Michael Schwerner, "Goatee" to the klan of Neshoba and Lauderdale counties, was the most despised civil rights worker in Mississippi. Klan  Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers ordered Schwerner's "elimination" in May, 1964.  The Klan finally got their chance to carry out the elimination order on June 21.  Because they were with Schwerner, and would know too much if they were not killed, James Chaney and Andy Goodman also had to die.

Twenty-four-year-old Schwerner had come to Mississippi in January of 1964 with his wife Rita after having been hired as a CORE field worker.  In his application for the CORE position, Schwerner, a native of New York City,  wrote "I have an emotional need to offer my services in the South."  Schwerner added that he hoped to spend "the rest of his life" working for an integrated society.  On January 15, 1964, Michael and Rita left New York in their VW Beetle for Mississippi.  After talking with civil rights leader Bob Moses in Jackson, Schwerner was sent to Meridian to organize the community center and other programs in the largest city in eastern Mississippi.  Schwerner became the first white civil rights worker to be based outside of the capitol of Jackson.

Once in Meridian, Schwerner quickly earned the hatred of local KKK by organizing a boycott of a variety store until the store, which sold mostly to blacks, hired its first African American.  He also came under heavy attack for his determined efforts to register blacks to vote.  After a few months in Meridian, despite hate mail and threatening phone calls and police harassment, Schwerner believed he made the right decision in coming to Mississippi.  Mississippi, he said, "is the decisive battleground for America.   Nowhere in the world is the idea of white supremacy more firmly entrenched, or more cancerous, than in Mississippi."