During the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s , Meridian was home to a Council of Federated Organizations ( COFO ) office and several other activist organizations . James Chaney and other local residents , along with Michael Schwerner , his wife Rita , and Andrew Goodman , volunteers from the North , worked to create a community center , holding classes to help prepare African Americans in the area to regain the power to vote . Whites in the area resented the activism , and racial tension often resulted in violence . In June 1964 , Chaney , Schwerner , and Goodman went to Neshoba County , Mississippi , to meet with members of a black church that had been bombed and burned . The three disappeared that night on their way back to Meridian . Following a massive FBI investigation , their murdered bodies were found two months later , buried in an earthen dam .