Digital Commons Network^™

Carolyn Bowman, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Interviewees: Carolyn Bowman

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Avery Russell, Diana Joseph, Saudah Muhammad

Date:August 2020

Transcriber: Kate Caperan

Soror Carolyn Bowman was initiated on the first line of the Eta Omega Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in 1966. Bowman was born and raised in Harlem, Manhattan. After graduating from Julia Richmond High School, Bowman attended the City College of New York (CCNY) for her undergraduate years, and the Rabinowitz School of Social Work at Hunter College from which she received a Master’s Degree in 1964. She then briefly worked at the Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service in Foster …

Smith, Candace, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Candace Smith was born and raised in the Bronx. From what she recalls her family lived on the top story of a two family home in the Tremont neighborhood until moving to the Patterson Houses in 1957 when she was around age 8. The home in Tremont was in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and she does not recall there being any other black families in the neighborhood. On the other hand, when they moved to the Patterson Houses, she does not recall any white families in the neighborhood there. Both of her parents had also grown up in the Bronx, …

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 …

Greene, David, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

David Greene is a teacher and football coach at Scarsdale High School in Westchester County. He was born on November 3^rd, 1949 in Los Angeles Ca. His mother was a Russian immigrant who had come to the Bronx when she was 14 years old, and his father, who lived in Harlem, was of Austrian, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian descent. His mother worked in the fashion industry as a model, and his father worked as a trucker. David’s mother was a down-to-earth Russian Jewish woman who spent all her time working and managing her household. She was suspicious of …

Blakeney, James, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

James Blakeney is a long time Bronx resident who grew up in the Patterson Housing Projects. His parents were sharecroppers from North and South Carolina. Neither of his parents received an education beyond the 6^th or 8^th grade. His father fought in World War II and then returned to the states to live in Queens, where James lived for three years, before moving to the Patterson Houses. His father worked at the mess hall of St. Albans Neighborhood Hospital and left the family, as many fathers were beginning to do, when James was ten years old. Mrs. Blakeney …

Washington, Valerie, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Valerie Washington is a lifelong resident of the Bronx, whose parents were both born in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. She grew up on Wells Avenue, then 1098 Simpson Street where her parents were the superintendents of the building. She says there were no other African-American families in the building, and this was common in the area for the superintendents to be African-American with mostly white Jewish tenants. She attended PS 20 where she was placed in the top classes from the very beginning of her education. She then attended Herman Ritter Junior High and then Washington Irving High School in 1953, …

Melrose, Arnold And Melrose, Evelyn And Teasdale, Ethel, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Evelyn Melrose was born in 1926 and at the age of 3 her family moved from New Haven, CT, to Washington Avenue and Claremont Parkway in the Bronx. Her father accepted a job for the US Government Post Office on Tremont Avenue and was able to live in the apartment on Washington Avenue because he agreed to be the Super and care for the building. This was how black families were able to get apartments in all white buildings at the time, only if they were the Supers of the building. His position with the government allowed him to still …