- Person
- Michael Schwerner
- Lived
- 1939–1964
- Field
- Civil rights
- From
- American
The story
In 1964 the Congress of Racial Equality and its partners were preparing Freedom Summer, a campaign to register as many Black voters as possible in Mississippi, where only a small fraction of eligible Black adults were on the rolls. Part of the plan was a network of Freedom Schools to educate, encourage and register Black citizens who had been shut out of voting. Michael Schwerner and James Chaney planned one for Neshoba County, to help people prepare for the literacy and comprehension tests the state required.
They needed a home for the school, and they turned to the Black community of Longdale, about 38 miles north of their base in Meridian. On Memorial Day, 25 May 1964, the two men spoke to the congregation of Mount Zion Methodist Church and asked permission to use the church as the school's site. Schwerner urged the members to register to vote, telling them, "we can help you help yourselves." The church was a centre of community organising, and its members were willing to take the risk.
The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan learned of the voter drive. In June, while Schwerner was in Oxford, Ohio, helping train volunteers for Freedom Summer, Klansmen beat members of the congregation and on 16 June burned the church to the ground.
Schwerner felt responsible to the people who had suffered for working with him. On 21 June he returned to Longdale with Chaney and Andrew Goodman, a new volunteer, to meet them and investigate the burning. On the road back to Meridian the three were arrested by a deputy sheriff, held for hours, then released into an ambush. All three were murdered that night by members of the Klan.
The Freedom Schools went ahead without them. Over the summer between 30 and 40 schools opened across Mississippi in churches, on back porches and outdoors, and more than 3,500 students attended, learning Black history, constitutional rights and the basics of political organising.
In 1989 Mississippi placed a state historical marker for the Freedom Summer murders near Mount Zion, honouring both the three men and a congregation that opened its doors to the cause of voting rights at great cost.
Why it matters
Schwerner's Freedom School plan was part of the Freedom Summer effort that brought national attention to Mississippi's denial of Black voting rights.
About Michael Schwerner
New York social worker who organised Black voter registration in Mississippi for CORE and was murdered by the Klan with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman in 1964.
More about Michael Schwerner
- Michael Schwerner went to Mississippi for $9.80 a weekIn January 1964 Michael Schwerner became the first white civil rights worker based permanently outside Jackson, Mississippi, working for CORE in Meridian for $9.80 a week.
- Michael Schwerner helped integrate Gwynn Oak ParkIn 1963 Michael Schwerner took part in the campaign to desegregate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Maryland, which had kept a whites-only admissions policy for decades.
- Michael Schwerner opened his fraternity to a Black studentAs a student at Cornell, Michael Schwerner campaigned successfully for his fraternity to accept a Black student as a pledge, an early sign of his commitment to equality.
- Michael Schwerner's boycott won a store's first Black hireIn Meridian, Michael Schwerner organised a boycott of a variety store that sold mostly to Black customers until it hired its first African American employee.
- Michael Schwerner helped win the Voting Rights ActNational outrage at the 1964 killing of Michael Schwerner and fellow activists James Chaney and Andrew Goodman helped Congress pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
- Michael Schwerner built a community centre in MeridianMichael and Rita Schwerner took over CORE's Meridian field office in 1964 and set up a community centre for Black residents as a base for grassroots organising.
- Michael Schwerner protected a bullied boy, Robert ReichAs a boy Michael Schwerner protected the young Robert Reich from bullies; Reich, later US Secretary of Labor, said it inspired him to protect the powerless.
- Michael Schwerner worked with youth on the Lower East SideMichael Schwerner left graduate school to work as a social worker in a Lower East Side housing project, where he was known for his special rapport with teenagers.
Sources
- Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Wikipedia
- Michael Schwerner Famous Trials, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law (archived)
- Freedom Summer Wikipedia
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