Collection Details:

Collection Name and Number: Carol Ruth Silver Collection (T/040).
Creator/Collector: Carol Ruth Silver; and others.
Date(s): 1961-1964; 2001; n.d.
Size: 2.77 cubic feet.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: Tougaloo College staff; MDAH staff, 2005.
Provenance: Loan of Tougaloo College of Madison County, MS, in 2004.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research. Original chess set is restricted; access is by permission of curator only. Chess set is on exhibit in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to Tougaloo College. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to MDAH Reference Services, Attention: Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Tougaloo College as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Services.

Copyright notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: Carol Ruth Silver Collection (T/040), Tougaloo College Civil Rights Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:

Carol Ruth Silver

Carol Ruth Silver was born October 1, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts. She spent much of her early life in Boston. In the late 1950s, Silver was a student at the University of Chicago, where she was involved in picketing Woolworth stores in Chicago in sympathy with the sit-ins taking place in the South. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 1960 and became a clerk at the United Nations in New York.

In 1961, Silver joined the Freedom Riders, a group composed of mostly college students, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The group went into the South to challenge illegal segregation laws on interstate travel. On June 8, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders that included Silver was arrested by the police of Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, for failing to obey state laws of segregated facilities in an interstate bus station and breach of peace.

Silver was convicted in Hinds County Court for breach of peace on June 8, 1961. She was sentenced to four months in prison with two months suspended and fined two hundred dollars. Silver was incarcerated in Hinds County jail until June 23, 1961, when she was transferred to the state correctional institution at Parchman, Sunflower County, Mississippi. She was released from Parchman on July 14, 1961.

Following her release from prison, Silver entered law school at the University of Chicago. While in law school, she organized the University of Chicago Law School chapter of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council (LSCRRC). In 1964, Silver graduated from law school and became the first full time intern for LSCRRC in the law offices of Civil Rights attorney Floyd McKissick in Durham, North Carolina.

From 1965 until the early 1970s, Silver worked for the Office of Economic Opportunity, organizing programs for legal services for the poor in California and elsewhere. She also spent summers working with the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC). Silver was a fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University and was a member of the faculties of San Francisco State University, Golden State University, and Lone Mountain College, all located in San Francisco, California.

Silver’s legal career focused on assistance to the poor and other unrepresented groups. In 1975, she began her political career and was elected for three terms as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 1978 to 1989. She ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress in 1996. Following this loss, Silver retired from politics.

After leaving politics, Carol Silver devoted her life to social causes and family. In San Francisco, she founded the Chinese-American Bilingual School, which taught preschool through 8th grade in Mandarin and English. In 1973, she adopted a son, Steven, from Taiwan, and in 1976 she gave birth to a second son, Jefferson. Silver organized the 40th reunion of the 1961 Freedom Riders in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2001. She also served on the Board of the Master Teachers by Satellite for Afghanistan. As of 2010, Silver was retired and resided in San Francisco.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of a diary, documents, photographs, and a chess set. All items relate to Carol Ruth Silver’s experience as a Freedom Rider in 1961 and a commemoration of that experience during a 40th year celebration in 200l.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Diary. 1961-1962. 1 folder.
This series contains a photocopy of the diary maintained by Carol Ruth Silver during her experience as a Freedom Rider in 1961. Silver’s diary follows these events from the period that she decided to join the experiment, through her arrest and imprisonment in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, and her transfer to the Mississippi State Prison in Parchman, Sunflower County, and subsequent release. The diary describes the conditions of her incarceration and her relationship with other Freedom Riders.

Box 1, folder 6

 

Series 2: Freedom Rides Documents, 1961-1964; 2001. 2 folders.
This series contains copies of newsclippings that record events around the 1961 Freedom Rides through Jackson. The clippings contain both a timeline of events and commentaries of state and religious officials regarding the Freedom Riders. Included in the documents are lists of Ride participants; a copy of a train ticket from Los Angeles to Houston of Joseph Stevenson who had participated in the final Freedom Ride in August 1961; and a honorary citation from Governor Ronnie Musgrove in 2001 honoring the Freedom Riders on the 40th anniversary.

Box 1, folders 1-2
Box 2

 

Series 3: Photographs. [1961]; 2001; n.d. 3 folders.
This series consists of photographs of the 1961 Freedom Rides. The photographs depict the Riders and their political opponents, including law enforcement officials. Also included are photographs of the military preparation for the arrival of the Freedom Riders, and their subsequent arrest and imprisonment. Of note are copies of “mug shots” of some of the Freedom Riders, photocopied from the Sovereignty Commission Files.

Box 1, folders 3-5

 

Series 4: Chess Set. 1961. 1 Box. (Restricted)
The artifact in this series is a chess set, made from bread, water, and blood by Carol Ruth Silver during her incarceration at the Hinds County jail. Chess set is currently on exhibit in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

Box 3 (Restricted)