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23 Facts About Bernice Fisher

1.

Elsie Bernice Fisher was a civil rights activist and union organizer.

2.

Bernice Fisher was among the co-founders of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois.

3.

Bernice Fisher said that Fisher was the nuts and bolts person for CORE in Chicago and later St Louis.

4.

Bernice Fisher spoke highly of Bernice Fisher and of her importance to the development of CORE.

5.

Bernice Fisher has been called the "godmother of the restaurant 'sit-in' technique" by fellow activist and union organizer Ernest Calloway, who worked closely with Bernice Fisher in St Louis and admired her.

6.

Bernice Fisher worked tirelessly to establish the Committee On Racial Equality.

7.

Soon the founders, including Bernice Fisher, changed the name to Congress of Racial Equality CORE.

8.

Bernice Fisher was instrumental in establishing the sit-in as a nonviolent technique in the Civil Rights Movement.

9.

Bernice Fisher made a list of rules to follow at demonstrations, based on Gandhi's teachings, that was distributed as a handbill at some demonstrations.

10.

Bernice Fisher became an organizer of department store workers in Chicago.

11.

Bernice Fisher was brought to St Louis by Harold Gibbons of the Teamsters, one of the most progressive labor leaders in America at the time.

12.

Bernice Fisher hired Fisher on the recommendation of Calloway, who had been impressed by her work in Chicago.

13.

Bernice Fisher was Co-Chairman with Cyprian Belle Concord of the Social Action Committee created by the Concord Baptist Church.

14.

Bernice Fisher lived most of her adult life in New York, St Louis, and Chicago.

15.

Bernice Fisher participated in many civil-rights nonviolent direct-action activities and labor union anti-discrimination efforts in those cities.

16.

Bernice Fisher was long associated with the labor movement and served as an official with several unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, Retail Wholesale and Department Stores Union, CIO; the Government and Civic Organizing Committee in Chicago; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers in New York, and others.

17.

Bernice Fisher had been active with the Housing Conference of Chicago.

18.

Bernice Fisher was serving on the executive board of Brooklyn NAACP and on the National Board of the Workers Defense League.

19.

Bernice Fisher graduated from the University of Chicago on June 18,1943, with a major area of Divinity.

20.

Bernice Fisher graduated from Monroe High School in Rochester in 1934.

21.

Bernice Fisher moved with his family to Pennsylvania about 1880.

22.

Bernice Fisher's mother was Annie Rosetta Fisher, born April 17,1881, Ambrose, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, daughter of George Morrison and Emma Morrison.

23.

Bernice Fisher's brother was Donald Morrison Fisher, born March 10,1911, Punxsutawney, Pa.