African American Studies Commons^™

The Cultural Capital Bronx Residents Possess, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

No abstract provided.

Marietta J. Tanner, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewee: Marietta J. Tanner

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Donna Joseph, Saudah Muhammad

Date: July 2020

Summarized by Sophia Maier

Marietta J. Tanner was born in 1928 in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Influenced by the activism of her father and the wartime experiences of her uncle, Marietta is a life-long political activist. Her parents explained to her from a young age their experiences in Jim Crow era Pennsylvania and by the age of six she was passing out political pamphlets and registering people to vote with the rest of her family. After attending a segregated school in her youth and a brief period …

Martinez, Maximo, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewee: Maximo Martinez

Interviewers: Mark Naison and Lisa Betty

Date of Interview: February 14th 2020

Summary of Maximo Martinez Interview

Dr. Maximo Martinez was born and raised in the Bronx, but his family is from Honduras and his ethnic group, the Garifuna, live in Central America, mostly Honduras and Belize. Dr. Martinez answers questions about the Garifuna: culture, religion, language, history, etc…

The Garifuna are a small ethnic population who’s story begins with a slave ship shipwrecked off of the island of Saint Vincent. After mixing with indigenous Americans (Caribs and Arawak) on the island during the 1600s, the French …

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 …

Speller, Kathryn, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewer: Brian Purnell, Princess Okieme

Interviewee: Kathryn Speller

Date of Interview: September 23, 2006

Summarized by Leigh Waterbury, January 31, 2006

Kathryn Speller grew up in what was referred to as welfare island, and then moved to the Bronx in the 1950’s. While growing up in the city, she experienced the racial segregation that limited what areas she was allowed in. She described the racism she experienced in not being allowed in certain places or having to enter buildings through the servants entrances.

While looking to move into the Bronx, Kathryn experienced a lot of difficulty in finding apartments available …

Bailey, Shirley, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewee: Shirley Anderson Bailey

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison

The interview took place April 26, 2005

Summarized by Concetta Gleason 1-17-07

Shirley Anderson Bailey’s family, consisting of her mother, younger brother and herself, moved from Harlem to the Bronx in 1942 when Bailey was seven years old. Bailey’s family happened to move to the same area of the Bronx with some of their neighbors from Harlem. Bailey’s father was away trying to find work in Connecticut because of the Depression and Bailey’s mother took night classes and was one of the few working women in the neighborhood. Most families were two-parent …

Foster, Wendell, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

BRONX AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY PROJECT

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison

INTERVIEWEE: Wendell Foster

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Keywords: Segregation in the Deep South, racism in the South and North, Alabama, New Jersey, New York, Bermuda, AME church, blacks in World War II, civil rights movement, Malcolm X, Mt. Zion Church, race relations in Harlem

The Rev. Wendell Foster (b. 1924) is the pastor of Christ Church, and was the first African-American from the Bronx to be elected to the City Council. He was born in extreme poverty in Elba, Alabama. He never knew his father, who died shortly after he was born. …