Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Rotary Club of the Pelhams.

The community is invited to attend the dedication of a plaque recognizing civil rights voting activist Michael Schwerner on Monday, June 21 at 6:30pm at the corner of Harmon and Fifth Avenues in Pelham Village.

Leading the event will be Pelham Memorial High School seniors Jamie Burke and Nevan Malwana, who organized the project and worked with Donna Shirreffs, a member of the Rotary Club of the Pelhams, to explore locations for the plaque and contact elected officials for permission to locate the plaque that will be on Village of Pelham property near the street sign for Michael Schwerner Way. The Rotary Club is paying for the plaque.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer as well as state and local elected officials have been invited to attend the plaque dedication.

Michael “Mickey” Schwerer grew up in Pelham and graduated from PMHS in 1957. He joined the Congress of Racial Equality in 1963 and helped organize Freedom Summer in Mississippi, where he was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964 with two associates. In 2014, he was awarded, after death, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

In addition to Michael Schwerner Way, Mr. Schwerner is honored at PMHS in Alumni Hall with a bust and a plaque.