Happy Women’s History Month! Help JWA continue to lift up Jewish women’s stories, this month and every month, by making a gift today!
Close [x]

Show [+]

Carol Ruth Silver

b. October 1, 1938

by JWA Staff
Our work to expand the Encyclopedia is ongoing. We are providing this brief biography for Carol Ruth Silver until we are able to commission a full entry.

Activist Carol Ruth Silver in Birmingham, Alabama, May 2000.

Courtesy of Carol Ruth Silver.

Carol Ruth Silver was one of the first two white women to be jailed in the Freedom Rides, an experience that sparked a career in law and politics, fighting for the rights of others. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1960, where she first became involved in the civil rights movement, Silver went to work as a clerk at the United Nations. Before entering law school, she chose to travel South as a Freedom Rider. Arrested with her five companions in Jackson, Mississippi, she spent forty days in jail, later publishing her diary from that time as Freedom Rider Diary: Smuggled Notes from Parchman Prison in 2014. She graduated law school in 1964 and spent her post-law school internship working for the African-American attorney Floyd McKissick, who later became head of the Congress for Racial Equality. From 1977–1989, she served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, working with LGBT pioneer Harvey Milk on important legislation. She founded San Francisco’s first Mandarin Chinese immersion school in 1982. Since 2002, she has traveled to Afghanistan numerous times to support and promote education, especially of women and girls. As of 2014, she devotes her energy to her pro bono educational projects.

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now

How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Carol Ruth Silver." (Viewed on March 28, 2024) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/silver-carol>.