Eleanor Fischer Collection

Images of Eleanor Fischer tape boxes and handwritten notes

This collection of audio recordings covers a multitude of events and social movements from the 1960s and 1970s that occurred in America and around the world. Eleanor Fischer was a journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She traveled widely for the CBC, including visits to Czechoslovakia and Greece, and she also covered the Israeli Six-Day War. She produced a number of admired radio documentaries throughout her career as a journalist. A few of the topics and subjects she covered include, Paul Robeson, the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, the Vietnam War, the Women’s Liberation Movement, Robert Frost, Arthur Miller, the city of Atlanta during the civil rights movement, the race riots across America in 1967, Robert Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and many more.

Tape boxes from the Eleanor Fischer Collection Tape boxes from the Eleanor Fischer Collection. One box contains a reel with audio of a recording of Martin Luther King Jr., and the other box contains a reel with audio from the Mississippi Summer. (WNYC Archive Collections)

Before she was a journalist, Fischer practiced civil rights law, poverty law, constitutional law, and criminal law. She graduated from Columbia Law School and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1961. Her background as a lawyer helped pave the way for her accomplished interviewing skills and journalistic prowess.

Distinguished women graduates of Columbia law school. Eleanor Fischer (first row, 3rd from right) and other distinguished women graduates of Columbia law school at their 25th reunion in 1984. Next to Fischer, on the right, is Ruth Bader Ginsberg. (WNYC Archive Collections)

The assortment of recordings from this collection tells the story of the political, social, and cultural unrest in the United States and abroad during the sixties and seventies. Fischer’s interviews and documentaries give voice to the average citizens and well-known heroes of the era who might not otherwise be heard.

Special thanks to Elizabeth Starkey

Stories

Eleanor Fischer Reports on the Gay Liberation Movement

Gay rights activists speak with Eleanor Fischer about the growing gay liberation movement, the importance of political activism for gay rights groups, and other issues during Gay Pride Week in June of
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Interview with Pat Carbine: Co-founder of Ms. Magazine

Eleanor Fischer and Pat Carbine, co-founder of Ms. Magazine discuss the new publication, and what it will mean for women and the women's liberation movement at the time.
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Sunday Bloody Sunday

Interviews and dialogue with American supporters of the Irish and those that were in Northern Ireland on the day of the Bloody Sunday attack in 1972.
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Attica Prison Uprising

Eleanor Fischer reports with a short program on the Attica Prison uprising in 1971 in Attica, New York and the outcome that followed.
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Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee on Paul Robeson

Eleanor Fischer speaks with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee about Paul Robeson, his cultural contributions and impact on society.
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Women's Liberation Panel Discussion

Eleanor Fischer hosts a panel of women active in the women's liberation movement in 1970. They discuss their thoughts about the movement and the movement's objectors.
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A Child is Dying: Drugs in New York City

Drug use in the 1970s was a hot button issue. Eleanor Fischer tackles the subject through interviews and analyzing the facts.
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From Watts to Newark

Eleanor Fischer reports on the racial tension and inequality that caused unrest in the later half of the 1960s just a few days after the riots in Newark, New Jersey.
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Black Power Conference

Eleanor Fischer's report on the First National Black Power conference in July of 1967. Was the conference successful in unifying attendees and pushing towards progress? Fischer hopes to find out.
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Vietnam War Peace March

Eleanor Fischer ventures into groups of Vietnam War protesters at a peace march in New York City in April of 1967.
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Interview with Melina Mercouri

Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and activist, was interviewed right after the military coup in Greece. Eleanor Fischer asks her about her citizenship and Mercouri's opinions of the new government.
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Interview with Dora Stratou

Eleanor Fischer interviews Greek choreographer, Dora Stratou in 1967 after she was recognized for her lifetime devotion to the theater.
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Interview with Helen Vlachos

Eleanor Fischer interviews Helen Vlachos, conservative Greek newspaper editor, after Vlachos decided to stop publishing her two newspapers due to the threat of censorship by the Greek government in 19
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Interview with Four of the Friendship Nine in North Carolina

Eleanor Fischer interviewed four of the young men who took a jail sentence instead of paying the fine when they were arrested for sitting at a segregated lunch counter.
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Interview with Hoffman Hays, Author of The Dangerous Sex

Hoffman Hays, author of The Dangerous Sex: The Myth of Feminine Evil, talks with Eleanor Fischer about his book and the research he completed to write it.
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