Michael Schwerner was born on December 6, 1939, in New York City. He was a civil rights activist and a leader in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), working to promote racial equality and voter registration in the American South during the 1960s. Schwerner was one of three civil rights workers murdered in 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, during the Freedom Summer campaign, an event that drew national attention to the violent resistance against civil rights efforts. His death became a symbol of the struggle for civil rights and helped galvanize support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.