Bernard Stringer

Financial analyst and political activist Bernard Stringer is a lifelong advocate of educational empowerment as an instrument for change. A political activist since his student days, he became a member of the nation’s first Black Student Union at San Francisco State College in 1968, and participated in the movement that led to the founding of the first Black Studies Department and School of Ethnic Studies in the country. He received the college’s first Bachelor’s degree in Black Studies in 1970. He later earned a Master’s Degree in Business Management from Golden Gate University in 1980. He has worked as a college classroom teacher, youth counselor, and program planner, and recently retired as an inventory manager/financial analyst for the City of Atlanta. Born in Bogalusa, Louisiana, he grew up in Fresno, California, and was a football player in high school and college. He remains dedicated to the principle of empowerment through education and training, and often speaks to youth groups on the subject. He is presently working on a book about his life and the student activist period of the 1960s. He lives in Atlanta.