FIGHT — Freedom, Independence, God, Honor, Today — was a community organization formed in the aftermath of Rochester's 1964 riots. It successfully agitated for change, taking on hiring practices, living conditions and other critical issues. FIGHT leaders were also credited with stopping additional civil unrest when rioting hit other northern cities in the mid-1960s.
The Rev. Franklin D. Florence, raised in the south and a friend of Malcolm X, was in his late 20s and early 30s at the time and became the face and voice of the organization. He worked closely with Saul Alinsky, the controversial social activist and was FIGHT's first president in 1965.
Florence showed up at the Kodak shareholders meeting in New Jersey in 1967 and threatened to hold a midnight march on Kodak's Rochester offices on the anniversary of Rochester's riots. That forced Kodak to the table to initiate a recruitment and training program for the black community.
