Michael Schwerner
| Michael Schwerner | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Michael Henry Schwerner November 6, 1939 |
| Died | June 21, 1964 (aged 24) near Philadelphia, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Murder |
| Spouse(s) | Rita Bender |
Michael Henry Schwerner (November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964), was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) field/ social workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Schwerner and two others were killed in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among African Americans, most of whom had been disenfranchised in the state since 1890.
Born and raised in a family of Jewish heritage, Schwerner attended Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, New York. He was called Mickey by his friends. His mother was a science teacher at nearby New Rochelle High School, and his father was a businessman. Schwerner attended Michigan State University, originally intending to become a veterinarian. He transferred to Cornell University and switched his major to rural sociology. While an undergraduate at Cornell, he was initiated into the school's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. He entered graduate school at the School of Social Work at Columbia University.
As a boy, Schwerner befriended Robert Reich who later became U.S. Secretary of Labor. Schwerner helped protect Reich, who was smaller, from bullies.
In the early 1960s Schwerner became active in working for civil rights for African Americans; he led a local Congress of Racial Equality group on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, called "Downtown CORE." He participated in a 1963 effort to desegregate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Maryland. As activism increased in the South, Schwerner and his wife Rita Schwerner Bender volunteered to work for National CORE in Mississippi, under the tutelage of Dave Dennis, the CORE state director. Bob Moses assigned the Schwerners to organize the community center and activities in Meridian. James Chaney was a local youth who started working with them there. The Schwerners were the first whites to be assigned by CORE permanently outside the state capital of Jackson. In the summer of 1964 CORE intended to hold classes and drives to register African Americans to vote in the state, what they called "Freedom Summer". Numerous volunteers, mostly college students and young adults, had been recruited from local communities and northern states to work on this project.
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