Clarissa Sligh

Schwerner, the first white civil rights worker based outside of the capitol of Jackson, quickly earned the enmity of the local Klu Klux Klan by organizing a black boycott of a white-owned variety store until the store, which sold mostly to blacks, hired its first African American. He also came under attack for trying to register blacks to vote.

Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan of Mississippi, sent word in May, 1964 to the local Klansmen that it was time to "activate Plan 4," which provided for "the elimination" Michael Schwerner, who the Klan called "Goatee" or "Jew-Boy."

The Klan's first attempt to eliminate Schwerner came on June 16, 1964. Schwerner had asked permission of the black congregation at Mount Zion Church, in Longdale, Mississippi, to use their church as the site of a "Freedom School." Expecting Schwerner to attend a church business meeting on that date, Klansmen surrounded the church with rifles and shotguns. Frustrated when their search for him was unsuccessful, they spread diesel fuel on the building and set the church on fire. At that time Schwerner and Chaney were in Oxford, Ohio attending a training session for CORE's Freedom Summer volunteers.

On June 21, Schwerner returned to Mississippi with Chaney and Goodman and immediately went to Longdale to meet with those who had been beaten and lost their church. During the drive back to Meridian, their blue CORE station wagon was pulled over by Deputy Cecil Price and the Klan finally got their chance to carry out the elimination order. When it was announced that the three young men were missing, having learned about KKK terrorism against black people as a young person, I knew that they had been killed.

It was an old-fashioned lynching, carried out with the help of county officials, a form of activity that had been going on since 1865, but the Federal Government had refused to intervene. Now "the nation" was shocked. Many historians say the government was finally mobilized to investigate the case primarily because two of the victims, Goodman and Schwerner were white. The case strengthened President Lyndon B. Johnson's resolve on civil rights issues and was indirectly responsible for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

BIOGRAPHIES

MICHAEL SHEWERNER (November 6, 1939 - June 21, 1964) was the second of two sons of a father who operated a wig manufacturing plant and a mother who taught high school biology. He was working as a social worker in a housing project on New York's Lower East Side, when watching the Birmingham riots of 1963, his commitment to cilvil rights work deepened.

He applied for and was hired as a Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) field worker and went to Mississippi in January 15, 1964, with his wife Rita. She had been an education student at Quuen's College. Schwerner began to organize the Meridian community center and other programs in the largest city in the eastern Mississippi. He received $9.80 a week for his work.

JAMES CHANEY (May 30, 1943 - June 21, 1964) was a native of Meridian and the eldest son in a family of five children. His mother was a domestic servant and his father was a plasterer. Chaney began volunteer work at the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) office in MErifian in October, 1963. His work ranged from constructing bookshelves at the community center to traveling to rural counties to set up meetings. When the Schwerners arrived in January to assume direction of the Meridian office, Chaney was their most willing volunteer. Michael hired him to work on the staff.