‘Bob’ Lentz, county lawyer active in Civil Rights movement, has died

Wrote letter about 'Mississippi Burning' case

TREDYFFRIN » Robert W. “Bob” Lentz, the former Chester County attorney who as a young man joined with Civil Rights advocates in the South to assist those who had faced racial discrimination and who was on hand for one of the more infamous chapters in the movement’s history, has died. He was 87.

News of his death on Sept. 15 in Florida, where he lived in retirement, was announced by his law firm, Lentz, Cantor & Massey of

Malvern. He died from complication of a fall, according to a statement released by the firm last week.

Lentz began his legal career with the firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelpia, after graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. He received his bachelor’s degree from Lafayette University in 1955. A decade later, he formed his own law firm in West Chester with partners.

He was well known in county legal circles as a trial attorney who practiced general law, serving anyone who needed his services, and was a member of the Chester County Bar Association for over 50 years.

However, in the summer of 1964 Lentz volunteered to work with the other attorneys on the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) in Mississippi for two weeks representing those Civil Rights activists who were jailed for their efforts. His recollections are memorialized in “Diary of a Country Lawyer During Two Weeks in Mississippi,” the manuscript of which is in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. The manuscript consists of long letters to his former wife, Joyce Kummer.

The first letter, dated June 22, 1964, includes a note: “Several days ago as people were coming out of a church after a meeting they were beaten and the church burned. This happened in Philadelphia Mississippi. Last nite 3 COFO workers didn’t return from a trip to Phila to investigate.” Later that day he wrote another letter and added “The 3 COFO workers are still missing and it doesn’t look good. They were let out of jail about 10 pm Sunday and haven’t been heard from since.”

The bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were found buried in a swamp that August. They had been shot at close range. Their story became the basis for the film “Mississippi Burning” and the eventual prosecutions of several men — including a local Ku Klux Klan leader — for the crime. Lentz returned to Mississippi once more, in November of 1966, to help in the general election efforts there.

His Civil Rights efforts were also locally focused, the firm said. He was affiliated with the United Political Action Committee of West Chester, participating in such matters as improving the quality of education in the public schools for minority students and establishing the ward system of voting in the borough to remedy the disenfranchisement of minority voters. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of what is now Cheyney University for several years.

Lentz’s eldest child, Kimberly, was born in 1961 with severe developmental and physical disabilities. In 1984, on behalf of her and another young woman, he joined in the landmark case of Halderman v. Pennhurst, which eventually led to the end of inhumane institutionalization of disabled individuals there, according to the firm.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy of Venice, Florida; a son Adam; a daughter, Heather; a stepson Andy Selleman; a stepdaughter Sharon Meyers; and granddaughters Tracey Meyers and Jesse Van Tassel. He was predeceased by his daughter Kimberly and his former wife, Joyce Kummer.

A private memorial service was held in Sarasota. He will be remembered at the Chester County Bar Association annual memorial service in December.

To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.