The Fred Hirsch Ephemera collection documents local civil rights activist organizations in San Jose and Santa Clara County. This collection documents the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Farmworkers Association, and Santa Clara County Friends of SNCC, the Mexican American Political Association, and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The collection includes correspondence, petitions, flyers and miscellaneous ephemera.

Fred Hirsch (1933-), a retired plumber is well known to the national leadership of the AFL-CIO and very widely in San Jose. As vice president of Plumbers and Fitter, Local 393, Hirsch worked as a plumber and rank and file worker in construction as well as a union activist and organizer. Hirsch helped transform his union into a dynamic force on issues of AFL-CIO intervention in the political and trade union life of sovereign nations and specifically the organizations in Latin America. Hirsch is particularly known in the Chicano community, where he founded and served as Secretary of the Law and Police Committee Model Cities Program. He has been involved in political, labor and community activism in San Jose and he served as Co-Chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Friends of the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Hirsch also wrote the first pamphlet exposing CIA machinations in the Latin American labor movement. Committed to civil rights, Hirsch participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer project to help register African American voters in Mississippi. In addition, he worked with Cesar Chavez and the National Farmworkers Association. He played a part in the Angela Davis’ trial by helping with the research of over 2000 potential jurors to guarantee a fair trial. Hirsch is currently on the Executive Board of Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 in San Jose, a delegate to the South Bay Labor Council and a longtime activist in the Latin America Solidarity Coalition.

1 box 1.3 linear feet

Copyright has not been assigned to the San Jose State University Library Special Collections & Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Special Collections & Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital reproductions of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

The collection is open for research.