David Ziskind; Helped Desegregate L.A. Fire Department

David Ziskind, a veteran Los Angeles labor lawyer who helped desegregate the city’s Fire Department and was active on local community relations panels following the 1965 Watts riots, has died. He was 98.

Ziskind died July 2 in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Ellen Z. Berg of Washington, D.C.

In the mid-1950s, Ziskind stepped into a feud between then-Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson and Fire Chief John H. Alderson over the city Fire Commission’s order to hire and promote African Americans.

Ziskind, representing a department employee who had been suspended for trying to carry out the integration mandate, accused the chief and his cohorts of violating federal, state and city law in punishing the employee.

“They were guilty,” Ziskind argued, “of a deliberate attempt to perpetuate racial discrimination in the Fire Department.” He backed up his argument with statements from Poulson and others alleging various incidents of racial discrimination among firefighters.

Ziskind argued so vehemently for integration efforts that the embattled fire chief, who was soon forced to resign, accused him of working for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People rather than the Fire Department employee.

Highly respected nationally in labor law and human relations, Ziskind chaired both the Employee Relations Commission of Los Angeles County and the Community Relations Conference of Southern California for many years.

After the 1965 riots, Ziskind criticized John A. McCone, head of a gubernatorial commission that studied the causes of the uprising, for lashing out at black leaders.

“It is extremely regrettable that Mr. McCone has seen fit to place primary responsibility for preventing riots upon leaders of the Negro community,” Ziskind said. “The problem is a white problem as much as it is a Negro problem.”

He said the Community Relations Conference of Southern California had long sought to unite “all racial, religious and ethnic groups working to improve human relations in our community.

“Unfortunately, we have not done enough,” he added. “We have failed to prevent riots. But no good is served by pointing the finger of blame or responsibility at any one group of community leaders.”

Black leaders, he emphasized some 35 years ago, “do not constitute the power structure of our community, nor do they have any special control over the angry few who are ready to break the law.”

Ziskind, born June 2, 1903, held degrees in sociology from USC, in economics from Johns Hopkins University and in philosophy and law from the University of Chicago. He began practicing law in Chicago in 1925 with the office of the famed Clarence Darrow and maintained a Los Angeles law practice until 1994.

From 1934 until 1948, he was principal attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington. He helped establish the department’s arbitration panel and became an arbitrator. During World War II, he was a division director of the War Production Board.

The founding editor of the Comparative Labor Law Journal, he wrote widely, including the 1940 book “1,000 Strikes of Government Employees” and the 1985 work “Concerning Human Aspirations.”

Ziskind was married to the former Sylvia Goldberg from 1931 until her death in 1994. He is survived by two daughters, Berg of Washington and Jane Carhart of Cupertino, Calif., and three grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. July 29 at the Ebell Club, 4400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. The family has asked that, instead of flowers, any memorial contributions be made to the Friends of the United Nations, 1507 Stanford St., No. 5, Santa Monica, CA 90404.