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 …

Sprouse, Mario, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Mario Sprouse, born October 10^th, 1948 in Spanish Harlem, is a well-known musician,arranger, composer, and musical director. His parents immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1929, and would meet in Harlem and begin their family after the war.

His parents worked hard to provide for their children, but always had a passion for music, which they would instill upon Mario and his siblings. After moving to the Bronx in 1950, the family would begin living on Ritter Place, where each household showcased musical ability, and stars such as Maxine Sullivan, lived just down the …

Cruse, Harrison Jr., Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Harrison Cruse, Jr.

Interviewer: Mark Naison

Summarized by Sheina Ledesma

Harrison Cruse, Jr. was born on August 10, 1935 in Morningside Heights, Harlem. His mother’s family was originally from Virginia and North Carolina but decided to move north during the 1920’s after experiencing an increasingly racist and violent climate due to activity by the Ku Klux Klan. His father was African American and Native American and had grown up on an Indian reservation with his mother in Roanoke Virginia. His father served in the First World War and later joined the Northwestern Railroad where he worked for many years. …

Kontihene, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Kontihene

Interviewer: Dr. Jane Edward, Kojo Ampa, Kareem Salifu, Dr. Mark Niason

Summarized by Sheina Ledesma

Kontihene is a Ghanaian Hip Hop musician who has lived in the Bronx since 2004. Kontihene describes his own music as being Afro-Pop or Hip-Life because it combines lively beats with traditional Ashanti folk music from Ghana. Kontihene grew up in Ghanaian town called Kumasi with his parents and two sisters. His love for music developed at a very young age. By age ten he was already writing poems and songs that discussed his family life. Encouraged and mentored by a local musician …

Scroggins, Renee, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewer: Andrew Tiedt

Interviewee: Renee Scroggins

Date of interview: 3 February 2006

Summarized by: Craig Teal, 17 March 2007

Renee Scroggins, member of the punk/funk group, ESG, was born in Bronx, New York in the Moore Projects. Located on Jackson Avenue and 149^th Street, the projects started to deteriorate within a couple of years of it being built. Renee calls this time the ‘drug era’ and recalls a lot of bad situations being present because of the poor economic situation of the people that lived there. Renee went to elementary school at PS 35 on Morris Avenue where her …

Brindle, Donna, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewers: Mark Naison and Natasha Lightfoot

Interviewee: Donna Brindle

Date: May 23, 2005

Summarized by Leigh Waterbury

Donna Brindle was born in 1953 in the Bronx and lived on Intervale Avenue until around the age of 11. Her parents initially moved to the Bronx because other friends of theirs were, and those socializations became an important part of Donna’s upbringing. Both of her parents were musicians, her father was a concert pianist and one of the founders of The Symphony of the New World in the 1950‘s. Her parents were also politically active. Her mother worked with NAACP as well …

Allen. Ray, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Mr. Ray Allen

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison

Date: June 29, 2004

Summarized by: Estevan Román

Mr. Ray Allen is (was) an actor, singer and an organizer of theater and education programs in the Bronx. He is an African American of Caribbean descent, born on the island of Curacao, which is a part of the Netherland Antilles. His mother, Evelyn, was from the island of Anguilla. He moved to the Bronx on December 9^th, 1968 at the age of 14. He came after his father had passed away from a heart attack and Ray and his second sister …

Bonneau, Jackie Smith, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Jacqueline Smith Bonneau

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Robert Gumbs, Robin Kelley

Transcriber: Patricia Wright

Date of Interview: February 5, 2004

Summarized By: Eddie Mikus

Jacqueline Smith Bonneau is a resident on Lyman Place who has resided in the Bronx since the 1940s. She is especially notable due to the fact that she is the niece of Thelonius Monk, a famous musician. As such, she is able to provide a personal insight into Monk’s life.

Bonneau moved to Lyman Place from Home Street when she was a young child. She was the daughter of a Pullman porter and a woman who …

Brathwaite, Kwame, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

112^th interview of the Bronx African American History Project

Interviewers: Dr. Mark Naison, Maxine Gordon

Interviewee: Kwame Brathwaite

The interview took place May 17, 2002

Summarized by Concetta Gleason 11-29-06

Kwame Brathwaite, a longtime activist, photographer and expert on the history of jazz in NYC was originally born in Harlem, and his family moved to the Bronx in 1943 when he was five years old. Brathwaite's parents are both from Barbados, but they met in Brooklyn. His father was a tailor who owned several Dry Cleaning businesses, which kept him constantly busy, and his mother was a homemaker who …