TIMES, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2014 • 22 Wiping Out Graffiti In Maspeth, Midville Local residents and civic activists in Maspeth and Middle Village managed to get in one more graffiti cleanup last Saturday, Nov. 22, before winter’s cold takes effect. As noted, the volunteers painted mailboxes, fire call boxes and other public fixtures tagged with graffiti around the neighborhoods. Among those pictured are Richard Polgar, Len Santoro and Christina Wilkinson, all of whom are Juniper Park Civic Association members; and Tyler Myers of the Knockdown Center. (photo: Ron Sinacori) Pct. Collection Drive To Help Foster Kids The 112th Precinct Community Council, with the help of the 112th Precinct, recently helped give suitcases to foster children so they do not have to move their possessions in black garbage bags. The effort was called the Cases for Kids project, and neighbors in the community made the donations, 112th Precinct Council President Heidi Harrison Chain said. The project was coordinated with the Rego Park/Forest Hills Lions Club, the 112th Precinct and precinct council who all collected suitcases and backpacks to give to foster children. Pictured are 112th Precinct Capt. Judith Harrison and Chain with the suitcases and backpacks that were collected. College Remembers Slain Freedom Rider PPrreesiiddeenntt PPoostthhuummoouusllyy HHoonnoorrs HHiis SSaccrriifiiccee by Robert Pozarycki Hoping to make a difference in the civil rights movement, Queens College student Andrew Goodman traveled with two other “freedom riders” to Mississippi in June 1964, hoping to register black voters who had long been disenfranchised. Goodman and his colleagues—James Chaney and Michael Schwerner—never returned home. They were murdered on June 21, 1964 in Philadelphia, Miss. in a crime that shocked the nation and took more than 40 years to fully solve. The three slain freedom riders were remembered at Queens College on Monday, Nov. 24, as President Barack Obama posthumously awarded them with the Medal of Freedom during a White House ceremony. Bells tolled on the Flushing campus at 12:15 p.m. from the Chaney- Goodman-Schwerner Clock Tower, which had been renamed in their memory 25 years ago. “The entire Queens College community is extraordinarily proud that President Obama has recognized one of our own in this unprecedented way,” Queens College President Félix V. Matos said in a statement. “Andrew Goodman sacrificed his life for the cause of civil rights during Freedom Summer, which helped fuel the struggle and ultimately changed history. He and his coworkers are true American heroes and an inspiration to us all.” “Voting is one of the most sacred rights we have as Americans, and it is important for us to reflect on our past and honor those who have fought to ensure every citizen has access to that basic freedom,” added Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who—along with Mississippi Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker and Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson—sponsored a bill supporting the posthumous honors. Goodman, 20, lived on the Upper West Side and had been studying anthropology while engaging in political activism. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Queens College in 1960, and in the years that followed, many of the college’s students actively participated in the civil rights movement aimed at shattering segregation in the South. In June 1964, Goodman joined Schwerner in traveling to Meridien, Miss. to participate in the Congress for Racial Equality’s Freedom Summer project, which sought to register black voters in a state where their rights had been suppressed for generations. On the evening of June 21, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were riding away from the Mississippi town of Philadelphia—where they had visited to investigate a recent church fire—when they were pulled over by Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price for allegedly speeding. He subsequently took the three civil rights workers into custody and brought them to the county jail. Hours later, Price—later revealed to be a Ku Klux Klan member—released the three men and ordered them to leave the county. Law enforcement sources stated Price followed them from behind in his police vehicle and stopped them just before they crossed over the Neshoba/Lauderdale county border. Investigators said Price ordered the three men out of their vehicle and into his cruiser; he then traveled to a desolate location, where a group of Ku Klux Klan members were waiting. Reportedly, Chaney was assaulted by the mob, then all three men were fatally shot. The freedom riders’ disappearance made headlines across the country, and the FBI -SEE GOODMAN ON PG. 55- Glendale Students Collect For Vets The Commander, Danny Wisotsky, and Senior Vice Commander, Israel Rivera, of the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 118 of Glendale recently presented principal Mr. Columban and the eighth grade students of St. Pancras School with a certificate of appreciation for collecting donations for Disabled American Veterans.
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