Lawrence A. Rainey

Who was Lawrence A. Rainey?

Lawrence Andrew Rainey was the elected Sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi from 1963 to 1968. He gained notoriety for allegedly being involved in the June 1964 deaths of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, as depicted in the movie Mississippi Burning. He was also an alleged member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Rainey started his career as a police officer working in Philadelphia, Mississippi. In October 1959, he shot and killed an African American motorist who was getting out of his car on a violation, but he was not prosecuted. He subsequently ran for and was elected to the office of Sheriff in 1963 and has been quoted as positioning himself as "the man who can cope with situations that might arise", a veiled reference to the racial tension in the area at the time. One of his deputies was Cecil Price.

On June 21, 1964, when the three Civil Rights workers were murdered, Lawrence was visiting his wife at the hospital. It is not clear, and was not proven in the subsequent trial, when he knew about the incident. It was alleged that he learned of the murder early the following morning and deliberately covered it up.