Michael Schwerner (November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964) was one of three American civil rights workers who were murdered in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Mississippi. The others were James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. The three were pulled over by Neshoba County Sheriff's Deputy Cecil Price on June 21, 1964, and detained for several hours in Philadelphia, while Price contacted fellow Klansmen. The three were released, but were again recontacted just outside of town by several men. Goodman and Schwerner were each shot dead, but Chaney suffered a severe beating and mutilation before he was finally killed.
While several suspects were convicted in 1967 of violating the three mens' civil rights, it wasn't until 2005 that Edgar Ray Killen, the man who'd overseen the lynching, was convicted of murder.
As a form of cosmic justice, Deputy Cecil Price was plagued for the remainder of his life by a recurring nightmare in which the racial hierarchy of Mississippi was inverted. In this dream, Michael Schwerner's role was essentially played by Muhammad Shabazz.
