prompted his activism, he told me in an interview, was “my shame at not speaking up in response to a racist incident at the start of my freshman year.”

Fels recalled to me that his civil rights interest preceded the summer of 1964. “Among other things, growing up in New York as a rabid Brooklyn Dodgers fan, I idolized Jackie Robinson — and still do,” he said. 

So, Landerman, 19, and Fels, 21, joined the Mississippi Freedom Summer, a joint effort involving the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Council of Federated Organizations, which included the Congress of Racial Equality and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, plus the NAACP and its Legal Defense Fund. 

In 1961, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizers moved into Mississippi cities and towns to register local Blacks to vote. Poll taxes and literacy tests stymied registration, as did widespread racist violence and intimidation.

In 1963, a Liberty, Miss., politician shot and killed Herbert Lee, a Black farmer working with the the organization. A white sniper murdered NAACP state field secretary Medgar Evers, and local activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Lawrence Guyot were arrested and beaten in jail. Activists faced church bombings, house burnings and economic retaliation.

Yet the national media virtually ignored this terror and intimidation. No government protection or voting rights action came. 

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee strategist Robert Moses concluded, “It is not possible for us to register Negroes in Mississippi. … There is reason to believe that authorities in Mississippi will force a showdown over the right to vote in large numbers.”  

Moses and local leaders decided on recruiting mostly white, Northern middle-class volunteers for national media attention, and to serve as a tripwire against local white terrorism.

Like many Mississippi volunteers, Landerman and Fels are Jewish. But white and Black, Christians and Jews, the same missionary zeal fired them as embodied in the Civil War era Battle Hymn of the Republic: As Jesus “died to make us holy, let us die to make men free.”

And so, they did, a century later. 

On June 21, 1964, Black Mississippi activist James Chaney and two white volunteers, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, disappeared while driving from Philadelphia, Miss., to Jackson. Neshoba County and Philadelphia City police officers, most Ku Klux Klan-affiliated, arrested the trio on speeding charges. After they were released, Klan and law enforcement officers followed them, beat Chaney, shot all three, and buried the bodies in an earthen dam. 

Fels recalls riding in a car with two other volunteers one night after the murders. “Our car was stopped by the local sheriff, who was notorious for harassing” civil rights organizations’ volunteers. “After directing us to get out of the car and show our IDs, he paused for a moment and then let us go. I have never forgotten the sense of panic.” 

Later, he and other volunteers saw the dam site where Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman’s bodies had been buried. “The visit brought home the depth of the hostility we faced and triggered a strong sense of anxiety, particularly because of our own recent encounter with the sheriff in Hattiesburg,” Fels said. 

The deaths galvanized the nation and influenced passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which eliminated poll taxes and literacy tests, exploding Mississippi and southern Black voter registration.

Although the summer also deeply affected other volunteers, many remained in Mississippi, despite the trauma.

Motivated by his experience, Fels joined Friends of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was active in the Berkeley free speech movement. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge John Minor Wisdom — a staunch foe of racial segregation — and worked in legal aid. 

That December, Landerman returned to Duke, becoming active in a campus civil rights organization. He stood up to racism in late-night dorm arguments with segregationist students about sit-in arrests at local segregated restaurants. Following graduation, Landerman spent several years community organizing in a white Durham, N.C working-class neighborhood. 

At 81, he reflects on his Mississippi experience’s relevance today. 

“When Bob Moses entered Mississippi in 1961,” Landerman said, “Black people had lived for decades under a brutal and oppressive system where change seemed inconceivable, and opposition brought economic retribution, beatings, jailings, and death. Together with local Black people, a [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] staff of 41 built a movement capable of making Freedom Summer happen and bringing voting rights to Black people across the South.” 

Fels, now 82, says Mississippi Freedom Summer also deeply affected him. Retired from his Washington law firm, he’s on the board of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. The group filed an amicus brief challenging President Trump’s executive order restricting the number of citizens who could register to vote in federal elections.

“The repression of rights and violence we faced in Mississippi obviously differs from what the current federal government seeks to impose today,” he says. “I think, however, that the lesson from Freedom Summer applies: Resistance is necessary and may, in the long run, succeed.” 

Mark I. Pinsky is a journalist and author based in Durham, N.C.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – After nearly four years of waiting, checking court websites repeatedly for a decision that never seemed to come, Toby Price finally got the answer he was searching for: vindication.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals has overturned the firing of the former Gary Road Elementary School assistant principal, who was terminated in March 2022 for reading “I Need a New Butt!” to a group of second graders during Read Across America Day.

The court’s decision came down Jan. 27, marking a major victory for Price after multiple hearings sided with the Hinds County School District’s decision to fire him.

“I didn’t believe it at first, because I sat at the computer like some kind of nerd each week, reloading the pages to see if there’s a decision, reload, reload, reload,” Price said in an exclusive interview with 3 On Your Side. “And then one morning I got on and reload, and there was something there. My wife had texted me and I said, ‘I think we won.’ And she called me on the phone and she was crying.”

The appeals court found the school district had no substantive reason to terminate Price. Judges noted there were no parent complaints on file, no student complaints, and only vague criticism from teachers who said they “wouldn’t have picked that book.”

More significantly, the court found the school library contained books with similar or worse content than the book Price read — a finding the judges called “whimsical” decision-making on the part of the school board.

“They went through the book itself, they were able to see that there are so many other books in the library that have similar content and or worse content in some cases that are apparently okay. And it was very inconsistent,” Price said.

The court wrote in its decision: “There is nothing concrete in the record demonstrating that the second-grade class was subjected to ‘unnecessary embarrassment.’ No child or group of children was singled out during the reading, and Price acknowledged the outlandish nature of the book’s premise.”

This ruling reversed a 2024 Chancery Court decision that upheld his firing and came after oral arguments before the Mississippi Court of Appeals in September 2025.

Yet even with the court’s vindication, four years of public scrutiny have left their mark on Price and his family. The visibility of the case — which drew national attention — has followed him into everyday life.

A year ago, Price said a stranger in a Walmart checkout line recognized him and hurled a slur at him, calling him a pedophile while his children were present.

“It was all I could do not to break down because I’m not going to break down in front of somebody like that,” Price said. “But it still hurts.”

The incident was witnessed by a checkout clerk who had known Price and his family for years. She defended him publicly in that moment, telling the man, “I’ve been checking you and your family out at this door for years, since they were babies. And there are a lot of things I could call you. But that ain’t it.”

Still, Price said the damage to his reputation persists despite the legal victory.

“So, yes, we get vindicated by the decision, but the visibility like that doesn’t go away,” he said. “And the narrative that they tried to spin is really hard to make that wash off.”

This reality stands in stark contrast to when Price first spoke out about his firing in 2023, expressing hope that the legal process would clear his name.

The appeals court’s decision means Price is eligible for reinstatement and four years of back pay. However, Price said he is uncertain whether he will return to the Hinds County School District — the same district that fired him.

His position was filled four years ago, and Price expressed concerns about returning to work for the same school board members who terminated him, citing fears of potential retaliation.

“My goal is to find a way that I can still help kids and parents and students but not take away from the mission of schools,” Price said. “I don’t know what that’s going to look like yet. But we will find out.”

During the four years away from education, Price pivoted to writing. He has authored children’s books in “The Almost True Adventures of Titus the Monkey” series, which focuses on autism awareness. He is currently finishing a third book in the series and working on a non-fiction memoir about his family and his experiences.

“I love telling stories, and that I could spread some autism awareness, make kids laugh at the same time,” Price said.

Price’s attorney will meet with the Hinds County School District to negotiate details of reinstatement and back pay. A Chancery Court hearing is expected to occur within approximately 30 days to finalize the settlement package.

Despite the uncertainty, Price said he is choosing to move forward with faith.

“When you have a lot of what you kind of base your identity on stripped away or taken away from you, there’s nothing left. So you got to have faith that tomorrow is just going to be okay,” he said. “I don’t know what the answers are going to be tomorrow. I don’t know what tomorrow is going to look like, but I’m gonna be okay.”

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Ripley, Mississippi — A large white generator on a flatbed tow truck was a beacon of hope Thursday for the volunteer fire department in the small northern Mississippi community of Gravestown, which has been without power and running water for five days following an ice storm the likes of which the state hasn’t seen in more than 30 years.

“We’re very grateful for them,” Gravestown Fire Chief Kenny Childs told CBS News of the dozens of generators that have been distributed statewide by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of the storm. “We had no water, no power, no nothing. So, you know, it is great.”

Childs said he’s been informed by the leadership of his local electric company that it will be another seven to 15 days before his community gets power restored, so the generator will be a crucial item for the near future.

“That’s a lot with no power,” Childs said.

FEMA has sent 90 generators to Mississippi since last weekend’s storm. Subcontractors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are installing them at critical agencies and businesses, like long-term care facilities, hospitals, water districts and fire departments.

Childs said the generator at his fire house will not only help his team respond to emergencies, but it will also provide a warm shelter for Gravestown residents to come stay and charge their electronic items, such as cell phones.

“It will help the community, and it will help us, it’s wonderful,” Childs said.

Senior electrician Kenny Jones, of Atlanta, Georgia, has been traveling the Southeast for several days to help install the generators in hard-hit areas.

“It’s amazing,” Jones said. “Actually, you see the smile on people’s faces when you actually bring power to them, and they get hot water again and able to take showers. Just a cozy feeling on the inside.”

About an hour south, in Oxford, Mississippi, hundreds of power crews from several neighboring states have arrived to help repair miles of downed power lines the storm left in its wake.

Keith Hayward, CEO of the Northeast Mississippi Power Association, said the ice accumulation was overwhelming, despite an updated, more reinforced system in place.

“We believe we had an inch-and-a-quarter (of) ice over most of our system, which is basically a record for anything around this area,” Hayward said. “We’ve had tree damage that is unbelievable… and by the time the ice loading gets to that kind of loading, with an inch of ice on either side, those poles are holding up nearly 10,000 pounds of extra weight. And, so, you can just imagine when a tree falls and they have that extra weight, what it does to the power systems.”

He added, “We haven’t lost a ton of poles, but we have got a lot of wire on the ground. A lot of tree damage, a lot of vegetation damage. A lot of people have trees on their houses. They can’t get out of their driveways, and it is system wide. We cover 2,200 miles of primary line that we have over about a 75-mile radius, and it was from one side to the other.”

While he believes most customers will get power back on within the next three days, he says it could still be another week for some of his more rural customers.

That could spell out serious danger with another round of severe cold temperatures expected this weekend for the East Coast.

“It is very, very, disheartening for me… I grew up in this community. I’ve lived here my entire life,” Hayward said. “I feel for them, they have to go through these conditions and, you know, the loss that they’re suffering, not only from not having power, but the damage that they’ve had on their homes and things.”

For Oxford residents like Jerrica Pryor, a teacher at a local middle school, relief can’t come soon enough. With no power and no running water, she has been living off snack food, and spending time in her car to warm up periodically.

She uses a small space heater sparingly to warm up at night.

“It has been difficult,” Pryor said. “Lots of blankets, lots and lots of blankets.”

With tears in her eyes, she said she was most worried about her students and how they’re faring in the dark and cold.

“I do miss them, I just hope they’re well,” she said. “It hurts a little bit, because they are on a different side, and I’m able to stay warm, and I just hope they are as well.”

Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said the city is doing everything possible to restore basic services to residents. She likened the storm to something more like a tornado.

Due to a water pressure issue, the city had to turn off water supplies to several neighborhoods to ensure the city’s hospital had enough water to care for patients. Tannehill believes the water pressure issue may have been caused by burst pipes that froze during the storm, or by heightened water demands from so many residents dripping pipes to prevent them from freezing and breaking.

Lafayette County Emergency Management has set up several new ready-to-eat meal and water distribution sites for residents in dire straights. The National Guard arrived in Oxford on Wednesday to help deliver those supplies to people in need.

Lafayette County, which includes the city of Oxford, has set a distribution limit of three days’ worth of supplies per person “to help ensure supplies reach as many residents as possible,” Lafayette County spokesperson Bo Moore said.

As of Thursday evening, Moore said nearly half of Lafayette County was still without power.

Moore also told CBS News the county is using the National Guard’s helicopter for medical transports to Memphis, Tennessee, because the roads are still too hazardous for ambulances to drive through safely.

“It’s going to be a long road to recovery,” Tannehill responded when asked when things may get back to normal. “It’s hard to even get our minds to that right now when we still have people without power and without water.”