Cecil Ray Price
*Cecil Price was born on this date in 1938. He was a white-American police officer and white supremacist.
Cecil Ray Price was born in Flora, Mississippi, and graduated from Flora High School in 1956. After graduation, Price became a deputy sheriff in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and joined the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
On June 21, 1964 afternoon, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, & Michael Schwerner arrived at Longdale, MS., to inspect the burned-out church in Neshoba County before they were murdered. He gained notoriety for his alleged involvement in the June 1964 murders of the three civil rights workers. While he was never charged with the murders, Price was convicted in October 1967 of violating the civil rights of the three victims. He was sentenced to a six-year prison term and served four and a half years at the Sandstone Federal Penitentiary in Minnesota.
Following his release from prison, he returned to Philadelphia, Mississippi, and worked various jobs. He was a surveyor, truck driver for an oil company, and watchmaker in a jewelry shop. He was charged with violating the victims' civil rights but never charged with the murders of the three men. Later in life, Price refused to speak publicly about the events of 1964 to 1967. Cecil Price died following a fall from a piece of equipment at his job on May 6, 2001.
