Bernice Fisher

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Bernice Fisher

Bernice in front of her apartment building at 34 Monroe Place, Brooklyn, New York(1960)
Born December 8, 1916
Punxsutawney, PA
Died 1966
New York City
Nationality American
Known for Civil Rights Activist

Bernice Fisher was a Civil Rights activist and union organizer. She was one of the original founders of the Congress of Racial Equality. She was born Dec. 8, 1916 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and died May 2, 1966 in New York City. Her birth name was Elsie Bernice Fisher, but she did not use the name Elsie.

Contents

[edit] Civil Rights Leader and Union Organizer

Fisher was one of a handful of activists associated with the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Chicago who in 1942 introduced the sit-in as a tactic in challenging racial segregation in public accommodations. She was one of six founding members of CORE James L. Farmer, Jr., Bernice Fisher, George Houser, James R. Robinson, Homer Jack and Joe Guinn.[1] Bayard Rustin, while not a founder of CORE, was also associated with the founders. Fisher has been called the "godmother of the restaurant 'sit-in' technique" by fellow activist Ernest Calloway of St. Louis CORE.

Fisher was also a union organizer in St. Louis[2] and while there organized that city's chapter of CORE. Others associated with the St. Louis chapter were Marian O'Fallon, Charles Oldham, Margaret Dagen, Billie Ames, Marvin Rich, Norman Seay and Wanda Penny. St. Louis CORE became a leading exponent of the nonviolent direct action as applied to race relations.

During the last six years of her life Fisher was active with the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was Co-Chairman with Cyprian Belle Concord Social Action Committee created by the Concord Baptist Church.[3]

Fisher lived most of her adult life in New York, St. Louis and Chicago and was a participant in many civil rights nonviolent direct-action activities and labor union anti-discrimination efforts in those cities. At the time of her death in 1966, she was serving on the executive board of Brooklyn NAACP and on the National Board of the Workers Defense League. She is buried at The Evergreens cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y. [4][5][6] Sit-ins began well before the 1960 sit-in at Greensboro, North Carolina. This citation also contains additional details about the Congress of Racial Equality. Congress of Racial Equality St. Louis Post Dispatch, January 13, 2004, by Sylvester Brown Jr., which can be accessed online.[7]

[edit] Education

Fisher graduated from the University of Chicago in 1943. She previously had been accepted as a special student at the Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Rochester, N.Y., which she attended from 1939 to 1941, and the Rochester Collegiate Center in that city from 1935 to 1936. She graduated from Monroe High School in Rochester in 1934.[8]

[edit] Family

Fisher's father was Jay Merritt Fisher born August 21, 1877, Syracuse, N.Y. to Charles Gold Fisher, M.D., and Annie (Schutt) Fisher.[9] [10] They moved to Pennsylvania about 1880. Her mother was Annie Rosetta (Morrison) Fisher born April 17, 1881, Ambrose, Indiana County, Pa.,[11] daughter of George Morrison and Emma (Goodwin) Morrison. Her brother was Donald Morrison Fisher born March 10, 1911 Punxsutawney, Pa., and died March 21, 1983, Syracuse, New York. Donald with E. Ruth (Loke) had five children, Thomas G. Fisher, Dennis G. Fisher, Frank W. Fisher, Craig W. Fisher and Christine E. Fisher.[12]

[edit] Other Internal Links

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement

Greensboro sit-ins

[edit] Books

Among the books in which Bernice Fisher is mentioned are:

"Victory without Violence, The First Ten Years Of The St. Louis Committee Of Racial Equality (CORE)," 1947-1957 by Mary Kimbrough and Margaret W. Dagen, Copyright 2000 by The Curators of the University of Missouri, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri.

"Lay Bare The Heart: An Autobiography of The Civil Rights Movement" by James Farmer, Copyright 1985 by James Farmer. A Plume Book, New American Library.

[edit] Miscellaneous sources and information

PERSONAL HISTORY QUESTIONNAIRE, The City of New York, Department of Personnel, 4 pages, completed by Bernice Fisher is undated but contains these years and cities of residence: 1931 Jamestown, N.Y.; 1931-1941 Rochester, N.Y.; 1941-1945 Chicago, Ill; 1945-1946 Chicago and Detroit; 1946-1949 St. Louis, Mo.; 1953-1956 Chicago, Ill.; 1956-present Brooklyn, N.Y. (Note: Bernice was still living in Brooklyn, New York when she died in May 1966.

Ledger No. 5281 Union Card expires December 31, 1942, Sister Bernice Fisher, Warehousemen, Loaders, Stackers and Graders, Local 688...of the I.B. of T.C.W. and H. of A. affiliated with the A. F. of L. and Honorable Withdrawal Card of Bernice Fisher, Local No. 688, is dated 9 May 1949 are in the possession of Frank W. Fisher.

United Federation of Teachers newspaper, UFT Expands Union Organizing Staff page 5; my copy has only pages 5 through 8 and doesn't give the date of publication, but it contains the page 5 story, and board meeting minutes of Nov. 4 and 16, 1964 on page 8.

There is much discussion by Farmer and Houser on the founding of CORE in several issues of Fellowship magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1992 (Spring, Summer and Winter issues).[13] and participants in a conference on Oct. 22 1992, "Erasing the Color Line in the North," attended by both Houser and Farmer, agreed that the founders of CORE were Jim Farmer, George Houser and Bernice Fisher. [14]

James Farmer in his book, Lay Bare The Heart, discusses CORE IS BORN (Chapter 10) and he also mentions Bob Chino and Hugo Victoreen as well as George Houser, Bernice Fisher, Jimmy Robinson, Joe Guinn, Homer Jack and himself as participants in the meeting when the organization CORE was formed. Bernice became secretary and Jimmy became treasurer.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Spencer Foundation, Research Grant Report, Consortium for Educational Research in Florida 2001-2003, Kathryn M. Borman, Principal Investigator and Project Director, The David C. Anchin Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.
  2. ^ OF TIME AND SOUND, Requiem For A Free, Compassionate Spirit, by Ernest Galloway, published in Missouri Teamster, May 12, 1966, Page 7.
  3. ^ CONCORD HANDBOOK OF COMMUNITY RESOURCES, Concord Baptist Church of Christ, 833 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, undated but published between Dec 1964 and May 1966.
  4. ^ BROOKLYN EDITION, Amsterdam News; CORE Founder Dies Saturday, May 7, 1966-B.
  5. ^ THE NEW YORK TIMES; BERNICE FISHER, 49, A FOUNDER OF CORE, Tuesday, May 3, 1966.
  6. ^ THE CONCORD BAPTIST CHURCH OF CHRIST; Services of Homegoing, Brooklyn, New York, Wednesday, May 4, 1966.
  7. ^ STLtoday - 27. CONGRESS OF RACIAL EQUALITY
  8. ^ Transcript of (Elsie) Bernice Fisher, The University of Chicago, Office of the Register, May 11, 1956.
  9. ^ Obituary of Dr. C. G. Fisher in February 12, 1925 ERA, Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania.
  10. ^ Death Certificate, 1925 File No. 13093, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for Dr. Charles Fisher at Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania.
  11. ^ Marriage Certificate No. 8897, Jay M. Fisher and Annie Rosetta Morrison, 15 May 1909, Justice of the Peace, County of Jefferson, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
  12. ^ Obituary of Donald M. Fisher in March 26, 1983 The Post Standard, Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York.
  13. ^ Fellowship magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation 1992, Spring, Summer and Winter issues.
  14. ^ Erasing the Color Line in the North, a conference, October 22, 1992, on CORE and the origins of the Civil Rights Movement at Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio. The conference has been preserved on videotape available from Bluffton College.
  15. ^ LAY BARE THE HEART: An Autobiography of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, James Farmer, A Plume Book, New American Library, Copyright 1985 by James Farmer.