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Martre, Patricia And Alfaro, Almilicar, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Patty Dukes, birth name Patricia Marte, is a woman of Dominican descent. Her parents left the Dominican Republic to move to Puerto Rico where she was born.

At five years old, she moved to the the United States, the Bronx specifically. Because her father was a member of the military, her family was given the opportunity to move to the US much more easily than other families. She lived with her parents, sister, and “brother” – who is actually her cousin, but was adopted by her family as a brother.

Rephstar, whose actual name is Almilcar Alfaro, is a man …

Bowman, Willie Interview 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

The following is a transcript of the Bronx African American History Project’s second interview with Mrs. Willie E.P. Bowman. Although she covers some of the same subjects in this interview with Dr. Purnell that she did in her first interview, she also delves more deeply into her work with the community as opposed to her career in social and correction work.

Born on November 30, 1931 in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. Willie Ella Paschal Bowman spent just the first two years of her life in what she proudly described as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1933, she and …

Bowman, Willie Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWERS: Brian Purnell

INTERVIEWEE: Mrs. Willie E.P. Bowman (Interview One)

SUMMARY BY: Andrew O’Connell

Born on November 30, 1931 in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. Willie Ella Paschal Bowman spent just the first two years of her life in what she proudly described as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1933, she and her mother headed north to stay with Bowman’s great aunt in Harlem, part of the first wave of the Great Migration that would soon develop as one of the most significant movements of peoples that this country has ever seen. After earning three dollars a week as …

Mcgee, Mildred Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Mrs. Mildred McGee was born June 29, 1927 and married to Judge Hansel McGee. Also interviewed here are her daughter Dr. Elizabeth McGee and Mr. Leroi Archible. In the first session, Mrs. McGee provides details of her education, her parents’ backgrounds, living in Harlem, the Bronx, Washington DC and moving back to the Bronx. She also describes her husband’s childhood and his education. She attended an elementary school where there were no African-American teachers and she had only one African-American teacher in Junior High who taught Social Studies. The students also learned how to sew, cook and housekeeping at school. …

Dacosta, Lisa, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Lucy Dacosta

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison and Oneka LaBennett

Date of Interview: August 23, 2007

Summarized by Alice Stryker

Lucy was born in the South Bronx in 1967. Her paternal grandparents were from Jamaica and her grandmother was the matriarch of the family. Jamaican culture was very much a part of her upbringing. Her father worked for the Housing Authority.

She attended P.S. 28 for kindergarten and then transferred to St. Margaret Mary for several years. She enjoyed going to school there very much. She played with many of the kids of her neighborhood as well as with her …

Gender, Disability And The Postcolonial Nexus, Pushpa Parekh

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This study will focus on intersecting gender, disability and Postcoloniality nexus and will foreground the contributions to and interventions from gendered disability perspectives within selected postcolonial cultural works in India and the Indian diaspora, including literary works, films, performances and activism. The articulation of intersecting identity perspectives, inclusive of disability, is a significant though ignored area within Gender, Disability or Postcolonial studies. Bringing these areas together within the current modes of interdisciplinary inquiry involves crossing the boundaries of identity categories and cultural locations.

Rodriguez, Angel, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Angel Rodriguez (b. 1954) is a Puerto Rican musician, educator, historian, and grassroots cultural organizer. Born in Puerto Rico, he came to the Bronx twice: first at the age of 5, and then for good when he was 10 years old, along with his father, a Pentecostal minister, his mother, a day laborer, homemaker, and accomplished dancer, and several siblings. Angel always had a love for music, and he was especially inspired by the sound of traditional drums, which he first heard as a young boy. Initially Angel wanted to be a preacher like his father, but his father’s strict …

Mulraine, Edward, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

In this interview, the Reverend Edward Mulraine (b. 2/9/1969), pastor of a Baptist church in Mount Vernon New York, shares with the Bronx African American History Project his experiences growing up in the Bronx during the turbulent 1980s, as well as details of his work in the community as a high ranking official in the Williamsbridge office of the NAACP.

Born to a mother who immigrated to the Bronx from St. Thomas, Mulraine estimates that he lived in some fifteen different locations in the Bronx during the course of his childhood. Telling of his time in the Northeast Bronx, Mulraine …

Foster, Gertrude, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Gertrude Foster, nee Seaton, was born on October 31, 1927 in Rome, NY. Her grandparents had immigrated to the US from the West Indies and married on US soil, so their descendents were American-born. Because her birth parents were frequently absent, she was raised in Brooklyn and the Bronx by black foster families throughout the Depression years. From 1940 on she lived in the South Bronx. Throughout her upbringing Gertrude had both positive and negative experiences with other races. Occasionally she was in the minority, and she had to deal with prejudice from Italian, Irish, and Polish Americans. However, she …

Burbridge, Richard And Doris Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWERS: Mark Naison

INTERVIEWEES: Richard and Doris Burbridge

SUMMARY BY: Andrew O’Connell

Richard and Doris Burbridge, a married couple now living in Queens but originally from the Morrisania section of the Bronx, discuss in this interview how their families came to arrive in the Bronx and their early experiences growing up in the borough. Mr. Burbridge begins by explaining that his father first came to New York from Mississippi in the 1920s in the first wave of the Great Migration. His mother, also from Mississippi originally, joined his father in New York City shortly after.

Mr. Burbridge’s father, a parking …

Shoshonean Peoples And The Overland Trails, Dale L. Morgan

All USU Press Publications

This compilation of Dale Morgan's historical work on Indians in the Intermountain West focuses primarily on the Shoshone who lived near the Oregon and California trails.

Three connected works by Morgan are included: First is his classic article on the history of the Utah Superintendency of Indian Affairs. This is followed by a previously unpublished history of early relations among the Western Shoshoni, emigrants, and the government along the California Trail. The book concludes with an important set of government reports and correspondence from the National Archives concerning the Eastern Shoshone and their leader Washakie. Morgan heavily annotated these for …

Ambiguous Alliances: Native American Efforts To Preserve Independence In The Ohio Valley, 1768-1795, Sharon M. Sauder Muhlfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

"Ambiguous Alliances" examines the revolutionary era in the Ohio Valley from a Native American perspective. Rather than simply considering them as British pawns or troublesome mischief-makers, this account describes how Wyandots, Shawnees, Ottawas, Delawares, Miamis, and their native neighbors made decisions about war and peace, established alliances with Europeans, Americans, and distant Indian nations, and charted specific strategies for their political and cultural survival. They also suffered devastating personal and property loss and encountered significant disruption to their societal routines. Yet much about their daily lives remained unchanged, and their communities continued to foster a strong Indian identity.;This dissertation explores …