Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

Kogolo, Raymond, Jr., Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Raymond Kogolo Jr.

Interviewers: Ogonetojoh Okoh, Brian Purnell

Summarized By: Eddie Mikus

Raymond Kogolo Jr. is a Bronx resident who came to the borough from Lagos, Nigeria, in order to attend Fordham University. In his interview, he discussed his experience at a Nigerian boarding school as well as his life in the Bronx as a Nigerian immigrant.

As a child, Kogolo’s mother came to the Bronx due to her job as an airline pilot and split the family’s time between the borough and Nigeria. Kogolo said that many of the children he played in the Bronx were either African-American …

Mercado, Albert, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

When he was young in the Bronx he says it was a lovely area. There was a good mix of groups, but “everyone got along.” After junior high, he attended Art and Design in Manhattan, but he experienced prejudice there Latinos or African-Americans were in the minority there, so he transferred to Manhattan Vocational Tech. He stayed there a year but left because there was a lot of gang activity. He then attended DeWitt Clinton. He lived in the Bronx and the area had become very dilapidated - “it looked like if someone ran through there and just bombed it …

Cruz, Marilyn, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Marilyn Cruz

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison, Princess Okieme, Andrew Tiedt

Date of Interview Novermber 3, 2005

Summarized by Alice Stryker

Marilyn was born in Harlem. Her mother’s family immigrated to Harlem from Barbados and her father’s family was from the south. She grew up attending St. Ambrosse church, which was attended by many people from the Caribbean. While in Harlem, she attended PS 113 for grade school and remembers playing in Central Park.

The Basian side of her family was very mixed. She believes her great-grandfather may have been white, but she is unsure. The family really never discussed …

“Sons Of Adam”: Text, Context, And The Early Modern African Subject, Herman L. Bennett

Publications and Research

Seeking to dislodge the prism that a singular political practice—represented as the story from savage to slave—informed the slave trade, this essay points to a distinct genealogy shaping the earliest encounters between Europeans and Africans.

Owens, Jimmy Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Toward A Cleaner Whiteness: New Racial Identities, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The article re-examines racial and ethnic identity within the context of pedagogical attempts to instill a positive white identity in white students who are conscious of the history of white racism and white privilege. The paper draws heavily from whiteness studies and developmental cognitive science in arguing (against Henry Giroux and Stuart Hall) that a positive notion of white identity, however postmodern its construction, is an oxymoron, since whiteness designates less a cultural/ethnic ethos and meaningful way of life than a pathological structure of privilege and narrowminded cognitive habitus.

Davidson, Jessie, Bronx African American History Project, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Davidson speaks extensively of is childhood. He grew up in the Bronx and moved around quite a bit. His mother was a homemaker while his father worker at the local post office. In addition to be a postal worker, Davidsons father was also a community activist as well as the founder of the local Bronx NAACP and the newspaper “The Listener”.

Davidson recalls a racially harmonious neighborhood in which he lived. However, the surrounding neighborhoods were fraught with racial tension and animus. He describes a tense relationship between blacks and police officers in these neighborhoods. According to Davidson, two or …

Fleet, James, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

The Fleet family moved to the Patterson Houses in the Bronx in the fall of 1956 from Harlem. He says growing up there provided for a very healthy and nurturing childhood. His father, Bittie Fleet a noted jazz musician, abandoned his music career in the early 1950’s to work in a department store, while his mother stayed at home with the children.

He had been aware of his father’s jazz career from an early age. He learned to play on his own, without lessons of any form. His claim to fame is that he was the person who influenced Charlie …

American Commemorative Panels: To Form A More Perfect Union, United States Postal Service. Stamp Division

Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Stamp Collection

Informational pages for To Form a More Perfect Union Commemorative Stamp – American Commemorative Panels, includes images of the stamps, information about the physical stamp and information regarding Freedom Fighters and the fight for equal rights. First issued August 30, 2005.

Mincy, Kenneth, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Kenneth Mincy grew up in the Patterson Houses in the late 1950’s. He felt very safe and loved. His mother was a nurse’s aid at a local hospital and while she was working a woman from their building would come up and watch him. Although there were many ethnicities in the building he lived in, everyone helped each other in taking care of the children.

He tells an interesting story about riding and studying subway maps at 4 years old. By this time, he was already and avid reader and feeling bored with his education in kindergarten. Because of this, …

American Commemorative Panels: Arthur Ashe, United States Postal Service. Stamp Division

Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. Stamp Collection

Informational pages for Arthur Ashe Commemorative Stamp – American Commemorative Panels, includes images of the stamps, information about the physical stamp and biographical information for Arthur Ashe. First issued August 27, 2005.

Sall, Gilda, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Gilda Sall, originally from Harlem, moved to the Soundview section of the Bronx with her mother at the age of six. Unhappy with the education that her daughter was receiving in Harlem, Sall’s mother moved to the city’s northernmost borough, which many still considered to be almost suburban at the time. Sall tells of her first impressions of the Bronx as clean, different from the city from where she came, and overall a beautiful community in which to live.

After attending P.S. 77 and M.S. 123, Sall participated in the College Bound program at Monroe High School, a special subsection …

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 …

Martin, Delores, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Delores Martin was interviewed August 9^th 2005 by Mark Niason. Martin was very active in the Doo Wop Bronx scene during the 1950s. Her father was a tailor and her mother a dietician. She and her family moved to the Bronx in 1941. Martin remembers a safe and happy childhood. She explained that it was safe to play on the streets, as the neighborhood parents would watch over them.

Martin explains that music was an important part of her home life. R&B and Gospel were the two prominent genres played in her house. Martin never had formal signing instruction, …

Ramsey, Andrea, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Her grandparents moved to the Bronx from Harlem in the 1950’s and were immigrants from Barbados. Many of their friends from the Caribbean were moving to the Bronx, and they moved along with them to Union Avenue. Andrea was born in Harlem and then moved to the Bronx when she was very young to Tinton Avenue with her parents. There were many other Caribbean families in her life and she does not recall people from certain islands segregating themselves from the rest of the community. She and her family attended St. Augustine Church, which was Presbyterian. She remembers the amount …

Pruitt, Henry, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewer: Mark Naison, Rachel Donaldson

Interviewee: Henry Pruitt

Date: 8/3/05

Summarized by Salmaan Khan on 3/11/07

Henry Pruitt grew up in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. He speaks in depth of the environment of the Bronx and how he experienced it growing up. His first memory of going to the park or the beach in the Bronx is of Crotona Park in the 40’s and 50’s when he was in elementary school. In 1943, Henry began going to Camp Minisink, where he learned fishing in a catfish pond. He was taught important skills of fishing such as patience, selecting …

Gregg, Earnest, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Ernest Greg’s family moved from the South, to Atlantic City, to the Bronx in the 1930’s. The family came to the Morrisania section of the Bronx because Greg’s father was a Pullman porter. The family lived in a five-story walk-up until Ernest was about 12 on 169th street. He remembers his block as being predominately black, but Park Avenue, which was close by, as being ethnically diverse. He also remembers feeling very safe in that neighborhood. All of the adults looked out for the children.

When he was 12, the family moved to the newly opened Castle Hill projects, which …

The Determinants Of Academic Performance Of African American Males, Marvin K. Hall

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

In this research on the academic performance of African American males I used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study: Base Year 1988 to examine the factors that effect academic performance of one small group, the African American male. Independent variables that were used were SES, self-efficacy, self-esteem, two cultural variables, marital status of parents, and discipline. After controlling for SES two variables were related to GPA. The higher the self-efficacy of African American males the higher their GPA and the more discipline problems they had the lower their GPA. Results of this research identify the need to address cultural …

Corporal Punishment And Its Relation To Race, Psychological Well-Being, And Parental Relationship, Michelle P. Kravitz

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Previous research has documented the numerous negative effects associated with corporal punishment (Gershoff, 2002). The present study examined whether experiencing corporal punishment as a child is related to one's perception of the legitimacy of corporal punishment, race, the nature of the parent-child relationship (i.e., biological parent versus step-parent), and psychological well-being. Compared to college students who did not experience corporal punishment during childhood, college students who experienced higher levels of corporal punishment are expected to report that corporal punishment is a more acceptable form of discipline. College students who grew up with a stepfather were expected to be more likely …

Jackson, Jack, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewer: Mark Naison

Interviewee: Jack Johnson

Summarized By: Eddie Mikus

Jack Johnson is an attorney at Proskauer and Rose who attended Fordham in the 1970s after growing up in the Bronx. Much of his interview focused on how he experienced the differences between African-American and white cultures during his youth and college days.

Johnson moved to Bronx from Harlem at the age of eight years old. He says that while his elementary school was predominately African-American, there were more white people than Latinos. The same makeup held through when he attended junior high school due to his being placed on …

Brath, Elombe, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Maxine Gordon

Interviewee: Elombe Brath

Date of interview: 21 June, 2005

Summarized by: Craig Teal, 26 March 2007

Elombe Brath is a longtime political activist in New York City who is one of the founders of the Jazz Arts Society and was active in organizing some of the first cultural pageants in New York City in the 1960s. Born on September 30, 1936 in Brooklyn, Elombe grew up in Harlem and in Hunt’s Point on 751 Kelly Street between Longwood Avenue and 156^th Street. His family moved into a crossroads area of the Bronx that was …

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 …

Two Kinds Of Utility: England’S ‘Supremacy’ And The Quest For Completion In David Dabydeen’S The Intended, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

This essay concerns the Caribbean writer’s crucial confrontation with colonial literary models. In it, Kevin Frank argues that the central protagonist of David Dabydeen’s The Intended, the unnamed narrator, resembles the author in that he is torn between cultures (English, East Indian, and West Indian), and torn between two kinds of utility: one base, mechanical, and calculating, and the other, romantic. The latter predicament, Frank demonstrates, is a natural consequence of the convergence of romantic and utilitarian ideology underpinning British colonialism. Moreover, Dabydeen’s ambivalence about his allegiances and literary heritage is similar to that of one of his literary …

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 …

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 …

An Investigation Of Contributions Made By Women Writers To The Harlem Renaissance, Doretha Kamaya Rashan Green

McCabe Thesis Collection

The purpose of this study is to examine the contributions that women writers made to the Harlem Renaissance. By studying these women and their works, their contributions will be exposed.

Singleton, David G., Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

David Singleton was born May 5th 1935 in mid Sacramento Valley. He was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. He applied and was accepted into Princeton Theological Seminary. While at Princeton, he served as a student in multi-racial situations in East Trenton and in West Philadelphia. He was eventually placed at Sound view Presbyterian Church in the Bronx in 1963 per the recommendation of a minister he had met while serving at Richard Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Singleton met Medgar Evers and participated in the civil rights movement in Birmingham Alabama. He had a few church connections there. He …

Ua12/2/1 Hilltopper Graduation 2005, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special magazine edition of the College Heights Herald.

• Green, Tavia. Transition Into Real World Won’t Be Easy for Graduates
• Coulter, Amber. Commencement Will Differ from Past Years
• McNamara, Andrew. Year-Long Leases Keep Student from Getting Out of Dodge – Apartments
• Schoenbaechler, Danny. Hills, Tree Top Leave Mark on Senior’s Memories
• Farner, Keith. Professors, Peers & Fellow Journalists Will Be Missed
• Baker, Joanie. No Matter What It Took, Senior Still Pulled Through
• Sainlar, Lindsay. Graduation Parties or Kentucky Derby Festivities: A Senior’s Struggle
• Sainlar, Lindsay. Four-Year College Heights Herald Reporter Says Goodbye, Looks to Future

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 80, No. 52 [55], Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Richardson, Kelly. Students Now Taking Longer to Graduate
• Hupman, Samantha. Burned Sigma Alpha Epsilon House Coming Down
• Hupman, Samantha. Police to Write Tickets Electronically, May Use Wheel Boots
• Clark, Ashlee. Regents to Vote on Tuition, Budget, Street Renaming
• Hupman, Samantha. Graduate Students May be Getting 20 New Scholarships
• Marsupials: Because You Know It’s the Truth
• Wilson, Brandon. Hey Mr. Williamson – Christianity
• Hallam, Amanda. Suggestion for the Student Government Association – Budget
• Welberding, Beth. Only, Not Lonely
• Sainlar, Lindsay. Jail: Been There, Done That, Not Going Again
• Wilberding, Beth. …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 80, No. 52 [54], Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Hupman, Samantha. Sigma Alpha Epsilon House Intentionally Set on Fire, Officials Say
• Richardson, Kelly. University Senate Warns Against Hasty Division Move – Football
• Caudle, Leah. Western Celebrates First Amendment – Freedom of the Press
• McNamara, Andrew. Girls Experiment with Science – Girls in Science Day
• Richardson, Kelly. New University Senate Chair Ready to Speak – Andrew McMichael
• Bill Powell’s Retirement End of Chapter, Not of Book
• Ingram, Brooks. Editorial Cartoon – The Last Splash – Bill Powell
• Vincent, Daniel. Equality is Subjective? – Gay Pride Week
• Crews, Whitney. In …