Sylvia Bernstein (activist)
Sylvia Bernstein, born Sylvia Walker on November 6, 1915, in Washington, D.C., was an American civil rights activist. She attended Central High School and George Washington University.
In the 1930s she worked as a secretary for the War Department. In the 1940s she and her husband Alfred Bernstein were involved with the Communist Party; their son Carl Bernstein says they faced government scrutiny. When asked by Congress about her party ties, she invoked the Fifth Amendment.
In 1962 she worked as a statistician for Resources for the Future, an economic think tank. From 1964 to 1989 she worked in the gift department at Garfinckel's. Later she helped in the Clinton administration by answering Hillary Rodham Clinton’s correspondence.
She was active in the Democratic Party and joined Women Strike for Peace to protest nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War. Bernstein also worked to desegregate restaurants, Glen Echo Park, and public pools and playgrounds in the District. She campaigned on behalf of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953.
She married Alfred Bernstein, a union activist, and they had three children: Carl, Mary, and Laura. Sylvia Bernstein died on November 23, 2003, in Washington, D.C., at age 88.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:41 (CET).