- Jack D. Foner
Jack Donald Foner (
December 14 ,1910 -December 10 ,1999 ) was an American historian best known for writing histories of the labor movement and the struggle for civil rights. He was born inBrooklyn, New York . A professor ofAmerican history , he established one of the first programs in black studies in theUnited States . He was a victim of political blacklisting because of his support for labor,Civil Rights ofAfrican Americans and opposition tofascism inSpain in the late 1930s.Biography
Jack Foner attended Eastern District High School and graduated from
City College of New York in 1929. He earned a master's degree in 1933 and a doctorate in 1967 in American history, both fromColumbia University . He and his wife, Liza, were married for 57 years. They had two children,Eric Foner , now a professor of history at Columbia University, andThomas Foner , who died in 1999, the same year as his father.Jack Foner taught history in 1935 at
Baruch College (the downtown branch of City College of New York), and actively supported theSpanish Republic againstfascism , and stood for the rights ofAfrican Americans . In 1941 Jack Foner was forced out of his teaching job, along with 60 other faculty members in the wake of an investigation of alleged communist influences in higher education by theNew York state legislature's anti-communistRapp-Coudert Committee , which was officially known as the "Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate the Educational System of the State of New York.One of the complaints against Jack Foner was that his teaching devoted excessive attention to the role of African Americans in history. He declined to testify before the commission and was blacklisted, which meant he was unable to obtain academic employment for almost three decades. In 1979, the
New York State Board of Higher Education apologized to the Rapp-Coudert victims, deeming the events of 1941 "an egregious violation of academic freedom." [ [http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2000/0004/0004mem2.cfm American Historical Association] ]In 1993 Foner told
Colby magazine he considered the episode an "honorable experience" and said, "there was really no evidence to support it." [ [http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/spr00/obit/index.html Colby College Magazine] ]During the period of blacklisting, Foner supported his family as an entertainer. A
drummer andcomedian , Foner worked withPaul Robeson andHarry Belafonte , and maintained a friendship withW.E.B. Du Bois , all of whom also suffered from that era's blacklisting. Although Foner did some freelance lecturing, he was barred from academia until Colby hired him in the spring of 1969 to teachhistory . [ [http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/spr00/obit/index.html Colby College Magazine] ]Foner taught at Colby from 1969 to 1976 and returned as a visiting scholar in 1983 and 1985. [ [http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/spr00/obit/index.html Colby College Magazine] ]
Philip Foner , a labor historian and political activist,Henry Foner andMoe Foner , bothlabor union organizers, were his brothers.His best-known book is "Blacks in the Military in American History" (1974).
External links
* [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/foner-obit.html Obituary at University of Pennsylvania website]
* [http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2000/0004/0004mem2.cfm Obituary from American Historical Association]
* [http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/spr00/obit/index.html Obituary from Colby College Magazine]Notes
References
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