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Peterson, Robert, Mark Naison
Peterson, Robert, Mark Naison
Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)
Interviewee: Robert Peterson
Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison, Kathleen Palmer
Date of Interview: August 5, 2009
Summarized by Michael Kavanagh
Born in Brooklyn, December 18th 1926, Peterson has lived in the Bronx most of his life. His Father’s parents were first generation European immigrants from Sweden and Norway, respectively. They both settled in Yonkers, NY, where they first met and later got married. In 1895, Peterson’s father was born in Yonkers, NY. At the beginning of World War I, his father joined the United States Navy as a ship navigator. When World War I ended, his father returned home and worked …
Nesbitt, Robert, Bronx African American History Project
Nesbitt, Robert, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Robert Nesbitt (b. January 8, 1924) was a soldier in the Tuskegee Airmen unit during World War II. He was born in Harlem, on 125th St. and Broadway, the son of an ex-military father from South Carolina and a mother from North Carolina. During this time, Harlem was fairly integrated: his neighbors included blacks as well as Irish, Jews, and Italians. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Corona in Queens, to an almost universally black neighborhood. Unlike many young African-American men, Nesbitt attended high school at Haarem high, where he developed a passion for mechanics …