o was then in Howard Law School.
Fisher became an organizer of Department Store Workers in Chicago. During World War II, wages were frozen by government order, but despite a freeze on prices, inflation was rampant. Working conditions for department store employees were also onerous: women were not allowed to sit at work, they had no regular breaks, wages were low, and the stores were understaffed, while better pay was available in industry, for those who were free to take advantage of the opportunity.
Fisher was brought to St. Louis by Harold Gibbons of The Teamsters, one of the most progressive labor leaders in America at the time. Gibbons had hired Ernest Calloway, an African-American organizer, who would work in the segregated mid-South for the Teamsters, and he hired Fisher on the recommendation of Calloway, who had been impressed by her work in Chicago.
During her years in St. Louis, Fisher organized that city's chapter of CORE, which produced many of the organization's national leaders. St. Louis CORE kept the national organization going in the late 1940s and the 1950s. They refined many of the techniques promoted by the Chicago group. Others associated with the St. Louis chapter were Marian O'Fallon Oldham, Charles Oldham, Irving & Margaret Dagen, Joe & Billie Ames, Marvin Rich, Norman Seay and Wanda Penny. St. Louis CORE became a leading exponent of the nonviolent direct action as applied to race relations.
During the last ten years of her life Fisher was active with the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was Co-Chairman with Cyprian Belle Concord Social Action Committee created by the Concord Baptist Church.
Fisher lived most of her adult life in New York, St. Louis, and Chicago and was a participant in many civil-rights nonviolent direct-action activities and labor union anti-discrimination efforts in those cities. She was long associated with the labor movement and served as an official with several unions including the United Federation of Teachers, Retail Wholesale and Department Stores Union, CIO; the Government and Civic Organizing Committee in Chicago; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers in New York and others. She had also been active with the Housing Conference of Chicago. She was also serving on the executive board of Brooklyn NAACP and on the National Board of the Workers Defense League. She is buried at The Evergreens cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Fisher graduated from the University of Chicago on June 18, 1943, which she had entered June 24, 1941 with a major area of Divinity. She previously studied at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Rochester, N.Y., which she attended from 1939 to 1941, and studied at the Rochester Collegiate Center, 1935 to 1936. She graduated from Monroe High School in Rochester in 1934.
Fisher's father was Jay Merritt Fisher born August 21, 1877, Syracuse, New York to Charles Gold Fisher, M.D., and Annie (Schutt) Fisher.  They moved to Pennsylvania about 1880. Her mother was Annie Rosetta (Morrison) Fisher born April 17, 1881, Ambrose, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, daughter of George Morrison and Emma (Goodwin) Morrison. Her brother was Donald Morrison Fisher born March 10, 1911 Punxsutawney, Pa., and died March 21, 1983, Syracuse, New York. Donald with E. Ruth (Loke) had five children, Thomas G. Fisher, Dennis G. Fisher, Frank W. Fisher, Craig W. Fisher and Christine E. Fisher.
- African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
- Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement
- Greensboro sit-ins
Among the books in which Bernice Fisher is mentioned are:
- "Victory without Violence, The First Ten Years Of The St. Louis Committee Of Racial Equality (CORE)," 1947-1957 by Mary Kimbrough and Margaret W. Dagen, Copyright 2000 by The Curators of the University of Missouri, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri. The dedication page to Victory Without Violence reads:
"To Bernice Fisher, whose voice sounded the call to action. And to the memory of the members of the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality who pursued a quie