Carol Ruth Silver

Carol Ruth Silver (born October 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and civil rights activist. She was a Freedom Rider, arrested and incarcerated for 40 days in Mississippi. She was among those on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors allegedly targeted by Dan White in the Moscone–Milk assassinations, but escaped assassination because she was not in her office at the time of the murders.

Early life and education Silver grew up in a Jewish family in Worcester, Massachusetts. She attended the University of Chicago, earning a bachelor's degree in 1960 and a J.D. degree in 1964. She was a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Career

Silver moved to California and served on the faculties of Golden Gate University School of Law, Lone Mountain College (now part of the University of San Francisco), and San Francisco State. She served with the California Rural Legal Assistance program.

Freedom Riders In 1961, she was a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement, civil rights activists who rode buses into the South to challenge ongoing racial segregation by deliberately violating the laws for separate waiting rooms at interstate bus stations. She recalled in 2011,

"On June 2, 1961, I got on a bus in New York bound for Jackson. The bus went to Nashville, where we wrote our wills. When we arrived in Jackson, on June 7, I went into the bus station waiting room marked 'Colored.' I took three steps and was arrested and transported to the city jail."

"As a colleague of Harvey Milk, our legacy was to significantly shift the balance of power to younger and less affluent people in the city of San Francisco. We were the first district-elected supervisors who had roots in the ethnic communities of the city," Silver said in 2011.

During White's trial in 1979, Silver testified for the prosecution, stating she did not believe his claim of being mentally ill. Silver maintained her stance following White's acquittal, saying:

"Dan White has gotten away with murder. It's as simple as that.":

During the White Night riots that erupted in the city following the news of White's acquittal, Silver was injured when struck by a flying object. In 1998, Silver further elaborated on her view of White's crimes:

"I always believed Dan White got away with murder, that he entered City Hall with the full intent to shoot George, and perhaps a lesser intent to shoot Harvey. I never really believed he was out to get me, but now I do."

San Francisco Police Chief Con Murphy responded to Silver's views on guns:

"I don't like it. Keeping guns at home creates more problems than it solves. It creates a false sense of security."

In an interview, Silver said that every citizen who feels threatened by crime should have a gun in his or her home or office, and that many San Franciscans should have guns because police will not protect them.

Later career

Silver served three terms on the Board of Supervisors, stepping down in 1989. She ran in the Democratic primary for California's 1st congressional district, in 1996, but lost to Michela Alioto (who then lost to incumbent Frank Riggs). Silver ran in the 2000 District 6 supervisorial race, coming in fourth.

Silver then retired from politics and continued her philanthropic work, which had included founding San Francisco's Chinese American International School in 1982, the first and most modeled Mandarin Chinese immersion program in the United States. In the summer of 2002 she traveled to Afghanistan to explore ways that American citizens could extend a hand of friendship to the Afghan people, and she has founded or co-founded three organizations dedicated in different ways to supporting and promoting education in Afghanistan, particularly of women and girls.

In 2007, Silver was appointed director of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department's Office of Prisoner Legal Services. She resigned the position in 2009, stating her reluctance to work in a system that supported the war on drugs. She wrote in her resignation letter:

"I have found myself having to bite my tongue in talking to some prisoners about their charges – at least half of them with nonviolent drug charges. I find it difficult to discuss the financial or child custody problems of a prisoner, when I cannot look them in the eye and justify their being in jail." She has since lent her support to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

In media Silver played a small part as Thelma, a speechwriter, in the 2008 Academy Award-winning film Milk, a biographical film of her late friend and coworker. She herself was portrayed by actress Wendy King.

Published works