WIESENTHAL CENTER HAILS CONVICTION OF EDGAR RAY KILLEN IN MISSISSIPPI

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angeles-based NGO, today hailed the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen for his involvement in the 1964 murders of the three civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

"This is an important victory for justice and the values that make our democracy so unique," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "Forty years later, we should also use this occasion to reflect on the quiet heroism of Americans from all walks of life who force us all to deal with our own institutionalized racism," he continued.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, and the OSCE. Its educational arms, the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and the New York Tolerancenter in Manhattan, challenge visitors to confront bigotry and racism and to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, or visit www.wiesenthal.com.