Editing Michael Schwerner

{{use mdy dates |date=February 2020 }}
{{Short description|American activist and murder victim (1939–1964)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Michael Schwerner
| image              = Michael Schwerner (3x4 cropped).jpg
| caption            = Portrait of Schwerner
| birth_name         = Michael Henry Schwerner
| alias              = Mickey Schwerner
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1939|11|6|mf=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Pelham, New York]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1964|6|21|1939|11|6|mf=y}}
| death_place        = {{nowrap|[[Philadelphia, Mississippi]], U.S.}}
| death_cause        = [[Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner|Murder]]
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Rita Schwerner Bender|Rita Levant]]|1962}}
| awards             = [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]]<br> (Posthumous; 2014)
}}

'''Michael Henry Schwerner''' (November 6, 1939 – June 21, 1964) was an American [[civil rights activist]]. He was one of three [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE) field workers [[Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner|murdered]] in rural [[Neshoba County, Mississippi]], by members of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Schwerner and two co-workers, [[James Chaney]] and [[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Andrew Goodman]], were killed in response to their [[civil rights]] work, which included promoting voting registration among [[African American]]s, most of whom had been disenfranchised in the state since 1890.

==Early life and education==
Michael Henry Schwerner was born in [[Pelham, New York]], on November 6, 1939, to a family of Jewish heritage. Schwerner attended [[Pelham Memorial High School]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964-08-04 |title=1964: Three civil rights activists found dead |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/4/newsid_2962000/2962638.stm |access-date=2023-04-04}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Activist Michael Schwerner, PMHS grad murdered by Klan in '64, memorialized with plaque near street named for him |url=https://pelhamexaminer.com/37092/showcase/activist-michael-schwerner-pmhs-grad-murdered-by-klan-in-1964-memorialized-with-plaque-near-street-named-for-him/ |access-date=2023-04-04 |website=Pelham Examiner}}</ref> His mother, Anne Siegel (May 1, 1912 – November 29, 1996), was a science teacher at nearby [[New Rochelle]] High School, and his father, Nathan Schwerner (June 19, 1909 – March 6, 1991), was a businessman.

Schwerner was called Mickey by his friends. He attended [[Michigan State University]], originally intending to become a [[veterinarian]]. He transferred to [[Cornell University]] and switched his major to rural [[sociology]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19640923.2.21#|title=The Cornell Daily Sun 23 September 1964 |website=cdsun.library.cornell.edu}}</ref> 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 [[United States Secretary of Labor|U.S. Secretary of Labor]]. Schwerner helped protect Reich, who was smaller, from bullies.<ref>{{cite news |author=Patrick Gavin |date=July 30, 2012 |title=Answer This: Robert Reich |publisher=Politico |url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79133.html?hp=r11 |access-date= May 2, 2014}}</ref><ref name="robertsubstuck">
{{cite web|author=Robert Reich |date=Sep 26, 2023| url=https://robertreich.substack.com/p/when-americas-real-bullies-murdered|title=When the Klan murdered my protector |access-date=Sep 26, 2023}}</ref>

==Civil rights activism==
In the early 1960s Schwerner became active in working for civil rights for African Americans; he led a local [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE) 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 [[Southern United States|the South]], Schwerner, recruited by [[John Lewis]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stolberg |first1=Sheryl Gay |title=The Blessing and Burden of Being John Lewis |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/insider/john-lewis-memory.html |access-date=2 August 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 July 2020}}</ref> and his wife, [[Rita Schwerner Bender]], volunteered to work for National CORE in Mississippi, under the tutelage of [[Dave Dennis (civil rights activist)|Dave Dennis]], the CORE state director. [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]] assigned the Schwerners to organize the community center and activities in [[Meridian, Mississippi|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, Mississippi|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". Many volunteers, mostly college students and young adults, had been recruited from local communities and northern/western states to work on this project.

Civil rights activists were resented and held under suspicion by white Mississippians. Spies paid by the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]], a taxpayer-funded agency, kept track of all northerners and suspected activists. The Commission conducted economic boycotts and intimidation against activists. In 1998 its records were opened by court order, revealing the state's deep complicity in the 1964 murders of three civil right workers because its investigator, A. L. Hopkins, passed on information about the workers, including their car license number, to the Commission. Records showed the Commission passed the information on to the Sheriff of [[Neshoba County]], [[Lawrence Rainey]], who was implicated in the murders.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.mdcbowen.org/p2/bh/badco/missSov.htm |title=Mississippi Commission's Files a Treasure Trove of Innuendo|author= AP|date= 18 Mar 1998|access-date= 9 May 2008| website=MDCBowen.org}}</ref>
  
The [[Ku Klux Klan]] targeted Schwerner after he and his wife, Rita, had taken over the Meridian CORE field office, where they established a community center for blacks as part of grassroots organizing. Schwerner tried to establish contact with white working-class citizens of Meridian and went door-to-door to speak with them. He also organized a black boycott of a popular variety store until it hired its first [[African American]], under the principle of "don't shop where you can't work".

==Murder==
{{main|Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner}}
[[File:FBI Poster of Missing Civil Rights Workers.jpg|thumb|left|[[Missing persons]] poster created by the [[FBI]] in 1964, shows the photographs of [[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Andrew Goodman]], [[James Chaney]], and Michael Schwerner.]]

[[James Chaney]], [[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Andrew Goodman]], and Michael Schwerner were murdered near the town of [[Philadelphia, Mississippi]]. They were investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been a site of a CORE [[Freedom Schools|Freedom School]], in a nearby community. Parishioners had been beaten in the wake of Schwerner and Chaney's voter registration rallies for CORE. The Sheriff's Deputy, [[Cecil Price]], had been accused by parishioners of stopping their caravan and forcing the deacons to kneel in the headlights of their own cars, while they were beaten with rifle butts. That same group of white men was identified as having burned the church.

Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price arrested Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner for an alleged traffic violation and took them to the jail in [[Neshoba County]]. They were released that evening, without being allowed to telephone anyone. On the way back to Meridian, they were stopped by patrol lights and two carloads with members of the [[White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]] on Highway 19, then taken in Price's car to another remote rural road. One of the Klansmen, [[Alton Wayne Roberts]], reportedly pulled Schwerner out of the car, pointed a gun at his chest, and asked "Are you that [[nigger]] lover?". Schwerner replied "Sir, I know just how you feel," before Roberts shot him in the heart. Goodman was killed by Roberts in the same manner, while Chaney was killed by either Roberts or James Jordan after being beaten, chain-whipped, and castrated.

The men's bodies remained undiscovered for 44 days. In the meantime, the case of the missing civil-rights workers became a major national story, especially coming on top of other events during [[Freedom Summer]]. The federal government quickly assigned the FBI to a full investigation and called in [[United States Navy|Navy]] sailors and other forces to aid in the search.

Schwerner's widow Rita, who also worked for CORE in Meridian, expressed indignation publicly at the way the story was handled. She said she believed that if only Chaney (who was black) was missing and the two white men from New York had not been killed along with him, the case would not have received nearly as much national attention, as other black civil rights workers had earlier been killed in the South.<ref>''[[Neshoba (film)|Neshoba]]'' (2008) documentary film</ref>

==First trial==
The US government prosecuted the case under the [[Enforcement Act of 1870]]. Seven men, including Deputy Sheriff Price, were convicted. Three strongly implicated defendants were acquitted because of a [[jury deadlock]].

==Reinvestigation==
[[File:GoodmanSchwernerChaneyMemorial.JPG|thumb|A memorial to victims [[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Andrew Goodman]], [[James Earl Chaney]], and Michael Schwerner at Mt. Nebo Missionary Baptist Church in [[Philadelphia, Mississippi]].]]

Journalist [[Jerry Mitchell (investigative reporter)|Jerry Mitchell]], an award-winning investigative reporter for the ''[[Jackson Clarion-Ledger]]'' had written extensively about the case for many years in the late 20th century. Mitchell had earned renown for helping secure convictions by his investigation of several other high-profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the assassination of [[Medgar Evers]] in Mississippi, the 1963 [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]] in [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], and the murder of [[Vernon Dahmer]] in his Mississippi home, the latter of which was ordered by [[Samuel Bowers]], founder of the Klan chapter that killed the CORE activists. Mitchell developed new evidence, found new witnesses, and pressured the state to take action. Barry Bradford, an Illinois high school teacher, and three students: Allison Nichols, Sarah Siegel, and Brittany Saltiel, joined Mitchell's efforts. Their documentary, produced for the [[National History Day]] contest, presented important new evidence and compelling reasons for reopening the case. Bradford also obtained an interview with [[Edgar Ray Killen]], which helped convince the State to reinvestigate. Mitchell was able to determine the identity of "Mr. X",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://barrybradford.com/mississippi-burning/faq/+|title=Mississippi Burning FAQs - Speaking For A Change|date=31 May 2012}}</ref> the mystery informer who had helped the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] discover the bodies and smash the conspiracy of the [[Ku Klux Klan|Klan]] in 1964. He relied in part on evidence developed by Bradford.

On January 7, 2005, [[Edgar Ray Killen]], an outspoken [[White Supremacist|white supremacist]] nicknamed "Preacher," pleaded "Not Guilty" to state charges of the murders of the three men. The jury found him guilty of three counts of [[manslaughter]] on June 21, 2005. He was the only man charged with homicide in connection to the killings. Killen was sentenced to sixty years in prison—twenty years for each count, served consecutively. Killen died in prison in 2018, aged 92.

==Personality==
Schwerner "was described by family and friends as friendly, good-natured, gentle, mischievous, and 'full of life and ideas'. He believed all people were essentially good. He loved sports, animals, poker, [[W.C. Fields]], and [[rock music]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/Schwerner.htm |title=Biography of Michael Schwerner |publisher=University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School |access-date=May 20, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515025355/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price%26bowers/Schwerner.htm |archive-date=May 15, 2008 }}</ref>

[[Robert Reich]], the American political commentator, professor, and author who served in the administrations of Presidents [[Gerald Ford]], [[Jimmy Carter]], and [[Bill Clinton]], says that as a child, he was bullied, and sought out the protection of older boys; one of them was Michael Schwerner. Reich cites this event as an inspiration to "fight the bullies, to protect the powerless, to make sure that the people without a voice have a voice."<ref>Robert Reich (November 18, 2011). "Transcript: Robert Reich’s speech at Occupy Cal". The Daily Californian. Retrieved September 11, 2013. http://www.dailycal.org/2011/11/18/transcript-robert-reichs-speech-at/</ref>

==Legacy and honors==
{{Main|Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner#Legacy and honors}}
[[File:Goodman Cheney and Schwerner Murder Site Marker.jpg|thumb|right|300px|State of Mississippi roadside marker denoting the location where the 1964 murders of American civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner took place]]

===Schwerner===
*In 2008, his hometown of [[Pelham, New York]], renamed a section of Harmon Avenue as "Michael Schwerner Way" in his honor.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.pelhamplus.com/news/article_963d3aa6-ea72-53a7-b86c-1f4b7a7e38b5.html | work=The Pelhams-PLUS | title=Section of Harmon Avenue Dedicated as "Michael Schwerner Way" | date=June 13, 2008 | access-date=May 9, 2013 | archive-date=June 30, 2013 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130630030028/http://www.pelhamplus.com/news/article_963d3aa6-ea72-53a7-b86c-1f4b7a7e38b5.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>
*Schwerner, along with Goodman and Chaney, received a posthumous [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] from President [[Barack Obama]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/10/president-obama-names-recipients-presidential-medal-freedom|work=[[whitehouse.gov]]|title=President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom|via=[[NARA|National Archives]]|date=10 November 2014}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
{{Main|Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner#In culture}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[[Civil Rights Movement]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-12m646qz “Long, Hot Summer '64; Episode 9,”] 1964-08-06, WGBH, [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]] (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 7, 2021.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110423171122/http://mississippiburning.org/ The True Story Of How The Mississippi Burning Case Was Reopened]
*[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/Schwerner.htm Biography of Michael Schwerner] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515025355/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price%26bowers/Schwerner.htm |date=May 15, 2008 }} from [[University of Missouri–Kansas City]] Law School

{{Civil rights movement|state=collapsed}}
{{Civil Rights Memorial|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwerner, Michael}}
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:People murdered in 1964]]
[[Category:20th-century American people]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
[[Category:American murder victims]]
[[Category:American people of Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Assassinated American civil rights activists]]
[[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University School of Social Work alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Mississippi]]
[[Category:Jewish civil rights activists]]
[[Category:Jewish-American lynching victims]]
[[Category:Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner|-]]
[[Category:Michigan State University alumni]]
[[Category:Murdered American Jews]]
[[Category:People from Pelham, New York]]
[[Category:Activists from the Bronx]]
[[Category:People murdered in Mississippi]]
[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients]]
[[Category:Victims of the Ku Klux Klan]]
[[Category:People murdered by law enforcement officers in the United States]]