Chaney Family Waiting to Hear About Their Son

westam10 Mississippi 1964, Photography Catalog 0

Photo of the Chaney Family waiting to hear about their missing son. Featured are the five Chaney siblings and their Mother.

Before their bodies were found on August 4, 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner had been missing in Neshoba County, MS, for over 6 weeks. Searches in the area throughout the summer uncovered the bodies of eight Black men, including a 14-year-old wearing a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) shirt, and two college students that had been missing since that May. Each discovery of a body offered the possibility that James Chaney had been found, only for those hopes to be shattered when authorities determined that it was not him. The result was an agonizing summer for Chaney’s mother and younger siblings, pictured together as they awaited word from investigators.

Steve Schapiro (American, 1934-2022)
Chaney Family Waiting to Hear About Their Son, 1964
Silver gelatin print, Number 3 of an edition of 25, 16 x 20 inches
Partial gift of Stephen Schapiro and partial purchase by Miami University Art Museum with contributions from the Kezur Endowment Fund
2019.23.15

During the turbulent 1960s, Steve Schapiro was there with his camera capturing some of the most iconic moments of the Civil Rights Movement. Schapiro was also one of the leading photographers to document the historic 1964 Freedom Summer campaign. This is the focus of this exhibition in association with the 2022 Cincinnati-based FotoFocus Biennial theme, World Record. Schapiro’s photographs documented the activities, training, meetings, and so much more that developed as part of the Freedom Summer efforts to help register Black voters in the deep South. This exhibition and associated programming is supported with a grant from FotoFocus as part of the FotoFocus Biennial 2022. The Art Museum is also grateful for the generous support of Richard and Susan Momeyer. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Steve Schapiro, who died on January 15, 2022. For further involvement with the Freedom Summer exhibition, check out Finding Freedom Summer Travelling Exhibition.

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