Fannie Lee Chaney | |
|---|---|
 Fannie Lee Chaney, photographed by Jim Marshall (photographer), as the FBI informed her of her son's death at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. | |
| Born | Fannie Lee Roberts September 4, 1921 Meridian, Mississippi, US |
| Died | May 22, 2007 (aged 85) |
| Occupation | Baker |
| Known for | Civil rights activist |
Fannie Lee Chaney (née Roberts; September 4, 1921 – May 22, 2007)[1] was an American baker turned civil rights activist after her son James Chaney was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan during the 1964 Freedom Summer rides in Mississippi.
After her son's murder, Chaney sued five restaurants in Meridian for racial discrimination. She was fired from her job and could not find other work. Crosses were burned on her lawn, and a firebomb intended for her family's house destroyed that of a neighbor. She moved to New York City, finding work at a nursing home. After 30 years, she retired and moved to New Jersey.
In 2005 she testified for the State of Mississippi in the murder case against Edgar Ray Killen, one of her son's killers. Killen was cleared of murder by the jury, but convicted of manslaughter and given a 60 years sentence, which he served until his death in January 2018.
- ^ Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Accessed on http://www.ancestry.com