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Fred Ross

 

 
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Fred Ross
 
 
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For the classical art campaigner, Fred Ross, see Art Renewal Center
Art Renewal Center

The Art Renewal Center is an organization led by Fred Ross dedicated to classical realism in art, as opposed to the Modernist developments of the 20th century....
.

Fred Ross (1910 – 1992) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 community organizer. He founded the Community Service Organization
Community Service Organization

The Community Service Organization was an important California Latino civil rights organization, most famous for training Cesar Chavez. It was founded in 1948 by Fred Ross and Edward Roybal and was a source of political support for Roybal during his long political career....
 (CSO), which, with the support of the Industrial Areas Foundation
Industrial Areas Foundation

The Industrial Areas Foundation is a Chicago-based community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. IAF provides training and consultation, furnishes organizers, and develops national strategy for its affiliated broad-based community organizations....
, organized Mexican American
Mexican American

Mexican Americans are United States of Mexican descent. They account for 9% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006....
s in California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
. The CSO gave a young Cesar Chavez
César Chávez

C?sar Estrada Ch?vez was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activism who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers....
 his first training in organizing, which he would later use in founding the United Farm Workers
United Farm Workers

The United Farm Workers of America is a trade union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by C?sar Ch?vez, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong....
. Ross also trained the young Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta

Dolores C. Huerta is the co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO ....
 in community organizing
Community organizing

Community organizing is a process by which people living in proximity to each other are brought together in an organization to act in their common self-interest....
.

Ross was born in San Francisco. He graduated from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, California, United States....
 in 1936, intending to become a school teacher
Teacher

In education, a teacher is a person who teaches. A teacher who teaches an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor.The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out by way of Occupation or Profession at a school or other place of formal education....
, but was unable to find work during the Great Depression
Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
.






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For the classical art campaigner, Fred Ross, see Art Renewal Center
Art Renewal Center

The Art Renewal Center is an organization led by Fred Ross dedicated to classical realism in art, as opposed to the Modernist developments of the 20th century....
.

Fred Ross (1910 – 1992) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 community organizer. He founded the Community Service Organization
Community Service Organization

The Community Service Organization was an important California Latino civil rights organization, most famous for training Cesar Chavez. It was founded in 1948 by Fred Ross and Edward Roybal and was a source of political support for Roybal during his long political career....
 (CSO), which, with the support of the Industrial Areas Foundation
Industrial Areas Foundation

The Industrial Areas Foundation is a Chicago-based community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. IAF provides training and consultation, furnishes organizers, and develops national strategy for its affiliated broad-based community organizations....
, organized Mexican American
Mexican American

Mexican Americans are United States of Mexican descent. They account for 9% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006....
s in California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
. The CSO gave a young Cesar Chavez
César Chávez

C?sar Estrada Ch?vez was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activism who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers....
 his first training in organizing, which he would later use in founding the United Farm Workers
United Farm Workers

The United Farm Workers of America is a trade union that evolved from unions founded in 1962 by C?sar Ch?vez, Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong....
. Ross also trained the young Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta

Dolores C. Huerta is the co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO ....
 in community organizing
Community organizing

Community organizing is a process by which people living in proximity to each other are brought together in an organization to act in their common self-interest....
.

Ross was born in San Francisco. He graduated from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, California, United States....
 in 1936, intending to become a school teacher
Teacher

In education, a teacher is a person who teaches. A teacher who teaches an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor.The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out by way of Occupation or Profession at a school or other place of formal education....
, but was unable to find work during the Great Depression
Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
. Instead, he organised a migrant labor camp near Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California

Bakersfield is a large city at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California, California, United States. It is one of the fastest-growing large-population cities in the USA, and is located roughly equidistant between Los Angeles and Fresno, California, to the south and north respectively....
. The experience led him to become an organizer.

He left the migrant camp to work with Japanese-American internees
Japanese American internment

Japanese American internment refers to the forcible relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese people and Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps", in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor....
. In work funded by the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee

The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which provides humanitarian relief and works for social justice, peace and reconciliation, human rights, and abolition of the death penalty....
, he sought to improve the conditions for and to effect the release of the internees. After the war, he returned to the Southern California, where he worked with African-Americans and Mexican-Americans to fight school and housing segregation
Racial segregation

File:Segregated cinema entrance3.jpgRacial segregation is the separation of different Race s in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a drinking fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home....
.

Ross was trained in community organizing by Saul Alinsky
Saul Alinsky

Saul David Alinsky was an American Community organizing and Writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern Community organizing in America, the political practice of organizing communities to act in common self-interest....
, who became his mentor. He founded the CSO in 1948.

Ross is the author of Conquering Goliath: Cesar Chavez at the Beginning (El Taller Graphico Press; 1989 - ISBN 096252980X) and Axioms for Organizers, a booklet produced by the Neighbor to Neighbor Education Fund (San Francisco, 1989).

Ross has a daughter, Diana and a son, Fred, Jr.

External links

  • , essay about Ross by Dick Meister