Fred Ross (community organizer)
Fred Ross (1910 – 1992) was an American
Ross worked with
Background
Fred Ross Sr. was born in San Francisco in 1910 and was raised in Los Angeles in the Echo Park area.[3]: 20 He started out with a general secondary teaching credential from the University of Southern California in 1936. However, because of the Great Depression, he could not find employment. In 1937, Ross received a position with the state relief administration doing social work. After quitting his caseworker job, Ross worked for the Farm Security Administration, which was in charge of relief program in the Coachella Valley.[4][5]
Experience in organizing
In John Steinbeck's famous novel The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck describes the journey and tribulations of the Joad family, a group of migrant workers looking for work in California. He describes a labor camp that was based on a real camp in Arvin. Fred Ross Sr. was placed in charge of this camp shortly after Steinbeck left the area. Ross was later promoted to cover about 25 camps similar to this one all over California and Arizona. In the camps, Ross saw the poverty and poor working conditions experienced by the workers. He found in his heart the desire to organize, and he did so by earning the trust of the workers and beginning a form of self-government in the camp so that the workers could band together to fight to improve their conditions. He encouraged them to speak up and be heard, despite the fear of confrontation with power holders.[4] After the war, Ross worked for the American Council of Race Relations, whose goal was to "create unity, and end the riots…between whites and minorities." Ross spearheaded Civic Unity Leagues in California's conservative Citrus Belt, bringing Mexican- and black Americans together to battle segregation. In Orange County, parents organized by Ross won a landmark lawsuit (Mendez v. Westminster School District) in 1947 that paved the way for the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision in 1954. Ross began organizing and obtained the interest of Saul Alinsky, a well known organizer and head of the Industrial Areas Foundation. In September 1947, Alinsky hired Ross to organize Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles. He organized in Southern California for 6 years before moving on to San Jose, which was the largest Spanish center outside of Los Angeles.[4]
Voter registration
Ross worked on voter registration in
House-meeting organizing
It was during his organizing in
Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Fred Ross Jr.
Fred Ross Sr. trained a myriad of successful organizers during his lifetime. The most renowned of these organizers are Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and his son, Fred Ross Jr. Ross recruited Cesar while he was in San Jose; at first when Ross Sr. visited Chavez at his home, he was doubtful of his intentions. However, he soon saw that Ross was a man whose life calling was to help people in need. Chavez believed in Ross's technique and after their first house meeting, he accepted Ross's offer to join the CSO. That night, Ross wrote in his journal, "I think I found the guy I'm looking for." Ross continued to be an advisor and confidant to Chavez for the remainder of his life even when Chavez split from the CSO and began his own union. Another young and intelligent organizer that Ross recruited was
Fred Ross also trained Ellie Cohen in the housemeeting method around nuclear weapons proliferation that she developed into a swing congressional district grassroots organizing approach.
Fred Ross's son,
Campaign work
Ross served as the deputy campaign manager of then-San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein's successful campaign to defeat her 1983 recall.[7]
Other information
Ross is the author of Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning (El Taller Graphico Press; 1989 -
Thompson Gabriel. America's Social Arsonist : Fred Ross and Grassroots Organizing in the Twentieth Century. University of California Press 2016.
Personal life
Ross had three children, Robert, Julia, and Fred. Fred was named after his father.
Ross was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2014.
External links
- [A Trailblazing Organizer's Organizer], essay about Ross by Dick Meister
- The Fred Ross Papers at Stanford University
References
- ^ Editors (2007) "Dolores Huerta Biography." Archived 2007-10-18 at the Wayback Machine Dolores Huerta Foundation.
- ^ Library of Congress web site (2009)
- ISBN 9780520280830.
- ^ a b c d e Levy, Jacques E. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1975. Print.
- ^ Bruns, Roger. Cesar Chavez: A biography. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2005. Print.
- ^ Shaw, Randy. Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 2008. Print.
- ^ Macdonald, Katharine (27 April 1983). "Mayor Feinstein Easily Defeats Recall Attempt". Washington Post. Retrieved 17 April 2020.