Talk:Bernice Fisher

Personal Knowledge
Much of this article appears to be written by her nephew Frank Fisher, who cites as some sources "personal knowledge," which is outside of Wikipedia guidelines that require information to be from secondary sources. I have deleted many of those references (although for now I have left in the family tree, which Mr. Fisher can surely qualify with published obituaries). One passage I found historically troubling is that of one Shelia Michaels crediting Fisher with starting CORE. On the sites from CORE, Jim Farmer and George Houser, I have included the following note:

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) and a conference that year on CORE and the origins of the Civil Rights Movement at Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, attended by both Houser and Farmer. Academics and the participants themselves agreed the founders of CORE were Jim Farmer, George Houser and Berniece Fisher. The conference has been preserved on videotape.

and I will add it to Fisher's site as well. Michaels, while perhaps an academic, should not be taken as equal an authority of Houser and Farmer themselves.

robinbirk —Preceding unsigned comment added by Robinbirk (talk • contribs) 01:54, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Bernice Fisher
James Farmer, himself, credits more than three people for founding CORE. He discusses the orgins of CORE in his book, Lay Bare The Heart. Although Farmer, Fisher and Houser were likely the primary movers, there are other sources as well that credit more than three people for the founding of CORE. And although it may not be a Wikipedia source I recall Bernice mentioning there were six founders and including Jimmy Robinson and Homer Jack as CORE founders. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fisher, Frank (talk • contribs) 14:56, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Also according to the 1973 book by August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, "CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement" that Oxford University Press published,"the six persons most responsible for founding CORE 1942-1968" were James Farmer, George Houser, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, Joe Guinn and James R. Robinson.(page 6) 74.104.33.131 (talk) 16:12, 29 November 2009 (UTC)bobf

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The attribution of Bernice Fisher as the founder, comes from my oral history with James Russell Robinson, who was one of the founders. That transcript is at Columbia University. I'd have to go back over George Houser's oral history (no transcript) to see if he positively identified Fisher as the first to get the idea, when she started the Fellowship of Reconciliation "cell" (as they called it) group on racism. The problem with James Farmer's autobiography is that he never actually says that Fisher started the group, though it seems to be the subtext. However, my understanding is that Fisher was mad about him & knowing Jim, he was always one to bask in the esteem of women, and to depend on them to carry on while he advised. He meant no harm, and in the custom of the times, he was guiltless. They corresponded all her life.

The feeling of the time was that men of color did not have sufficient self-esteem & that all possible measures should be taken to buttress the egos of the oppressed. Fisher was an ardent advocate. I received an e-mail earlier this year from a man I knew in the '60s who told me that Fisher died of a heart attack while defending him, when he was to be fired by the UFT in New York, for taking the wife of a colleague to a demonstration in Boston. From what I read in Farmer's autobiography, it looked like Farmer joined the group after it was forming & Fisher did her best to incorporate his ideas into the direction of the group. Someone had to do the less interesting work of getting the group moving, & that was always Fisher's forte.

It had been my suspicion that Fisher founded the CORE group in St. Louis, & it turned out to be so. She was somehow forgotten. I talked to Margaret Dagen, in whose home the group started, & she did not mention Fisher until I asked. Then Dagan conceded that the group did no more than meet to discuss the racial situation in St. Louis until Fisher joined & organized them. Her book was half-written without mention of Fisher, but I urged her to set the record straight. She did credit Fisher in writing, in her book. But, Fisher would have been omitted, otherwise. I don't believe that was truly malicious, but a matter of the way one frames one's own life story.

<--Sheila Michaels--> July 2008

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My understandings are similiar to Sheila Michaels comments. Bernice died of a brain stroke (blood vessel burst). She was in a meeting in NYC at the time it occured. Sheila Michaels' oral histories are valuable contributions. Unacknowledged Leaders: Sarah Lawrence Conference, Sisters in Struggle, Sheila Shiki y Michaels, New York, NY, 8 March 2003; Sheila Shiki y Michaels, New York, NY, 11 November 2002 is the reference, "CORE had been started by Bernice Fisher," that Robin Washington (robinbirk) refers to and removed from the original entry. It's interesting to see that it comes from the oral history interview with James Russell Robinson. <--Frank Fisher--> July 2008

Update
There are sound indicators that there were more than three founders of CORE although there may be some debate about what the criteria for being a founder are. James Farmer in Fellowship magazine April-May 1992 said he started CORE but acknowledged two "parentages." In the July-August 1992 Fellowship magazine Homer Jack and George Houser responded. There is more information about the beginnings of CORE in the Oral Histories of James Robinson and George Houser. See the references on the Bernice Fisher page. Fisher, Frank talk) 13:27, 8 September 2008 (UTC)Frank Fisher

Question about a reference of Bob Chino
There is small piece that a professor in Montreal brought to my attention about this comment on Wikipedia.

James Farmer, in his book Lay Bare The Heart, discusses CORE IS BORN (Chapter 10) and he also mentions Bob "Chino" (the Hispanic nickname for a Chinese man, by which he was widely known), 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. 

My grand father was Robert A. Chino born in Chicago, IL. He was a White/Japanese descendant engaged in many causes.

In LAY BARE THE HEART, James Farmer actually gives "Bob Chino," whom he characterizes as a "University of Chicago student who was half-Chinese and half-Caucasian," the credit for coming up with the name CORE, as representing the center of action.

Here is the Farmer book comment:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=it2RdgDxFMMC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=%22Bob+chino%22+-lopez&source=bl&ots=ktvTXjHlo2&sig=r1SAY4nTK4GDiIUoBOwWKTlPuMs&hl=en&ei=ReGkStaNLpTSlAfkr-iPBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=%22Bob%20chino%22%20-lopez&f=false \

Could it be the same person ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Theochino (talk • contribs) 16:27, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Author of the acronym CORE
Robert Asahi Chino invented the acronym CORE (Lay Bare the Heart, by James Farmer, TCU Press, 1998, p.105) in April 1942. Born in February 1919 from a Japanese father and a white American mother, Robert A. Chino went to Hyde Park high school, Chicago, IL. From 1937 to 1942, he became a socialist and a pacifist activist. In 1942, he considered himself a conscientious objector and got convicted in May 1942 of draft evasion. Confined in the Sandstone penitentiary, MN, he was given in 1943 the oportunity to serve in the army. He decided to join the 442nd RCT. He was awarded the Purple Heart (1945), the Silver Star (1946), the Bronze Star (1948). He died in December 1987. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hadrien A. Chino (talk • contribs) 22:20, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

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