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Mother of Slain Civil Rights Worker Chaney Dies

Fannie Lee Chaney, a $28-a-week bakery worker who became a target of racial hatred herself after her son James Chaney and two other civil rights workers were killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964, died on Tuesday in Willingboro, N.J. She was 84.

Her son Ben, James’s younger brother, confirmed the death in a telephone interview.

Four decades after losing her son, Mrs. Chaney drew national attention in June 2005 when she testified for the State of Mississippi in the murder case against one of the killers.
Read entire article at NYT