Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

Patricia Payne Interview, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Disciplines

African American Studies

Abstract

Summary by Jocelyn Defex.

This interview for the Bronx African American History Project was with Patricia Payne, a professor at Monroe College. She and Dr. Mark Naison discuss her family history and experiences growing up in the Patterson houses in the South Bronx.

Payne’s family moved to the Bronx from Harlem in 1949 and settled in the Patterson houses. Payne’s parents were from South Carolina; Her father worked as a taxman and auxiliary policeman, while her mother had limited formal education and worked occasionally as a domestic helper.

Patricia's memories of the Paterson houses began …

Maribel Gonzalez Interview Part 2, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Summarized by Alan C. Ventura

Maribel Gonzalez is a small business owner in the Bronx and serves as sole operator of The South of France restaurant. As part of the Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project, she sits with Fordham University senior Bethany Fernandez to share her experience of running a business during the pandemic.

Gonzalez reflects on how her business has progressed along with COVID-19 protocols since her first interview in June 2020. She discusses the ongoing challenges of running a business during the pandemic, with uncertainty and financial struggles continuing to persist with the passage of time. The flow …

Maribel Gonzalez Interview Part 1, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Summarized by Alan C. Ventura

Maribel Gonzalez is a small business owner in the Bronx and serves as sole operator of The South of France restaurant. As part of the Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project, she sits with Fordham University senior Bethany Fernandez to share her experience of running a business during the pandemic.

Gonzalez begins by looking back at the history of the establishment, revealing the love story which gave The South of France its name and explaining the Puerto Rican-American roots of the restaurant’s cuisine. Gonzalez then shifts to reflect on the interactive pre-pandemic life in the Bronx …

Mangum, Claude, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Summary by Eliza Anderson.

Dr. Claude Mangum is an integral member of the Fordham community, arriving first as the director of the Upward Bound program in 1969 before joining the faculty of the Institute of Afro-American Studies, which would later become the Department of African and

African-American Studies. Dr. Mangum was an assistant professor, associate professor, and chair of the department before his retirement in 2011.

Dr. Mangum began his educational career as a high school teacher, attending Queen’s College before starting to teach at John Bowne High School in Flushing, Queens. He completed a Masters and PHD at Columbia …

Western Corporations And Colombian Labor: Cycles Of Transhistorical Colonial And Economic Oppression In Colombia, Isabella Lazzarino-Buendia

Senior Theses

The relationship between colonial and colonized nations is entrenched in modern politics and history; remaining a transhistorical site of economic, social, and political imbalance. The United States and Colombia have a trans-colonial relationship that is shadowed by colonial gains at the expense of colonized livelihood. Western corporations mimic the patterns of the governments that preside over them, using the land and labor of the colonized “Other” to maximize profit. I investigate postcolonial Colombia through the lens of the transhistorical United Fruit Company and the mass corporation Coca-Cola. The accountability of these corporations and the systems that have allowed them to …

Economic Trends Which Helped Spawn 60'S Uprisings And Helped Pave The Way For Affirmative Action In Employment And Admissions, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

The following short summary of economic trends affecting the nation's Black population in the post WW 2 era are an essential backdrop to analyzing the rise of Affirmative Action in employment and education in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It will help explain why uprisings took place in so many urban black communities in the middle and late 1960's, with the largest taking place in Los Angeles, Newark and Detroit, and why a critical portion of the nation's leaders, along with a significant portion of the politically aware black population, felt that color blind civil rights law could not …

Daley, Joy Elaine, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Thank You Governor Abbott! Sending Nyc Busloads Of Migrants Helps Strengthen Our City's Economy, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Why Environmental Racism In The Bronx May Be A More Pressing Issue Than Gentrification, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

The Cultural Capital Bronx Residents Possess, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

No abstract provided.

The Cultural Capital Bronx Residents Possess, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Marietta J. Tanner, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewee: Marietta J. Tanner

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Donna Joseph, Saudah Muhammad

Date: July 2020

Summarized by Sophia Maier

Marietta J. Tanner was born in 1928 in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Influenced by the activism of her father and the wartime experiences of her uncle, Marietta is a life-long political activist. Her parents explained to her from a young age their experiences in Jim Crow era Pennsylvania and by the age of six she was passing out political pamphlets and registering people to vote with the rest of her family. After attending a segregated school in her youth and a brief period …

Monica Whiting-Hogans, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Whiting-Hogans is proud of community service like a Bronx health fair where they provided free mammograms for those without insurance, fixing up playgrounds, providing hospitalized sexual assault victims with new clothes and undergarments, and visiting seniors at St. Luke’s Hospital. She speaks to moments when members of the sorority have even come together to help her personally. Today, she wishes younger members would remember the ideals of manners and respect more, following in the decorum of a “sisterhood.” Whiting-Hogans acknowledges the setbacks of the pandemic but encourages young people to get engaged.

LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: http://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/baahp/id/77

Yvonne Marie Smith, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Smith attended James Monroe High School, which is now several academies. Leo Weiss was the principal. His determination encouraged most of her peers to finish high school. Prior to the fires and Bronx burning and the drug epidemic, it was a close knit community. You couldn't do anything that another adult stepping in to remind children that they were children. They reminded Smith to be careful. That was the kind of community it was. People looked out for each other. Her family attended Trinity Episcopal. The 1970s Bronx fires destroyed her building, and the city took a long time to …

Avila, Jose Francisco Interview Part 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Summary of José Francisco Ávila (Feb. 17th, 2022) Pt.2 Interview

Summarized by : Katherine Caperan

This is the second part of the José Francisco Ávila interview. In this one, he discusses the experiences that have shaped his efforts as a prominent Garifuna and Afro-Latino social justice activist for Garifuna communities in New York City, nationally, and internationally. As a Garifuna originally from Cristales, Honduras, Ávila notices that the Garifuna communities face the same issues in his country as in the United States. Ávila spent over thirty years researching and writing about the Garifuna Community. Collecting information from the news, television, …

Backdrop To A Musical Revolution: Urban Uprisings, Black Power And The Vietnam War Shatter The Politics Of Respectability In Popular Music, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Avila, Jose Francisco Interview Part 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Jose Francisco Avila was born in the Garifuna village of Cristalis, near the city of Trujillo in Honduras. He moved with his family as at 15 years old to the United States because his parents wanted better opportunities, specifically educational opportunities, for him and his siblings. They moved to the Dorchester neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, where Avila had to quickly learn English at the Boston School for Immigrants, before attending Solomon Lewenberg Junior High School and Boston English High until 1981. Living in a predominantly Black neighborhood in a city with a relatively small Garifuna community, there was constant questioning …

The Integration Of Foreign-Born Dominicans In Spain And The United States 1990-2011: Historical, Spatial, & Racial Considerations, Petros Akosta Gkalinto

Senior Theses

Dramatically shifting immigration patterns, incentives, and origins in the Atlantic have diminished opportunities for Dominican immigrant communities to integrate into traditional host nations like the United States, but created opportunities in emerging host nations such as Spain. Yet, the lingering impacts of the Great Recession and racial segregation have sustained or aggravated inequities in both nations. An immigrant generation cohort method analysis of integration trends between native populations and foreign-born Dominicans in the United States and Spain from 1990 to 2011 confirm persistent or increasingly segregated experiences in education, employment, and urban areas. However, as a result of greater cultural …

The Legacy Of French Colonialism In The Francophone Caribbean: Migration, Anti-Haitianism, And Anti-Blackness In Guadeloupe And French Guiana, Jemina Carla Molines

Senior Theses

Haiti has a huge migration problem. Thousands flee the country every year due to its political and socioeconomic instability. The locations that Haitians prefer to settle in are the United States, Canada, and France. Haitian people have also migrated within neighboring islands in the Caribbean region. Because of Haiti’s current conditions, every country and the territory in the Caribbean Basin has misconstrued views of Haiti. They are very critical of Haitian people and project xenophobia onto those within their presence. The problem is that these are black-majority societies marginalizing another black-majority society. The question this problem raises is why are …

The Crack Epidemic And The Transformation Of Hip Hop: A Bronx Tale, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Brenda Beattie Neuman, Mark Naison, Steven Payne

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

Loving,Julia, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Julia Loving, Summary of Interview with the Bronx African-American History Project

October 14th, 2020

Dr. Mark Naison and Alison Rini

Summarized by Amy Rini August, 2023

Bronx born public school librarian and high school educator Julia Loving’s parents were from Nelson County, Virginia. She has two older brothers, Jesse and Mark. Her grandparents were the only black store owners in 1920s Roseland, Virginia. In 1960, they moved up to New York City because their parents did not want their children to stay South in the height of Jim Crow. They met while going to colored schools and Baptist and Pentecostal …

No Innocence Here: How Irish, Jewish And Italian New Yorkers Benefited From Their Whiteness In Post-World War Ii Nyc, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.

Carolyn S. Bowman, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Bowman became active in the Civil Rights movement in her young adult life. She was active in various organizations including the NAACP, in which she participated in the Youth March on Washington (1958). In her time with the NAACP, she met Aloncita J. Food, a regional director for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Flood made Bowman promise she would join the AKA’s upon her higher education graduation. In 1966, Bowman officially joined the Bronx Eta Omega Omega Chapter as its youngest member. Within the Eta Omega Omega Chapter, Bowman participated primarily in children and family based initiatives, including working with …

Jacqueline Everette Brown, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

As one of the founding members of Eta Omega Omega, Brown played an integral part in the chartering process, including fundraising and recruitment. As time passed, Brown became less active in the chapter due to familial commitments. In 1969, Brown graduated from Hunter College with a degree in social work. Although Brown adored her time in New York City, especially because most of her family lived there, she was ready for something new – and the South was calling her name. In 1974, she accepted a position as the Clinical Director of a drug treatment program in Atlanta, Georgia, where …

Marietta J. Tanner, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Today, Marietta hopes that the sisters in Eta Omega Omega do not forget about their commitment for service in addition to the sisterhood and community building that comes with being part of a sorority. She encourages them to “go where the people are, ” to register them to vote or to get children in the Headstart programs. At the very least, she encourages going directly to teenagers to teach them the camaraderie and drive for change that comes about as being part of a Black sorority.

LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: http://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/baahp/id/78

Irma Clement, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Ms. Clement’s always has a positive outlook on life journey and noted that “Life is a game that we play to the maximum, with whatever hands we are dealt”.

LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: http://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/baahp/id/72

Martinez, Maximo, Mark Naison

Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP)

Interviewee: Maximo Martinez

Interviewers: Mark Naison and Lisa Betty

Date of Interview: February 14th 2020

Summary of Maximo Martinez Interview

Dr. Maximo Martinez was born and raised in the Bronx, but his family is from Honduras and his ethnic group, the Garifuna, live in Central America, mostly Honduras and Belize. Dr. Martinez answers questions about the Garifuna: culture, religion, language, history, etc…

The Garifuna are a small ethnic population who’s story begins with a slave ship shipwrecked off of the island of Saint Vincent. After mixing with indigenous Americans (Caribs and Arawak) on the island during the 1600s, the French …

Sheila Jackson And Ann Myers, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Biographies:

Sheila Jackson was born in the Harlem Hospital and has one older sister. For her undergraduate studies, Jackson went to the HBCU Morgan State University. After completing her undergraduate studies, she pursued her graduate education at Fordham University, where she obtained her Professional Diploma in Educational Leadership and Administration. During this time, Jackson pledged to the Eta Omega Omega Chapter. Jackson later became deeply involved in the chapter, mentioning that she served as the chapter’s Baselius president. Finally, she retired as Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction in District 29 of Queens.

Ann Myers was born in Virginia. She …

Why Hip Hop Began In The Bronx- Lecture For C-Span, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.