Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

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 …

Sanchez, Ivan, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Ivan Sanchez

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison

Transcriber: unavailable

Date: 05/02/2008

Summarized by: Daniel Matthews

Ivan Sanchez is the author of Next Stop: Growing Up Wild Style in the Bronx. Ivan was born near 170^th Street off Jerome Avenue on 9/21/1972. His father is from Puerto Rico, while his mother was born in New York and has Puerto Rican ancestry. He has an older brother, a younger sister, and seven stepsiblings by his father. He was close to his Titi, whom he considered a second mother. He spent much of his time at her home on Bailey Avenue near …

Chianese, Dominic, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Oneka LaBennett

INTERVIEWEE: Dominic Chianese

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Dominic Chianese is a Bronx native and a well-known actor and singer. He was born 2/24/1931 in the Bronx. His paternal grandfather was from Naples, Italy, and his mother’s side was from near Sorrento. He was raised in the Arthur Avenue neighborhood, and attended public school. Most of his classmates were Italian, although there were some Jewish and Hispanic children as well. Despite the fact that Chianese had German, Irish, Italian, and French-Canadian friends while growing up, the Italian and African-American communities were quite separate: he …

Altschul, Barry, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Born in 1943, Barry Altschul grew up in the West Bronx in the forties and fifties. Altschul is a jazz drummer who first learned to play the drums at age eleven. He grew up playing shows in the Bronx and Harlem while also attending “jam sessions” where he received pointers from jazz musicians such as Philly Joe and Art Blakey.

Altschul attended elementary school at PS 70, junior high school at PS 117, and then attended Taft High School. Altschul’s elementary school’s ethnic makeup was mostly white, whereas in high school Altschul recalls that the student body was 21% black. …