PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - America in 1964 was still a country divided by race, but Congress would pass the Civil Rights Act and the world would honor Martin Luther King Jr. with the Nobel Peace Prize.

But there was still trouble between blacks and whites - angry words, sometimes more.

James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man, and two white men - Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24 - were shot to death that year, working for the cause. Their killer was never caught.

Now, 41 years later, a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan, Edgar Ray Killen, is in custody for the slayings. His arrest Thursday is the first time Mississippi has sought criminal charges in the case that outraged a nation.

In 1967, the Justice Department tried Killen and 18 other men - many of them also Klan members - on federal civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years.

Killen, today 79, was freed after his trial ended in a hung jury. He was to be arraigned today in Neshoba County Court on three counts of murder.

Sheriff Larry Myers said there would be more arrests in connection with the killings. Eight of the 18 men who were tried on federal conspiracy charges are still alive.

From her home in New York, Goodman's mother, Carolyn, said she "knew that in the end the right thing was going to happen." She added: "I'm not looking for revenge. I'm looking for justice."

Killen's arrest followed a grand jury session Thursday that apparently included testimony from individuals believed to have knowledge of the slayings.

Calls to Killen's home late Thursday were answered by a recording.

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were killed on a lonely dirt road as they drove to a church to investigate a fire. The trio allegedly was stopped by Klansmen, beaten and shot to death.

They were participating in Freedom Summer 1964, when hundreds of young, mostly white, college students came to the South to register blacks to vote and start educational programs.

Several weeks later, their bodies were found buried in a dam a few miles from the church. The case was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

Killen has always denied a role in the slayings.

Jerry Killen, who identified himself as the suspect's brother, said he wasn't aware of the arrest but said he thought it was "pitiful." He said his brother never mentioned the 1964 slayings: "He won't talk about it. I don't know if he did it or not."

Mississippi has had some success reopening old civil rights murder cases, including a 1994 conviction of Byron de la Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers.

But until recently there has been little progress in building murder cases against anyone involved in the slayings - though the case has remained very much in the public eye.

Attorney General Jim Hood reopened an investigation of the slayings and just last month, an anonymous donor posted a $100,000 reward for information leading to murder charges.

Not everyone was happy with the grand jury's efforts.

"It appears to be a sad day for the state of Mississippi," said attorney James McIntyre, who said he was on the defense team during the 1967 trial. "The investigation that has being brought forth - the prosecutors, news media - I just hate to see it happen."

Ben Chaney, the younger brother of James Chaney, called the latest investigation a sham that may target one or two unrepentant Klansmen - but spare the wealthy and influential whites he claims had a hand in the slayings.