- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186558", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc Photo Bernard F. Ashe collection", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b23721649", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1930s-2006", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1930/2006"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Bernard F. Ashe photographs"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"4 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1 linear foot", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"approximately 500 photographic prints", "unit"=>"photographic_prints"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Bernard F. Ashe (1936-2023) was an African American labor lawyer who served as General Counsel to New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), a federation of labor unions, for twenty-five years. Ashe's photographs, dating from the 1930s to 2006, chronicle his attendance at conferences and other formal events with NYSUT and legal organizations, as well as his family and personal life. The collection also holds portraits of Ashe."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Ashe, Bernard, 1936-2023", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Bernard Flemming Ashe was born on March 8, 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland. His father Victor J. Ashe was an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) who helped desegregate public schools in Virginia during the 1950s. After graduating from Howard University in 1956 and teaching in Baltimore public schools for two years, Ashe decided to pursue a legal career like his father. He returned to Howard for law school and graduated in 1961.</p> <p>From 1961 to 1963, Ashe served as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. This was followed by an eight-year tenure as Assistant General Counsel for International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (commonly referred to as United Auto Workers, or UAW), a labor union in Detroit, Michigan, where Ashe strove to expand benefits for workers in the automotive industry.</p> <p>In 1971, Ashe became General Counsel for New York State Teachers Association (NYSTA), an organization that represented the interests of teachers in New York and was affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA). NYSTA merged with the AFL-CIO-affiliated United Teachers of New York in 1973 to form New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), which became the leading federation of teacher unions in the state. At NYSUT, Ashe litigated or defended dozens of cases. He and his colleagues at NYSUT are credited with establishing the law of public sector collective bargaining in New York, as well as setting a foundation for relations between state and federal teachers associations. Ashe also wrote regular columns about teachers' rights and labor law for NYSUT's newsletter <span class=\"title\">New York Teacher</span>.</p> <p>Ashe was involved in a high-profile case against NYSUT by the NEA following the former's disaffiliation with the latter in 1976. The civil action lawsuit regarded terms of the 1973 merger; NYSUT was ultimately obligated to pay NEA a multi-million dollar settlement.</p> <p>Following his retirement from NYSUT in January 1996, Ashe taught law as an adjunct faculty member at Roger Williams University, Fordham University, and Cornell University. In 1997, he became a trustee of Adelphi University.</p> <p>Outside of NYSUT and his teaching commitments, Ashe was active in several legal organizations, including the American Bar Association (ABA). He was the first Black lawyer appointed as chairman of one of the ABA's major sections (Labor and Employment Law) in 1982, and served on its House of Delegates, Executive Committee, Journal Editorial Board, and Board of Governors. By 1993, Ashe was the ABA's highest-ranking Black attorney. Additionally, he joined the Urban League of Albany in 1979, becoming its vice president in 1981. Ashe also served on boards for the American Arbitration Association, the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, and the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, and was a member of the New York State Bar Association, National Bar Association, and Commission on Judicial Nomination.</p> <p>Ashe received numerous honors throughout his career. He won the American Arbitration Association's Whitney North Seymour Senior Medal in 1989, the Thurgood Marshall Justice Award from the Albany chapter of the NAACP in 2000, and the ABA's Arvid Anderson Public Employment Lawyer of the Year Award in 2017. Ashe was an Emeritus Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and was listed in the Marquis publication <span class=\"title\">Who's Who in American Law</span> from 1985 onward. During his career, he regularly contributed to law journals and spoke at dozens of conferences.</p> <p>Ashe was married to his wife Nannette Ashe for fifty-nine years. They had two sons, Walter and David. Ashe died from unspecified causes in Delmar, New York on March 8, 2023, his eighty-seventh birthday.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Bernard F. Ashe photographs, dating from the 1930s to 2006, chronicle the career and personal life of the African American labor lawyer. Ashe's photographs mostly depict his participation in conferences and other formal events with New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and legal organizations. The collection also holds portraits of Ashe and images of his family and friends.</p> <p>Photographic prints make up the majority of the collection. Occasional negatives are included as well.</p> <p>NYSUT photographs comprise a significant portion of the collection. There are images from a 1976 session in Israel where Ashe and other labor lawyers met with officials to study the nation's economic situation. Also present are NYSUT public relations photographs featuring Ashe and his colleagues, mostly in the office, and images of Ashe at meetings and conferences during the 1980s and early 1990s. Dozens of photographs depict Ashe's retirement ceremony in December 1995 and subsequent company-wide celebration in January 1996.</p> <p>Other professional photographs show Ashe with colleagues in the American Arbitration Association and American Bar Association, and Ashe at Adelphi University commencements. Of special interest are two photographs of Ashe at a United Auto Workers meeting in 1969. There are also two photographs of Ashe teaching law students at the State University of New York at Albany in 1987.</p> <p>Portraits of Ashe largely depict him at NYSUT offices in the 1970s and 1980s. There is one portrait of Ashe as a child, and several from his tenure at United Auto Workers.</p> <p>Images of Ashe's family and friends include candid shots of Ashe with his wife Nannette and their sons; portraits of his sons; photographs of friends sent to Ashe; and portraits of Ashe's father Victor J. Ashe from the 1930s to the 1960s. Additionally, the collection holds some personal travel photographs, including from Ashe's 1976 Israel trip.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>Arranged into Professional; Portraits; and Personal.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Bernard Ashe in 2007 and 2008.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division for the Bernard F. Ashe moving image collection, Sc MIRS Ashe 2007-09.</p> <p>See the Mansucripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Bernard F. Ashe papers, Sc MG 705.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Nathan Evans</span> in <span class=\"date\">2025</span>.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1930
- keydate
-
1930
- date_end
-
2006
- date_inclusive_start
-
1930
- date_inclusive_end
-
2006
- extent_statement
-
1 linear foot (4 boxes). approximately 500 photographic prints
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Bernard F. Ashe photographs, Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library"}