Matthew Zwerling Freedom Summer Collection

Matthew Zwerling was a 1964 graduate cum laude of the University of Rochester, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and had been accepted to the Stanford University College of Medicine when he chose to spend his summer working as a volunteer with the voter registration program in Mississippi.

The son of a prominent family with strong political ties, Matthew was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts on April 15, 1944, to Dr. Israel and Florence Zwerling. His father was a Professor of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in Bronx, New York, and the family lived in New York City.

In June 1964, Matthew drove from his home in New York to the volunteer training session at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, with Andrew Goodman, who was a neighbor and friend of the family. After attending the orientation, the two young men drove to Mississippi, where they reported to their respective Freedom Summer sites. Matthew was appointed to Clarksdale, while Andrew was assigned to Meridian. Sadly, this was their last meeting, as Andrew became one of three civil rights workers murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi shortly thereafter.

Despite the obvious danger, Matthew remained in Mississippi, extending his stay until the end of August. During these months, he was heavily involved in voter registration drives, and assisted in the planning of meetings and rallies to promote community participation. While Matthew worked in Mississippi, his family wrote letters and petitioned government officials to investigate the murders of Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, and to provide appropriate protection for civil rights workers in the state.

Although little is known of his life after Freedom Summer 1964, at this writing, Matthew is an attorney working in an appellate project in San Francisco, California. He is married to Holly Veldhuis, and they have one son, Michael.