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Full-Text Articles in African American Studies
Smith, Carolyn & Jack, Bronx African American History Project
Smith, Carolyn & Jack, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Carolyn Smith was born in Metropolitan Hospital and lived in Harlem until around the age of 6 when she moved to the Melrose Housing Development in the early 1940’s. Her mother and a community of friends she grew up with in Hell’s Kitchen would all move around together. They moved around in Harlem a few times before settling in at Melrose. Carolyn discusses a common theme among those who grew up in this time of a sense of community where people in the neighborhood would watch others children. When they moved to Melrose it was a new housing project and …
Carter, Anthony, Bronx African American History Project
Carter, Anthony, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
INTERVIEWER: Claude Mangum, Oneka LaBennett, Mark Naison
INTERVIEWEE: Anthony “Doc” Carter
SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell
Anthony “Doc” Carter is a graduate of Fordham University and is the vice-president of the Johnson and Johnson Corporation. He was born 11/3/54 in the Bronx and was the eighth of ten children. His father, born in Ohio, was of Haitian descent, and his mother, a Virginia native, had Blackfoot ancestry. His father worked as a unionized construction worker and mason who died in service in 1963, and his mother died in 1962 of kidney failure. As a result, Carter and his siblings were …
Johnson, Robert, Bronx African American History Project
Johnson, Robert, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Interviewee: Robert Johnson
Interviewers: Mark Naison, Brian Purnell, Natasha Lightfoot, Claude Magnum, Maxine Gordon, and Peter Derrick
Summarized by Alice Stryker
Robert Johnson the Bronx District Attorney, was born in the Bronx, but moved to the Amsterdam houses shortly after he was born. His father was a clerk in the United States Post Office and his mother was a stay at home mom when they were growing up, but moved on to a number of positions once her children had matured. Their house was not very political.
His father was Catholic and his mother was Episcopalian. He and his brother …
Washington, Valerie, Bronx African American History Project
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, …
Brown, June, Bronx African American History Project
Brown, June, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
88th Interview
Interviewee: June DeVonish Brown
Interviewer: Mark Naison
Interview took place November 21, 2004
Summarized by Concetta Gleason 2-08-07
June DeVonish Brown’s mother was born in Freetown Village in Antigua and her father as born in Barbados. Brown was born in 1921 in Harlem Hospital. Her father was a jeweler and a superintendent, and her mother was a homemaker. In 1929, Brown and her family moved to the Bronx with her five siblings into a three bedroom apartment. Brown’s father was a Garveyite. Both her parents emphasized the importance of being educated and politics was always discussed at …
Wattly, Wayne, Bronx African American History Project
Wattly, Wayne, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Wayne Wattly was born January 5, 1974 in St. Kitts in the West Indies. As a kid, his family would visit an aunt in New York almost every summer. Wayne and his sister always enjoyed their visits to New York and he says he thought of New York as a grand place that he just had to get to. In the summer of 1989 the Wattley family moved to New York permanently. They moved to the South Bronx between Castle Hill and Soundview. His parents left behind careers they had both had for over 20 years to give their children …
Tullis, Mercy, Bronx African American History Project
Tullis, Mercy, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Mercy Tullis was born October 16, 1975 to Honduran immigrant parents. She was born in Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan even though her parents lived in the Bronx because supposedly it was the only hospital that would not report them for being immigrants. Mercy’s birth allowed her parents to obtain their green cards. Until she was three years old their family lived in a black Honduran neighborhood of the South Bronx on Vyse Avenue. When she was three they moved to Davidson Avenue and then finally two years later to 172nd and Grand Concourse to Roosevelt Gardens.
Mercy goes into …
Tyson, Cyril Degrasse, Bronx African American History Project
Tyson, Cyril Degrasse, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Cyril Degrasse Tyson was born in Harlem in the early 1930’s and frequently moved around Harlem and eventually made his way into the Bronx at an early age. He discusses his family history and when his parents first moved to New York. His parents were both born in the West Indies on the island of Nevis and moved to New York after the first World War. They moved to an area of Manhattan which was referred to as the San Juan Hills at the time. He describes it as a pocket of blacks from the south and West Indies, Puerto …
D'Augustino, Bronx African American History Project
D'Augustino, Bronx African American History Project
Oral Histories
Interviewer: Mark Naison
Interviews took place on September 30, 2003
Summarized by Alice Stryker
This interview is broken into 3 sessions. The first two are with an anonymous woman called “woman 1” and the third session is with an anonymous woman called “woman 2”.
Woman 1, who we later learn is Mrs. Jones, moved to the Bronx in 1947 to Oak Tree Place and Belmont where they were the only black family on the block. She was initially from Georgia, but moved to New York City when she was very young. Her husband was born in Harlem. They went to …