I was a teenager back then. Already conservative, I recognized that then my NYC was just a racist as the south, though it wasn't as institutionalized. The turning point for me was when the three kids from NYC ( sadly, I can't remember their names now) were murdered. I realized that the southern system was rotten, evil, and had to be overturned,a nd they woudl not do it themselves. So sadly, but true, it was was the murder of three WHITE kids who showed me the true evils of racism.
“The turning point for me was when the three kids from NYC ( sadly, I can’t remember their names now) were murdered.”
Are you thinking of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers_murders