Michael Schwerner

Michael "Mickey" Schwerner
Born
Michael Henry Schwerner

(1939-11-06)November 6, 1939
DiedJune 21, 1964(1964-06-21) (aged 24)
Cause of deathMurder
Other namesMickey Schwerner
Spouse
(m. 1962)
AwardsPresidential Medal of Freedom
(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 killed in rural Neshoba County, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Schwerner and two co-workers, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, 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.