Student recognized for work on ‘Miss. Burning’ case

In the summer of 1964, former University of Wisconsin–Madison student Andrew Goodman and two other college students were murdered as they worked to ensure voter registration for African Americans in Mississippi.

Their sacrifice during "Freedom Summer" helped call the nation’s attention to the brutality and injustice that African Americans faced and aided in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

More than 40 years later, a current UW–Madison student continues to receive national attention for her connection to the case, which helped bring one of the killers to justice.

Sophomore Brittany Saltiel, of Lincolnshire, Ill., and two of her high school classmates will appear on "The Montel Williams Show" Thursday, Feb. 7. The show, focusing on hate crimes, will air locally at 4 p.m. on My Madison TV 14.

While attending Lincolnshire’s Stevenson High School in 2004, Saltiel, Sarah Siegel and Allison Nichols produced a 10-minute film called "The CORE of the Solution" as a National History Day project.

Their documentary, which included a new and revealing interview with one of the suspects in the case, helped to refocus attention on the case and provoked the attention of law enforcement and civil rights officials in Mississippi. In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen of Neshoba County, Miss., was arrested and convicted.

During the past few years, Saltiel, who is majoring in English and communication arts, has conducted local, national and international media interviews and had the project recognized by Congress.

"It’s completely unexpected that the attention has kept going," says Saltiel, who is planning a viewing party at the Delta Delta Delta house on Langdon Street. "I’ve taken a lot away from the experience. It was a very intense time."

The UW–Madison community has memorialized the contributions of Goodman and fellow slain activists Michael Schwerner and James Chaney with the Andrew Goodman Memorial Plaque in the Arpad L. Masley Media Room on the first floor of the Red Gym.