African American Studies Commons^™

Braithwaite, John, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Summarized by Concetta Gleason

John Braithwaite moved with his family fromManhattaninto theBronxontoKelly Streetin 1945 when he was two years old. His parents learned of theBronxandKelly Streetfrom their friends. Braithwaite’s parents and many of his neighbors were fromBarbados. The neighborhood and schools were very diverse with Italians, Jews, Spanish and blacks (both from the South and the Caribbean), and that did not change until the Cross-Bronx Expressway divided theBronxin half. The family was associated with St. Margaret’s Protestant Episcopal Church. His family has a great love for the arts; his father was a tailor, but painting was his passion, his older …

Simmons, Victoria, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Victoria Simmons-Good grew up in the Patterson Houses. Her parents moved to the Bronx from Harlem for the affordable housing options offered in the Bronx. He earliest memory is from attending PS 18, which was located near her building. On her way to school, she and her friends would always stop at a Candy Store and eat sweets for breakfast. She also remembers attending a day camp during the summer with fellow children living in the Patterson Houses. She also remembers the music her parents listened to, which was mostly Motown and doo-wop.

She grew up in the Patterson houses …

Smith, Candace, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Candace Smith was born and raised in the Bronx. From what she recalls her family lived on the top story of a two family home in the Tremont neighborhood until moving to the Patterson Houses in 1957 when she was around age 8. The home in Tremont was in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and she does not recall there being any other black families in the neighborhood. On the other hand, when they moved to the Patterson Houses, she does not recall any white families in the neighborhood there. Both of her parents had also grown up in the Bronx, …

Everich, William, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

This is a very personal account of Mr. Everich's youth and his involvement in collectives and as a community activist. His parents are Ukraninan and he grew up in the Bronx, in a mixed neighborhood. His father was a violent man, beating his wife and children. He was also a racist man and it was this attitude, juxtaposed with the kindness of the very neighbors that he criticized, that convinced the young William of the injustices of prejudice. Everich discusses his school days and the games they played in the neighborhood, from wiffle ball to building scooters from milk crates. …

Merchant, Jimmy, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Jimmy Merchant (b. 1940) is an original and founding member of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and he also has a career as a visual artist. Merchant grew up in Harlem and the Bronx, the son of a shoe-shiner and “street man” from the Bahamas by way of South Carolina and a mother from Philadelphia. His father was frequently absent, since he made a meager living as a shoe-shiner and a numbers man. He also had problems with gambling and alcohol, and Merchant recalls that he and his mother would see his father about once a week. His mother worked …

Blakeney, James, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

James Blakeney is a long time Bronx resident who grew up in the Patterson Housing Projects. His parents were sharecroppers from North and South Carolina. Neither of his parents received an education beyond the 6^th or 8^th grade. His father fought in World War II and then returned to the states to live in Queens, where James lived for three years, before moving to the Patterson Houses. His father worked at the mess hall of St. Albans Neighborhood Hospital and left the family, as many fathers were beginning to do, when James was ten years old. Mrs. Blakeney …

Brown, Donald, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Dr. Donald Brown

Interviewer: Dr. Brian Purnell

Summarized by: Estevan Román

Dr. Donald Brown was born on February 4^th, 1948 at Morissania Hospital in the Bronx. His mother Lula Moore is from Athens, Georgia or actually a town just outside Athens named Whitehall. His father was named Robert Brown is from Charleston, South Carolina. His parents were thirteen years apart in age. He mentions that his mother was previously married with three other kids and he would meet them a few years later at his mother’s funeral. His father did not like Charleston because of the racism …

Marshall, Gloria And Marshall, Ronald, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Ronald’s parents moved north during the Great Migration in the 1930’s. His father got a job with the US Postal Service at a New York Post Office and heard that the Bronx was a nice place to live, so he decided to move the family to 3^rd Avenue in the Bronx. From 3^rd avenue, the family moved to Union Avenue between 166^th and 167^th. Gloria’s family moved from Manhattan to the Bronx in the early 1940’s to Franklin Avenue between 167^th and 168^th. Her family moved to the Bronx because her father …

Brown, Rosemary, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Rosemary Brown, a civil rights activist and long-time Bronx resident, was interviewed for the Bronx African American History Project on April 21, 2005. Rosemary Brown and her large family of eight (eventually nine) first moved from Harlem to 1319 Prospect Ave. at the corner of 168^th Street in 1940, when the Bronx was an especially good place for African American families, because it offered schools, better apartments, safer conditions, and a community where everyone looked out for each other. Prospect Ave. was a tree-lined block where children could play outside, and had residents of various races. The integrated community …

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, …

Bergland, Beatrice And Bergland, Harriet, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Beatrice Bergland and Harriet Waites of the community church of Morrisania were interviewed for the Bronx African American History Project on October 25^th 2004. They began their interview by recounting their past and present experiences with the community church of Morrisania, which was founded by Pastor William E. Thompson in 1956. He, along with community members, purchased a house on Teller Ave. for $10,000 to serve as the non-denominational church’s building which facilitated the needs of the African American community that was developing in the neighborhood and also began the formation of new, warm, active community in Morrisania.

One …

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 172^nd and Grand Concourse to Roosevelt Gardens.

Mercy goes into …

Archible, Leroi, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Leroi Archible [Interview 1]

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison, Jim and Kevin

Transcriber: Gregory Peters

Date: 01/26/2004

Summarized by: Daniel Matthews

Leroi Archible is a Bronx community leader, youth athletics coach, political organizer, and long time Bronx resident. He was born in Memphis and lived in Lola, Kentucky during his high school years. His father emigrated from St. Ann’s in Jamaica in 1928, and his mother was born in Tennessee. He grew up visiting his Jamaican relatives in Morrisania, and he moved to the Bronx after he left the Marine Corps. Archible attended Kentucky State from 1947-1950. He met his …

Henderson, James, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

James Henderson was born and raised in the South Bronx during the 1940’s and 50’s. He attended Morris High School during the 1950’s and graduated in 1957. During these years Morris High School was home to many musical talents who were from Henderson’s neighborhood. Groups like The Chords, a group who later became popular for their hit Sh-Boom, lived around Henderson’s block and attended many of the same classes. Henderson was also influenced by music during his youth. He collected jazz records and went to various popular jazz clubs on Boston Road like Goodson’s, Club 845, and the Blue Morocco. …