Rita Schwerner

Content type
Collection
Heather Booth and Fannie Lou Hamer, 1964

Freedom Summer: The Fight for Universal Suffrage Continues

Dr. Debra L. Schultz

Scholar Debra Schultz explores the history of Freedom Summer and the fight to enable all American citizens to vote.

Topics: Voting Rights

Rita Schwerner Bender

When her husband was murdered during Freedom Summer in 1964 in Mississippi, Rita Levant Schwerner Bender used the ensuing media attention to focus the public’s awareness on the importance of civil rights.

Civil Rights Movement in the United States

As part of the Black-Jewish civil rights alliance and rooted in twentieth-century political, cultural and gender dynamics, Jewish women’s activism took many forms. Jewish women contributed as professionals, through Jewish and women’s organizations, and as foot soldiers in the movement’s nonviolent direct action organizations such as CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) and SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee).

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