''Murder in Mississippi'', as named by the artist, is a 1965 painting by

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

which was commissioned for an article titled "Southern Justice" in the American magazine ''Look''. The painting depicts the 1964 murders of civil rights activists

James Chaney James Earl Chaney (May 30, 1943 – June 21, 1964) was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) civil rights workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964. The others were Andrew Goodman an ...

, Andrew Goodman and

Michael Schwerner Michael Henry Schwerner (November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964), was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) field workers killed in rural Neshoba County, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Schwerner and two co-workers, James Chan ...

, and was intended to illustrate an article written on the murders by civil rights attorney

Charles Morgan Jr. Charles "Chuck" Morgan Jr. (March 11, 1930 – January 8, 2009) was an American civil rights attorney from Alabama who played a key role in establishing the principle of "one man, one vote" in the Supreme Court of the United States decision in ...

The painting is oil on canvas 53 x 42 inches (134.5 X 106.5 cm), and also has a pencil on board study of the same title, both of which reside in the collections of the

Norman Rockwell Museum The Norman Rockwell Museum is an art museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, dedicated to the art of Norman Rockwell. It is home to the world's largest collection of original Rockwell art. The museum also hosts traveling exhibitions pertaining to A ...

Development of the painting

Originally ''Murder in Mississippi'' was to fill two pages; with the victims on left page and the murderers, Deputy Price and the klansmen, on the right page. Pencil sketches were made for both panels. A preparatory study in black and white shows the complete horizontal picture with Price pointing a pistol, and several klansmen with sticks (incorrectly, as they were later found to have had rifles). On the bottom left hand corner another klansman is featured – making the three young men surrounded. However, when reduced to the left page only, the murderers on both sides of the young men were removed, leaving only the shadows cast from the group on the right. The left panel was submitted as a rough oil color sketch to ''Look'' magazine's art director Allen Hurlburt. Based on the oil sketch ''Look'' gave Rockwell the okay to proceed and finish the painting. However, later when Hurlburt received the finished painting he decided that the more impressionistic sketch suited the article better and the finished painting was not published. This was the only time that one of Rockwell's sketches was published instead of his finished painting. Rockwell's oil sketch had only taken an hour, though Rockwell himself later admitted that by the time he finished the final painting, "all the anger that was in the sketch had gone out of it." The oil sketch for ''Murder in Mississippi'' is also known as ''Southern Justice'' after the title of the article where it appeared instead of the finished painting on June 29, 1965. The sketch is oil on board, 15" x 12¾", and, like the painting, is held in the permanent collection of the

References

External links

Norman Rockwell Museum exhibition of ''Murder in Mississippi''
{{Norman Rockwell 1965 paintings Paintings by Norman Rockwell Paintings about death Civil rights movement in popular culture

Development of the painting

See also

References

External links