Old Jlly Farm Case Analysis

On June 21, 1964, a tragedy occurred in the Longdale community of Philadelphia, Mississippi: three civil rights workers attempting to achieve racial integration were unrightfully arrested and later executed by off duty police officers. Michael Schwerner, large civil rights activist and boycott organizer, James Chaney, Schwerner’s chief aid, and Andrew Goodman, a newly recruited college student activist, were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price under suspicion for involvement in the burning of Mount Zion Church, and then led into a trap that would eventually lead to their deaths. After seven hours in the jail the group was tricked into believing they could pay off the police and get out, only to be led into the trap where ex-Marine Wayne Roberts and Doyle Barnette shot each of the three and buried the bodies at Old Jolly Farm. A wide investigation took place immediately after the noticeable disappearance of the civil rights workers, and eventually the KKK members involved were put on trial and sentenced to years in prison.

From a social disorganization theorist’s point of view, he or she would argue that crime is the product of a broken community structure that fails to, as a whole, recognize common values and effectively enforce social control. The theory also holds that major sources of social disorganization include certain elements of areas with poverty, such as urbanization and racial heterogeneity. Therefore, the social disorganization theorist would most likely conclude that the Klan members responsible for this crime acted so under stress related to disorganization in their community. The disorganization in Philadelphia, MI was most likely caused by racial heterogeneity, as a result of poverty, in the area; more whites (and therefore more Klan members) lived in those neighborhoods and were reluctant to