From
Newsletter Volume 5, Number 2
(The following excerpts are from an article
in the New Haven Independent On-Line about George M. Fishman, a long time
member of the Greater New Haven Labor History Association, reprinted with
permission. For the full article, see July 7, 2009.)
George M.
Fishman passed away peacefully at his Wooster Street home on Wednesday, June 30th,
2009. During the 13 years that he and his wife Edie lived in New Haven,
he became well known for his scholarship and his activism on behalf of
democratic rights, human rights and peace. Fishman, born in Philadelphia on
January 6, 1917 to immigrant parents, was a high school social science and
history teacher. He held a PhD in History from Temple University.
Since 1938
he was actively involved in African American and labor studies, as researcher,
writer and teacher. A selection of his work, “For a Better WorldundefinedA
Miscellany: Writings 1952undefined2002 on the African American People’s
Freedom/Equality
Struggles in New Jersey History” was completed in 2002. He was a member of the
American Federation of Teachers Retirees Chapter 933R in New Haven.
From 1938 to
1941 Fishman was a staff member of a Works Project Administration (WPA)
teaching unit which pioneered in staff development in African American life,
history and culture and in conducting classes in labor unions and community
organizations. During World War II he was a radio man aboard a Landing Ship
Medium (#361) in the Pacific. His service included teaching English. He was
awarded four medals: American Theatre, Asian-Pacific, Philippine Liberation and
Victory.
Following
the war, he taught social studies, history and mathematics mainly in the public
secondary schools of Philadelphia but also in New Jersey until his retirement
in August, 1984. In 1952 during the McCarthy period he was forced to leave his
teaching position as part of the general purge of progressives, including
Communists, labor activists and civil rights advocates from public life. He
went to work at Campbell’s Soup in Camden, New Jersey where he lived with his
family. He was a union shop steward and leader of Local 804 United Packinghouse
Workers of America, CIO, for eight years, returning to teach in Philadelphia in
1968, when the school system repudiated past discriminatory practices and all teachers
were invited back.
Fishman, who
said he lived “a life with a purpose,” participated in community, civil rights,
labor and world affairs throughout his life. He is survived by wife Edie,
daughter
Joelle and
son-in-law Art Perlo of New Haven, and several nieces and nephews.