Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

Fleet, Michelle, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Michelle fleet is a dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company who grew up in the Jackson Houses in the Bronx. She was born on September 24, 1977.

Growing up, Fleet remembers the vast array of empty buildings. Her mother would warn her to be in by a certain time because of how dangerous the area was. Fleet says that hearing gunshots was not an uncommon phenomenon.

Fleet cites her father as her musical influence. He would often play while in the house and invite his band mates over for jam sessions. Her father played funk alternative style of music …

Magassa, Bandiougou And Fofana, Lassana, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewer: Mark Naison

Interviewees: Lassana Fofana, Bandiogou Magassa

Summarized By: Eddie Mikus

Lassana Fofana and Bandiogou Magassa are two immigrants to the Bronx from the African country of Mal. Their story stands as an example of the challenges that immigrants face when arriving in a new country.

Fofana and Magassa grew up in a rural part of Mali which did not have electricity or television. Fofana attended school in Mali up until the ninth grade while Magassa attended through the 12^th grade (although Magassa enrolled in Martin Luther King High School after arriving in the United States). Magassa cited …

Prisons Sex And Drug Side Effects: A Look At Hiv Transmission, Prevention, And Treatment Behind Bars, Taylor Cuffaro

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

Studying the transmission, prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS in prison is incredibly important. it is reported, "that 2.3 percent of all prison inmates are infected with HIV. The rate of confirmed cases of AIDs in the inmate population is more that six times that of the U.S. [general] population. Approximately one in every three inmate deaths is AIDS-related and AIDS is the leading cause of death among state inmates after 'illness and natural causes.'"¹ Twenty-five percent of all HIV positive people in the United States, at one point make their way through the correctional system. With numbers …

Ahead Of The Pack: The New York Pioneer Club & The Integration Of Track And Field In New York City, Joseph Blankenship

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

When people think of the Bronx, they think of a few things–the Yankees, Hip Hop, and Jenny from the block. What they generally do no think about, however, is an international powerhouse in track and field. This powerhouse has produced many great athletes and instilled pride in the community. The names Joe Yancy, Ed Levy, Larry Ellis, Ted Corbitt, and Fred Thompson are names most people outside of track and field would not know. Inside the world of track and field, however, they are all legends connected to one organization: The New York Pioneer Club.

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. …

Sanchez, Ivan, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Ivan Sanchez

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison

Transcriber: unavailable

Date: 05/02/2008

Summarized by: Daniel Matthews

Ivan Sanchez is the author of Next Stop: Growing Up Wild Style in the Bronx. Ivan was born near 170^th Street off Jerome Avenue on 9/21/1972. His father is from Puerto Rico, while his mother was born in New York and has Puerto Rican ancestry. He has an older brother, a younger sister, and seven stepsiblings by his father. He was close to his Titi, whom he considered a second mother. He spent much of his time at her home on Bailey Avenue near …

Ghanaian Immigrants In New York City: Negotiating Cultural And Identity Transformations, Darren Ornitz

African & African American Studies Senior Theses

There have been many studies conducted pertaining to the process of identity formation among immigrants in the United States, but very few focus specifically on Ghanaian immigrants. The goal of this thesis is to continue the debate on the nature and manner on which Ghanaian immigrants in New York City construct their identities. By so doing, this paper aims to explore and identify the ways in which traditional culture and values are preserved, transformed, or lost amongst the Ghanaian immigrant community in New York City. It discusses the role that Ghanaian and American culture and values plays in the process …

Roberts, Beverly, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Beverly Roberts (b. 06/09/51) is the president of the Parkchester branch of the NAACP. Roberts was born and raised in New York. She lived in San Juan Hill in Manhattan until she was five, and then she, her three siblings, and her New York- born mother moved to the West Farms neighborhood of the Bronx. At the time, Roberts’ family was part of West Farms’ minority black population. Beverly, her mother, and her siblings faced prejudice and intimidation from white (predominately Jewish) children and adults. Consequently, the Roberts’ set about earning their community’s respect. Beverly’s mother was very strict toward …

Brown, Genevieve, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Ms. Genevieve Smith-Brown

Interviewer: Dr. Brian Purnell

Date: April 19, 2008

Summarized by: Estevan Román

Ms. Genevieve Smith-Brown is (was) a resident of the Bronx. She was a very involved community activist, volunteered her time for Seabury Daycare, policy board member Model Cities program of the and President of the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes organization.

Ms. Genevieve Smith-Brown, formerly Genevieve Smith-Brooks was born on July 12^th, 1937 in Anderson, South Carolina. In a town where most of the African-Americans were sharecroppers, Genevieve’s parents were one of the few African-Americans that owned a farm in Anderson, South Carolina. This farm …

Johnson, Daryl, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Darryl Johnson is a professional DJ who goes by the name DJ Thoro. His story details the career path that one would take to success within the music industry.

Johnson was born in 1975 in Harlem. During his childhood, he shuttled between New York and Florida, as he had family in both states. He developed an interest in music after listening to a series of tapes which his brother made while attending park jams. Furthermore, he practiced skills as a DJ by listening to radio programs on KISS FM and WBLs. Johnson had to pursue his dream as a musician …

Chianese, Dominic, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Oneka LaBennett

INTERVIEWEE: Dominic Chianese

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Dominic Chianese is a Bronx native and a well-known actor and singer. He was born 2/24/1931 in the Bronx. His paternal grandfather was from Naples, Italy, and his mother’s side was from near Sorrento. He was raised in the Arthur Avenue neighborhood, and attended public school. Most of his classmates were Italian, although there were some Jewish and Hispanic children as well. Despite the fact that Chianese had German, Irish, Italian, and French-Canadian friends while growing up, the Italian and African-American communities were quite separate: he …

Davis, Gloria, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Brian Purnell, Peter Derrick

INTERVIEWEE: Gloria Davis

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Gloria Davis was born on February 9, 1938, at Morrisania hospital in the Bronx. From the ages of 4 to 12, she was raised in Gainesville, Florida by her grandmother, since her mother felt that she was unfit to raise a daughter by herself at that time. Davis then moved back to the Bronx to live with her mother, and Davis has stayed in the Bronx ever since. She is the mother of six, the grandmother of thirteen, and the great-grandmother of six. She lost a 12-year old …

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 …

Altschul, Barry, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Born in 1943, Barry Altschul grew up in the West Bronx in the forties and fifties. Altschul is a jazz drummer who first learned to play the drums at age eleven. He grew up playing shows in the Bronx and Harlem while also attending “jam sessions” where he received pointers from jazz musicians such as Philly Joe and Art Blakey.

Altschul attended elementary school at PS 70, junior high school at PS 117, and then attended Taft High School. Altschul’s elementary school’s ethnic makeup was mostly white, whereas in high school Altschul recalls that the student body was 21% black. …

Cedeno, Luis, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Louis Cedeno was born August 11, 1961 to Puerto Rican and Cuban parents. His mother was a factory worker while his father worked in the hospital. He was born at Fordham Hospital, which currently does not exist and lived on Webster Avenue for the first few years of his life. He would spend the rest of his childhood on Ryder Avenue near Grand Concourse.

Louis describes the racial barriers in his neighborhood. He says there were clear color lines within the neighborhood saying that if a Latino or black went “above Aloe Park, they were dead meat”. Despite this characteristic, …

Greene, David, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

David Greene is a teacher and football coach at Scarsdale High School in Westchester County. He was born on November 3^rd, 1949 in Los Angeles Ca. His mother was a Russian immigrant who had come to the Bronx when she was 14 years old, and his father, who lived in Harlem, was of Austrian, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian descent. His mother worked in the fashion industry as a model, and his father worked as a trucker. David’s mother was a down-to-earth Russian Jewish woman who spent all her time working and managing her household. She was suspicious of …

Martre, Patricia And Alfaro, Almilicar, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Patty Dukes, birth name Patricia Marte, is a woman of Dominican descent. Her parents left the Dominican Republic to move to Puerto Rico where she was born.

At five years old, she moved to the the United States, the Bronx specifically. Because her father was a member of the military, her family was given the opportunity to move to the US much more easily than other families. She lived with her parents, sister, and “brother” – who is actually her cousin, but was adopted by her family as a brother.

Rephstar, whose actual name is Almilcar Alfaro, is a man …

Diaz, Rebel, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Rebel Diaz

Rodrigo Venegas - "RodStarz" b. 19 November 1979; Churchsea, England

Gonzalo Venegas - "G1" b. 14 February 1985; Chicago, Illinois

Teresita Ayala - "Lah Tere" b. 24 September 1979; Chicago, Illinois

Rebel Diaz is a hip-hop group living and working out of the Bronx. The individuals making up Rebel Diaz come from politically active families in Chicago. The Venegas brothers are sons of Chilean "exiles." Their parents were student activists of El Movimento de Izquierda Revolucionaria. After the CIA military coup that placed Augusto Pinochet as head of state, their father was sent to jail and their mother …

Rollins, Joseph Metz, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Reverend Joseph Metz Rollins, Jr. was born 8 September 1926 in Newport News, Virginia. He graduated high school in 1943. Although Reverend Rollins remembers that “even though I was in a segregated situation, I grew up being encouraged to participated and be involved…” (Pg. 5). During World War Two, Rev. Rollins entered the Jay C. Smith Seminary. He was ordained in 1950 as a Presbyterian minister, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

In 1953, In Tallahassee, Florida, Rev. Rollins helped with the organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church. He met Martin Luther King, Jr. After two girls …

Mcgee, Mildred Interview 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

This interview gives insights into Judge McGee's personality and beliefs. He was a judge for fifteen years and heavily involved in community politics. Leroi Archible describes him as “firm and stern, but fair.” He did not like lawyers who “tried to be cute.” Family was very important to him, and he supported his nephew, Roger Wareham, who was accused of “ planning to overthrow the government … (but he) was talking about: justice and fairness.” Guliani was the prosecutor but he lost the case. Judge McGee believed he was innocent and was willing to stake his house on that. There …

Robinson, Robert, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Robert Robinson (b. 8/11/1943) is a former public health specialist for the Center for Disease Control. The son of a bartender father from West Virginia and a mother from Massachusetts, Robinson was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, on Stebbins Ave. During this time, the Stebbins Ave neighborhood was inhabited mostly by blacks and Puerto Ricans, and the two cultures remained relatively aloof from one another. Robinson recalls that there was some limited gang activity in the area: some local toughs from the surrounding areas would sometimes rough up the young people on Stebbins Ave, which did not …

Walker, William, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

William Walker, also known as Billy Bang, is a jazz violinist who grew up in the Bronx.

He was born in Plateau, Alabama, right across the tracks from Mobile. His mother had him when she was seventeen, and soon after moved into an apartment with her sisters in Harlem on Lenox Avenue between 111^th and 112^th Street. She cleaned the houses of Jewish families who lived on the Grand Concourse. His birth date is uncertain, although he places it at approximately 1947. His uncle served as a father figure.

Walker attended elementary school at P.S. 170. He attended …

Bowman, Willie Interview 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

The following is a transcript of the Bronx African American History Project’s second interview with Mrs. Willie E.P. Bowman. Although she covers some of the same subjects in this interview with Dr. Purnell that she did in her first interview, she also delves more deeply into her work with the community as opposed to her career in social and correction work.

Born on November 30, 1931 in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. Willie Ella Paschal Bowman spent just the first two years of her life in what she proudly described as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1933, she and …

Bowman, Willie Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWERS: Brian Purnell

INTERVIEWEE: Mrs. Willie E.P. Bowman (Interview One)

SUMMARY BY: Andrew O’Connell

Born on November 30, 1931 in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. Willie Ella Paschal Bowman spent just the first two years of her life in what she proudly described as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1933, she and her mother headed north to stay with Bowman’s great aunt in Harlem, part of the first wave of the Great Migration that would soon develop as one of the most significant movements of peoples that this country has ever seen. After earning three dollars a week as …

Rodriguez, Felix, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Felix Rodriguez (b. 7/9/1967) is a New York-born filmmaker. Both his parents are Puerto Rican. Rodriguez was born in East Harlem and was raised for the first 10 years of his life in Queens. At this time, his parents moved back to Puerto Rico, where Felix attended junior high and high school. Because his first language was English, Rodriguez had to pick up Spanish in Puerto Rico. His primary occupation in Puerto Rico was as an attendant for his father’s livestock, a job that he hated. Puerto Rico was constantly being inundated with American popular culture, and soon enough Felix …

Mcgee, Mildred Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Mrs. Mildred McGee was born June 29, 1927 and married to Judge Hansel McGee. Also interviewed here are her daughter Dr. Elizabeth McGee and Mr. Leroi Archible. In the first session, Mrs. McGee provides details of her education, her parents’ backgrounds, living in Harlem, the Bronx, Washington DC and moving back to the Bronx. She also describes her husband’s childhood and his education. She attended an elementary school where there were no African-American teachers and she had only one African-American teacher in Junior High who taught Social Studies. The students also learned how to sew, cook and housekeeping at school. …

De La Luz, Caridad, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Caridad de la Luz, a.k.a. La Bruja

Interviewer: Oneka LaBennet

Date of Interview: October 23, 2007

Summarized by Alice Stryker

La Luz’s parents came from Puerto Rico and lived in New York city, where they met. She was born in the Bronx in 1973 and has lived in the Bronx her entire life. She spent most of her childhood living on Leland Avenue, which was racially mixed. Her father was a mechanic for Volkswagen and her mother was a teacher at Murry Bertgraum High School. She went to P.S. 100 for grade school and P.S. 71 for Junior High …

Dacosta, Linval, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Natasha Lightfoot

INTERVIEWEE: Linval DaCosta

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Linval DaCosta is a supervisor in the New York City Housing Authority and a head organizer for the Cricket in the Bronx league. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1938 and came to the US on December 10, 1950, whereupon he joined his parents, who had already immigrated. He did his elementary-middle schooling in Harlem, attended Stuyvesant High, and then went to CUNY Baruch for college, where he was (and continues to be) a member of the NAACP. He grew up playing cricket and soccer in …

Hinds, Burmadine, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Dr. Brian Purnell

INTERVIEWEE: Burmadine Hinds

SUMMARY BY: Andrew O’Connell

Burmadine Hinds was born on August 1, 1939 in Valhalla, New York, but moved to Williamsbridge at an early age after her mother shipped her South to live with foster parents. Recounting her early life in Williamsbridge, Hinds talk about a visible discrepancy between dark and light skinned black as far as social matters were concerned. Hinds recalls that the hue of one’s skin within the black community often dictated what church one went to and what social clubs one joined.

Hinds nostalgically describes the Northeast Bronx of the …

Wilkes, Quinton, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

One of the pioneering members of the African American Studies department at Fordham University, Dr. Quinton Wilkes was born in 1941 and raised in High Point, North Carolina. Living with his grandparents in the South, Wilkes would travel north every summer to stay with his mother and other family members residing in the Bronx, giving him a knowledge of the university at which he would later go on to have such a formidable role.

Wilkes remembrances of traveling by train every year from High Point to New York City provide interesting insight into Jim Crow segregation in the South toward …