Man claims innocence in 1964 civil rights murders
White supremacist charged in 'Mississippi Burning' killings
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 CNN's Alina Cho talks to the mother of one of the slain civil rights workers.
 Edgar Killen appears in court, pleads not guilty to the 1964 deaths.
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PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi (CNN) -- A reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan declared his innocence Friday in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers whose bodies were buried in an earthen dam outside the Mississippi town of Philadelphia.
The June 21, 1964, slayings of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, who were helping to register black voters in Mississippi, spurred national support for the civil rights movement.
"Not guilty," Edgar Ray Killen, once an outspoken white supremacist nicknamed the "Preacher," told Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon three times in a strong voice when asked for his pleas.
Killen, wearing an orange jumpsuit and hands cuffed in front of him, had no legal representation and was ordered to hire an attorney to bring to the next hearing, set for Wednesday. Killen family members were in the courtroom.
Killen, 79, made no comment as he weaved his way through the throng of journalists outside the courthouse. A relative of Killen's wrestled a cameraman to the ground and had to be pulled off by a reporter.
Killen is being held in without bail at the Neshoba County Jail in Philadelphia. He was arrested at his home in rural Neshoba County without incident Thursday night, Sheriff Larry Myers said.
Myers said the arrest was made after a grand jury in Philadelphia indicted Killen on three counts of murder in the slayings.
"As far as I know, this is the only arrest that is forthcoming," the sheriff said.
Schwerner, 24, and Goodman, 20, were volunteers sent to Mississippi as part of the "Freedom Summer" drive to register black voters in the state. Chaney, 21, was a black Meridian resident who participated in the drive.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood reopened the investigation last year and began presenting evidence to the grand jury. Prosecutors "just want some closure to the case," Myers said.
Ben Chaney, younger brother of James Chaney, said he was pleased that Killen had finally been arrested. (Full story)
"If it was up to me, he would sit in a jail cell and watch life pass him by. For the rest of his life -- just watch it go by," said Chaney, who lives in New York.
But Chaney also called the investigation a charade, saying it would bypass the prominent whites he claims were involved in the killings and focus on only a few unapologetic Klansmen.
Speaking Friday on NBC's "Today" show, longtime civil rights leader John Lewis said Killen's arrest and the reopenings of similar cases in recent years would "have a redeeming effect on the very soul of this region of our country," according to a report from The Associated Press.
Lewis, now a Democratic representative from Georgia, was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966 and in 1964 coordinated voter registration drives during Freedom Summer.
$100,000 reward
A new $100,000 reward was offered last month for information in the case by the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference, an interfaith group organized in response to attacks on black churches in the 1960s.
Myers said he was not sure if the reward generated any information that led to Thursday's arrest.
"We were hoping that it might motivate people who knew things to come forward," said conference attorney Wayne Drinkwater. "We're just confident that there are people who know things who did not come forward."
The reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the killings, Drinkwater said.
Lawrence Guyot, a spokesman for Veterans of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, said the arrest made him "proud to be a Mississippian."
"This is unparalleled in Mississippi. This is a new Mississippi," Guyot said.
Guyot knew Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner and "almost got in the car with them" on that fateful night in June 1964.
"It is never too late to do what is right," he said.
Claude McInnis, executive vice chair of the state Democratic Party, said, "My hat's off to them in making this arrest."
"Justice always prevails and if you commit crimes, you face justice," said McInnis, a former sharecropper and civil rights activist. "But there is another old saying that justice delayed is justice denied."
1967 civil rights trial
Killen was among 19 people who faced federal charges in the killings in 1967.
The case ended in a mistrial for Killen, although seven people -- including a Philadelphia police officer and a Neshoba County sheriff's deputy -- were convicted of conspiracy charges.
Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were arrested in Neshoba County while on their way to Meridian, jailed briefly and released -- but they were stopped outside town by members of the Ku Klux Klan, beaten and shot to death.
Their bodies were found more than six weeks later, buried in an earthen dam.
During the 1967 trial, former Ku Klux Klansman James Jordan testified that Killen had told the men involved that deputies "had three of the civil rights workers locked up, and we had to hurry and get there and we were to pick them up and tear their butts up."
In a 1999 interview with the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Killen denied any involvement in the killings or any involvement with the Klan.
But other former Klansmen have publicly identified him as a member of the white supremacist group.
The killings inspired a 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning," directed by Alan Parker, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
