Philip Foner (1910 - 1994)

Wed Dec 14, 1910

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Philip Sheldon Foner, born on this day in 1910, was a Marxist American labor historian and teacher who was fired from the City College of New York for his political views.

Foner was a prolific author and editor of more than 100 books, and is considered a pioneer in his extensive works on the role of radicals, black people, and women in American labor and political history, which were generally neglected in mainstream academia at the time.

In 1941, Foner became a public figure as one among 26 persons fired from teaching and staff positions at City College of New York for political views, following an investigation of communist influence in education by a state legislative committee, known as the Rapp-Coudert Committee. Foner’s three brothers were also fired, and he became blacklisted from working in academia.

Today, Foner is perhaps most strongly remembered for his works “A History of the Labor Movement of the United States” and “The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass”, both completed while he was excluded from formal academic work.