Rita Schwerner Bender

Rita Schwerner Bender (née Levant; born 1942) is an American civil rights activist and lawyer.

As his young widow, she drew national attention for her commentary on racial prejudice in the United States, delivered at a press conference after her husband went missing.

It was headed up by civil rights activist groups such as the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

In June 1964, the Schwerners were attending a civil rights activism training in Ohio when they learned a church involved in the movement in Neshoba County, Mississippi, had been burned down and its clergy beaten.

On Sunday, June 21, the three men were driving together when they were stopped by Neshoba deputy sheriff Cecil Price outside of the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

She returned to Mississippi, for safety "staying [at a] black-owned hotel, with a guard organized by black ministers keeping watch outside.

In the wake of this national crisis and the disappearance of her husband, Rita Schwerner was interviewed by the media in Meridian, Mississippi and gave this response:It is tragic, as far as I am concerned, that white northerners have to be caught up in the machinery of injustice and indifference in the South.

Before the American people register concern, I personally suspect that if Mr. Chaney, who is a native Mississippian negro, had been alone at the time of the disappearance that this case like so many other that have come before would have been completely unnoticed.

Rita Schwerner testivied [sic] before the credentials committee with Freedom Democratic Party members standing in silent tribute.

"[4] Bender continues to be active in the fight for civil rights, speaking on topics like "Searching for Restorative Justice: The Trial of Edgar Ray Killen" and "Racial Disparity in Education and State Action."