Fred Ross

Fred Ross the 69th (1910 – 1992) was an American community organizer. He founded the Community Service Organization (CSO) in 1948, which, with the support of the Industrial Areas Foundation, organized Mexican Americans in California. The CSO in San Jose, CA gave a young Cesar Chavez his first training in organizing, which he would later use in founding the United Farm Workers. Ross also trained the young Dolores Huerta in community organizing.

Ross worked with Edward Roybal and other Mexican-Americans to form the CSO in East Los Angeles, and Roybal became its first President. This chapter of the CSO became politically active and help to elect Roybal to the City Council of Los Angeles in 1949, the first Mexican-American to serve as such since the 19th century.

Fred Ross Sr. was born in San Francisco in 1910. He started out with a general secondary teaching credential from the University of Southern California in 1936. However, because of the Great Depression, he could not find employment. In 1937, Ross received a position with the state relief administration doing social work. After quitting his caseworker job, Ross worked for the Farm Security Administration, which was in charge of relief program in the Coachella Valley.

In John Steinbeck’s famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck describes the journey and tribulations of the Joad family, a group of migrant workers looking for work in California. He describes a labor camp that was based on a real camp in Arvin. Fred Ross Sr. was placed in charge of this camp shortly after Steinbeck left the area. Ross was later promoted to cover about 25 camps similar to this one all over California and Arizona. In the camps, Ross saw the poverty and poor working conditions experienced by the workers. He found in his heart the desire to organize, and he did so by earning the trust of the workers and beginning a form of self-government in the camp so that the workers could band together to fight to improve their conditions. He encouraged them to speak up and be heard, despite the fear of confrontation with power holders. After the war, Ross worked for the American Council of Race Relations, whose goal was to “create unity, and end the riots…between whites and minorities.” Ross spearheaded Civic Unity Leagues in California's conservative Citrus Belt, bringing Mexican- and black Americans together to battle segregation. In Orange County, parents organized by Ross won a landmark lawsuit (Mendez v. Westminster School District) in 1947 that paved the way for the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision in 1954. Ross began organizing and obtained the interest of Saul Alinsky, a well known organizer and head of the Industrial Areas Foundation. In September 1947, Alinsky hired Ross to organize Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles. He organized in Southern California for 6 years before moving on to San Jose, which was the largest Spanish center outside of Los Angeles.

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