Digital Commons Network^™

Mckay, Stephanie, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Stephanie McKay is a successful, well-known soul singer and songwriter based in the Bronx. She was born on June 2, 1967 in East Harlem. When she was two years old her parents moved to Co-op City in the Bronx because it promised a better, more secure way of life. Both of Stephanie’s parents were from Norfolk, VA, and they moved to Harlem when they were about 20 years old. Her mother worked as a legal secretary and her father worked as a taxi driver before becoming a labor organizer. Stephanie attended elementary school in Co-Op City. At the age of …

Bronx Soundscape: Reflections On The Multicultural Roots Of Hip Hop In Bronx Neighborhoods, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Khoule, Manadou, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Karima Zerrou, Mark Naison

INTERVIEWEE: Manadou Khoule (aka DJ Khoule)

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Note: This interview was originally conducted in French and translated into English.

Born in Dakar, Senegal, Manadou Khoule (aka DJ Khoule) came to the United States in 2000, when he was 20 years old. At the time that he emigrated, he was the best DJ in Senegal. Most of his influences were Western hip-hop, especially the work of Tupac Shakur. He got his first set of turntables when he was 15 years old—they were given to him by a local community center. He does not …

Dioup, Mouhamadou, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Dioup is a Senegalese citizen who came to the United States when he was twenty years old. Dioup speaks briefly about what motivated his decision to come to the United States as opposed to France. According to Dioup, the benefit of going to France is of course the shared language. Since Senegal is a francophone country, it wouldn’t have been much of a culture shock for him to relocate o France. However, to things discouraged a move to France. The first is the large degree of discrimination and racial harassment within the country. The second is their music scene. Dioup …

Ligon, Glenn, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Glenn Ligon

Interviewer: Oneka LaBennett

Summarized by Sheina Ledesma

Glenn Ligon is a successful artist whose work has been represented in various public collections, which include the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Tate Modern in London. Glenn was born in 1960 in the Bronx. At the time of his birth his parents lived in the Forest Projects on Trinity Avenue in the South Bronx with his older brother Tyrone. His parents were both originally from the South. His father was from Farmville, Virginia and his mother from Bishopsville, South Carolina. …

Palina, Sarah, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

“Sarah Palina” was born in 1983 in Lyon, France. Her father was Algerian, and her mother is half-French and half-Arabic (Berber.)When she was seven years old, her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother and three siblings from a fairly upper-middle class neighborhood to a lower-income section on the outskirts of Lyon. While her father spoke Arabic, Sarah never learned to speak it, as her father’s parents had decided to raise him in a more Westernized fashion. Similarly, both of Sarah’s parents were Muslim, but neither of them practiced the religion. Now Sarah considers herself a practicing Muslim, but …

Yes We Did, Photograph

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

MoveOn.org print.

Bridging The Racial Divide, Julius A. Amin

News Releases

In an op-ed piece, Julius Amin, professor and chair of history, says Barack Obama transcended America's racial divide with his victory in the presidential election, but he has not cured the country's racial ills.

Finding A "Disappearing" Nontimber Forest Resource: Using Grounded Visualization To Explore Urbanization Impacts On Sweetgrass Basketmaking In Greater Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Patrick T. Hurley, Angela C. Halfacre, Norm S. Levine, Marianne K. Burke

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Despite growing interest in urbanization and its social and ecological impacts on formerly rural areas, empirical research remains limited. Extant studies largely focus either on issues of social exclusion and enclosure or ecological change. This article uses the case of sweetgrass basketmaking in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, to explore the implications of urbanization, including gentrification, for the distribution and accessibility of sweetgrass, an economically important nontimber forest product (NTFP) for historically African American communities, in this rapidly growing area. We explore the usefulness of grounded visualization for research efforts that are examining the existence of "fringe ecologies" associated with NTFP. …

Brown, Roscoe, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison

INTERVIEWEE: Roscoe Brown

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Roscoe Brown is the head of a Center for Urban Education at CUNY. He grew up in Washington, DC during the Great Depression. Educated at Dunbar high school in DC and Springfield College in Massachusetts, Brown joined the Tuskegee Airmen in 1943. At Springfield, Brown was one of only 15 black students. He studied Pre-Med and played football, basketball and lacrosse—in fact, he was one of the first black lacrosse players in America.

Brown flew 68 missions with the airmen, and participated in the longest mission of all time: a …

Program: Jacksonville Urban League 35th Anniversary Equal Opportunity Luncheon.

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

An Equal Opportunity Luncheon on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.

Senghor, Olivia, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Olivia Senghor, born in 1978 in Senegal, Dakar, is a musician and makeup artist living in the Bronx. She is of the Serer ethic group, and her primary languages are French and Wolof. She was raised as a Catholic, and is the granddaughter of the first president of Senegal, Leopold Sedhar Senghor. At the age of 8, her family moved to Paris, where she lived in a neighborhood primarily inhabited by Jews and Asians. Both of her parents were very well educated—her father had a law degree, and her mother held an MBA. Consequently, they expected Olivia and her siblings …

Otibu, Johnson, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Johnson Otibu (b. 1955) is the proprietor of the Sahara African Caribbean market in the Bronx. He came to New York from Ghana in 1978, at the age of 23. Otibu left a good job in the social security business in Ghana in order to try out the opportunities in America. When he immigrated, the exchange rate was 2 American dollars to every Ghanaian dollar, so Otibu arrived with more money than most immigrants. Initially he settled in Harlem on 150^th St. and lived off of what he had brought. However, he soon realized that it was much harder …

Boadu, Mary, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Jane Edward

INTERVIEWEE: Mary Boadu

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Mary Boadu was born in Koumase, the Ashanti region of Ghana in 1988. At the time of the interview, was a student at Columbia University. When she was three years old, Mary’s mother got the chance to work in a nursing home in the United States, and she left her family in Ghana. Mary was raised by her father and cousins until 1995, when her father got the opportunity to join her mother in the States. Mary’s mother was pregnant when she left Ghana, and she gave birth …

Brewington, Dean, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Dean (Thomas Norwood) Brewington

Interviewer: Maxine

Date of Interview: October 8^th, 2008

Summarized by Michael Kavanagh

Born Thomas Norwood Brewington in 1937 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, he ventured to the Bronx by train at four years old. While growing up in the Bronx, he had the opportunity to meet and play with the best jazz musicians of all time. Also known by names Norwood and Dean, he currently lives in Minnesota and regularly does musical gigs at local clubs in Minnesota and around the country.

At four years old, his relatives put him on a train from …

Press Release: Rodney Hurst "It Was Never About A Hot Dog And A Coke", Ron Miller

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

A press release about Rodney Hurst's book "It was never about a hot dog and a coke." In addition, it advertises the Amelia Island Book Festival on October 2-4, 2008.

Jawo, Omar, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Dr. Mark Naison and Dr. Jane Edwards

INTERVIEWEE: Omar Jawo

SUMMARY BY: Andrew O’Connell

Born in 1952 in the Republic of Gambia, Omar Jawo, comes from the Fulani, an ethnic group in Gambia known primarily for agriculture and the raising of livestock. Seeing as how the Fulani placed little to no emphasis on formal education, Jawo followed his uncle to a Catholic Mission, where he attended elementary and high school, to pursue scholarship. Although a Muslim by religion, Jawo claims that he felt no pressure to convert at this mission school.

Following his education on the mission, Jawo become …

Bonsu, Sonia, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Jane Edward

INTERVIEWEE: Sonia Bonsu

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Sonia Bonsu was born in the Bronx on March 16, 1977. She attended public school in the Bronx, then the Calhoun School in Manhattan, and Harvard University as an undergraduate. She then attended law school at Fordham University, and she is currently the Director of Annual Giving at the Calhoun School. She was raised by both her parents, who were Ghanaian immigrants (Ashanti people). Her father had come to the Bronx in 1969 on a student visa for a job and brought his wife with him shortly thereafter. …

Armstrong, Gregory, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWERS: Mark Naison, Oneka LaBennett, Christina Grath

INTERVIEWEE: Gregory Armstrong

SUMMARY BY: Andrew O’Connell

Gregory Armstrong, born on September 18, 1970 in the Bronx, spent his most formative years growing up in the Bronx River Housing Project at 1455 Harrod Ave. The son of a legal secretary and a father who worked in the Sanitation Department for 27 years, Armstrong recalls a time when growing up in the projects proved tough, but lacked some of the more malicious qualities that they might possess today. While Armstrong admits that violence occurred regularly in his neighborhood (though never directly in front of …

Jones, John E. (Sc 1773), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text-scan of paper for Manuscripts Small Collection 1773. Paper written by John E. Jones titled "The Political Status of Negroes in Warren County." Includes quotations from community leaders as well as statistics related to the number of qualified African American voters in each voting precinct.

Arming The Slaves: From Classical Times To The Modern Age – Edited By Christopher Leslie Brown And Philip D. Morgan, Manisha Sinha

Manisha Sinha

No abstract provided.

Amosso, Agossou And Comlanvi Bamezon, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Jane Edwards

INTERVIEWEE: Agossou Amossou, Bamezon Comlanvi

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Agossou Amossou and Bamezon Comlanvi both immigrated to the US from Togo. Amossou, who works as a security guard in the Bronx Museum and is earning a bachelor’s degree in French from Lehman college, came to the Bronx in 2004. Comlanvi also works in security and came to the Bronx in 2002. He is also studying French at Lehman College. During the interview, both men discuss the difficulties and differences they have experienced in relocating from Togo to the US. Foods, music, religion, languages, and family life …

Faith In Action: The First Citizenship School On Johns Island, South Carolina., Amanda Shrader Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the first Citizenship School, its location, participants, and success. Johns Islanders, Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, Myles Horton, Bernice Robinson, and the Highlander Folk School all collaborated to create this school. Why and how this success was reached is the main scope of this manuscript. Emphasis is also placed on the school's impact upon the modern Civil Rights Movement. Primary sources such as personal accounts, manuscripts, and archive collections were examined. Secondary sources were also researched for this manuscript. The conclusion reached from these sources is that faith was the driving force behind the success of the Citizenship …

“A Small Revolution”: The Role Of A Black Power Revolt In Creating And Sustaining A Black Studies Department At The University Of Minnesota, Jared E. Leighton

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the Morrill Hall Takeover of January, 1969, and the creation of the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Further, it follows the process of sustaining a black studies department including acquiring qualified professors, maintaining student interest, negotiating the relationship to the black community and overcoming funding shortages, as well as other bureaucratic difficulties. The events at the University of Minnesota are placed in the larger context of the long-term development of black studies, the rise of the Black Power Movement and Minnesota’s tradition of liberalism. This work draws on reports from the University of …

Certificate: 2008 Sabrina Awards Best Non Fiction And Top Three Pick.

Textual material from the Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Papers

A winner for "It was Never About a Hotdog and a Coke!" at the Sabrina Awards, July 31, 2008

Seymone, Robert, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Robert Seymone (b. January 22, 1951) is originally from the Bronx, the son of an African-American mother from Little Rock, Arkansas and a German-Native American father from Pennsylvania. He is a theater, film, and television actor by trade, although he also has an informal background in music and dance. His mother was a dancer and performer who was heavily involved in show business. She was in the 1945 black film Big Timers, which starred Stephen Fechit, as the exotic dancer Tarzana. Robert’s mother frequently performed as character throughout New York, and she was backed by an all-female African-American band. She …

American Commemorative Panels: Vintage Black Cinema, United States Postal Service. Stamp Division

Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Stamp Collection

Informational page for Vintage Black Cinema Commemorative Stamp – American Commemorative Panels, includes images of the stamps and information regarding the history of Vintage Black Cinema. First issued July 16, 2008.

Hotspots In A Cold War: The Naacp's Postwar Workplace Constitutionalism, 1948-1964, Sophia Z. Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Polly Welts Kaufman, Christian P. Potholm, Jean F. Hankins

Maine History

Reviews of the following books: The Penobscot Dance of Resistence: Tradition in the History of a People by Pauleena MacDougall; Maine’s Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of its People by H. H. Price and Gerald E.Talbot; Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820 by Joshua M. Smith.

Stephen James On The Battle For Welfare Rights: Politics And Poverty In Modern America By Felicia Kornbluh. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 287pp., Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Battle for Welfare Rights: Politics and Poverty in Modern America by Felicia Kornbluh. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. 287pp.