African American Studies Commons^™

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. …

Yartel Iii, Nan, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Nan Yartel III was born on the 15^th of an unmentioned month in 1965 in a village called Amatsou in the West African nation of Ghana. He attended primary school from 1971 until 1981. He is a member of the Fanti ethnic groups, one of the many different ethnic groups found in Ghana.

As a member of the Fanti people, he was able to obtain the position of chief, which enabled him the opportunity to finish his secondary education and thus came to the United States to do such that. He completed his education back in his homeland of …

Wallace, Kojo, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Born September 16, 1985, Wallace grew up with his family in Tarkwa, Ghana. In 1988, his father immigrated to the United States and has worked as a taxi driver. His father is also a leader within the Ghanaian community in the Bronx. In 2006, Wallace immigrated to the Bronx with his siblings and has been living with his father on Sedgwick Avenue. He will be attending medical school in the September 2010. He has an older brother who is talking college classes and is also in the United States Navy, a sister who is working to become a nurse, and …