Carol Ruth Silver was one of the first two white women to be jailed in the Freedom Rides, an experience that sparked her 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 to 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. After 2002, she traveled to Afghanistan numerous times to support and promote education, especially of women and girls. After 50 years of practicing law, Silver retired in 2005, but she continued to use the law to work towards social justice; she served as  Director of the Prisoner Legal Services Program in San Francisco (2008-2009), an experience that inspired her to fight for drug legalization and reform. As of 2024, she devotes her energy to her pro bono educational projects and continues to work on political campaigns.