Andy Goodman was only 20 when he died on Rock Cut Road on June 21, 1964, near the end of his first full day in Mississippi.  Goodman had arrived in the state early the previous morning after attending a three-day training session in Ohio for volunteers for the Mississippi Summer Project.  Goodman arrived in Mississippi excited and anxious to get to work.

Goodman was intelligent, unassuming, happy, and outgoing.  He grew up as the second of three sons in a liberal household on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Goodman attended the progressive Walden School, widely known for its anti-authoritarian approach to learning.  While a high school sophomore at Walden, Goodman travelled to Washington, D. C. to participate in the "Youth March for Integrated Schools."  As a senior, he and a classmate visited a depressed coal mining region in West Virginia to prepare a report on poverty in America.

After graduating from Walden, Goodman enrolled at Queens College in part because of its strong drama department.  Soon, however, his longing for commitment led him away from his interest in drama and back to politics.  In April 1964, Goodman applied for and was accepted into the Mississippi Summer Project.  Although not seeing himself as a professional reformer, Goodman knew that his life had been somewhat sheltered and thought that the experience would be educational and useful.