Rita Levant Schwerner Bender (born 1942) is a civil rights activist and lawyer. She and her first husband Michael (Mickey) Schwerner participated in the Freedom Summer of 1964, where Michael was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. As his young widow, he attracted national attention because of his remarks on racial prejudice in the United States, delivered at a press conference after her husband was missing. After the Civil Rights Movement, Schwerner became a lawyer, now practicing family law in Washington state. He continues to advocate for civil rights today through his legal practice and public presentation.
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Schwerner and her husband, Michael, grew up in New York. They married when they were 20, 22 years old.
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Activism
Rita Schwerner became active in the first civil rights movement in the north; he and Michael were both arrested at a civil rights protest in Baltimore in July 1963.
Summer of Independence and the death of Michael Schwerner
The Schwern family moved to Meridian, Mississippi in January 1964. He was a teacher, and both worked in freedom schools and registered black voters.
The summer of 1964, known as the "Summer of Independence" was an attempt to register more black voters in the south. It is headed by a group of civil rights activists such as the Congress for Race Equalization (CORE), and the Nonviolent Student Coordination Committee (SNCC). Rita Schwerner and her husband Michael (Mickey) were among the three hundred students who went to Mississippi to help the voting campaign. They are 22 and 24 years old.
In June 1964, the Schwerns attended training of civil rights activists in Ohio when they learned of a church involved in the movement in Neshoba County, Mississippi, had been burned and the pastor was beaten. Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, a black man, and white Andrew Goodman (like the Schwerns) drove the Schwerner family station train back to Mississippi to investigate. On Sunday the 21st of June, the three men were driving together when they were stopped by Neshoba, the deputy sheriff of Cecil Price outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Price arrested three men in charge of speeding up and locking them in jail, only to release them around 10 pm that night. The people were never seen again. Rita Schwerner was still in Ohio when she found out about their departure, and two days later, at Cincinnati airport with Fannie Lou Hamer and getting ready to travel back to Mississippi, Schwerner knew their train station was found burning, in the swamp.
Schwerner returned to Mississippi, for the safety of "staying in a black-owned hotel, with a guard organized by black ministers who watched outside."
Schwerner spoke actively, pressing President Johnson to expand the federal government's efforts to find them. The national media covered the story in great detail, and the FBI poster rose to three across the country. Following this national crisis and the loss of her husband, Rita Schwerner was interviewed by media in Meridian, Mississippi and responded to this situation:
"It is tragic, as far as I know, that the white north people must be caught in an engine of injustice and indifference in the South.Before the Americans register a concern, I personally suspect that if Mr. Cheney, who is a native Mississippian nigger, has alone at the disappearance of this case like so many other things that have happened before will be completely unconscious. "
It soon found out that Schwerner, Cheney, and Goodman had been killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Sheriff Price is affiliated with the Klan and has participated in the killing.
Three years later, Price was found guilty of murdering the three men and sentenced to six years in prison. He died in 2001 at the age of 63. While there were other Klansmen involved in the killings, only six of them were punished along with Price.
Continuing civil rights activism
After the death of her husband, Schwerner lived in Mississippi and continued to pursue civil rights work with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In particular he worked on an act of "challenging the white Mississippi delegation" at the 1964 National Convention of the Democratic Party in the Atlantic City: "Delegates used borrowed letters to march on the convention floor and dragged by guards, blackened Mississippi population. Schwerner testified [sic] before the credential committee with members of the Free Democratic Party stand in silent honor. "
Second law school and marriage
After working in the Civil Rights Movement, Schwerner decided to go to law school and become a lawyer. She attended Rutgers School of Law in New Jersey in 1965, graduating three years after her husband was assassinated. Of the 150 students in the 1968 graduation class, Schwerner is one of five women. He then worked for the ACLU.
While studying at Rutgers, she also met her second husband, William J. Bender.
Current legal practice
Rita Schwerner Bender is now a private family practice lawyer in Washington State. His areas of expertise are family law, adoption and reproduction of aid, ethics and professional discipline, and "specialize in providing defendant defect access to legal aid." Bender continues to be active in today's civil rights struggle, speaking on topics such as "Search for Restorative Justice: Edgar Ray Killen Court" and "Racial Disparities in Education and State Action." In addition, Bender has written or co-authored several publications relating to the field of legal practice. Some of his work is "FAQ: Surrogacy, Donation Sperm and Donation in Washington for Gay and Lesbian Parents" (with Raegen N. Rasnic and Janet M. Helson) and the "Washington State Legal Technician Rule: Myths and Facts" on the Washington State Bar news in 2008.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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