African American 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 …

Owens, Jimmy Interview 1, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

No abstract provided.

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 …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Bailey, Shirley, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

112^th Interview

Interviewee: Shirley Anderson Bailey

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison

The interview took place April 26, 2005

Summarized by Concetta Gleason 1-17-07

Shirley Anderson Bailey’s family, consisting of her mother, younger brother and herself, moved from Harlem to the Bronx in 1942 when Bailey was seven years old. Bailey’s family happened to move to the same area of the Bronx with some of their neighbors from Harlem. Bailey’s father was away trying to find work in Connecticut because of the Depression and Bailey’s mother took night classes and was one of the few working women in the neighborhood. Most …

Brown, Rosemary, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Rosemary Brown, a civil rights activist and long-time Bronx resident, was interviewed for the Bronx African American History Project on April 21, 2005. Rosemary Brown and her large family of eight (eventually nine) first moved from Harlem to 1319 Prospect Ave. at the corner of 168^th Street in 1940, when the Bronx was an especially good place for African American families, because it offered schools, better apartments, safer conditions, and a community where everyone looked out for each other. Prospect Ave. was a tree-lined block where children could play outside, and had residents of various races. The integrated community …

Moss, Daphne, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Daphne Moss has been a nurse, an educator and a community activist in the Bronx. Her parents both came from Jamaica and met while out dancing in the 20s. They started out in Harlem before coming to the Bronx. Her parents lived on Prospect Avenue and then ended up on Simpson set by the time she was born in 47. Her father had many jobs while growing up; Daphne describes him as a handy man. Her mother on the other hand was a homemaker with seven children. Her father passed away in 1954 when she was 7.

While growing up, …

Gumbs, Robert Interview 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

The session begins with a quick recap of the questions asked in the first interview. From there, Robert discusses Freemen Theater. The theater was small and in walking distance from his house. During the day, the theater played movies and in the evening housed concerts. The audience was mainly African American and Jewish.

Dave Womack was one of the first artists to have an impact on him. When he was in High School, he started a jazz music appreciation day. Students would bring in a variety of artists’ albums, many of which he liked. The first jazz club he went …

Ketcham, Malik And Ketcham, Rose, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Dorothy moved to the Patterson Houses in 1950 from Brooklyn. At the time, she was married with two children. They saw moving to Patterson as a stepping-stone to greater things. Rose also moved there in 1950 from Queens with one child. Both of these families were part of the first group to live in the new projects. People were very friendly. The husbands would go to work and the mothers would go to a play yard and socialize. The building was also very safe.

Dorothy and Rose’s children went to Catholic school. Dorothy’s at St. Rita’s and Rose’s at St. …

Harding, Vincent, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewees: Clara Lee Irobunda, Vincent Harding, and Carmen Givan

Interviewers: Dr. Mark Naison and Brian Purnell

Summarized by Alice Stryker

Before the interview formally beings, Clara Lee Irobunda discusses her role in the transition with Morris High School into smaller schools. The school was getting too large to efficiently teach all of the students and many were “falling between the cracks.” To fix this problem, she designed small separate “schools” within Morris High School.

The interview is concerned with the experiences of a variety of people who grew up on Dawson Street and lived near/went to Morris High School. Dr. …

Washington, Valerie, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Valerie Washington is a lifelong resident of the Bronx, whose parents were both born in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. She grew up on Wells Avenue, then 1098 Simpson Street where her parents were the superintendents of the building. She says there were no other African-American families in the building, and this was common in the area for the superintendents to be African-American with mostly white Jewish tenants. She attended PS 20 where she was placed in the top classes from the very beginning of her education. She then attended Herman Ritter Junior High and then Washington Irving High School in 1953, …

Owens, Jimmy Interview 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

The second session begins with Owens discussing the teachers that had the biggest effects on him at Junior High School 40. One of those teachers was the head of the music department. He fondly remembers how he learned to play the trumpet with the book Easy Steps to the Band. This gentleman was his teacher for one year and was replaced by a woman who taught the students jazz. She also helped him prepare for the entrance exam for theHigh School ofMusic and Art, which he was accepted into.

When he was in JHS 40 he played at a …

Goodwin, Welvin, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Welvin Goodwin was born January 7, 1908 in Tipson, Texas. Both of his parents were Farmers. His father was born in England. When he was younger then 10, he too started working on the farm. He came from a very large family, of which he and his sister were the only family members remaining when the interview was conducted. His mother used to babysit white children and Weldin would play with them and claims to have known nothing of discrimination.

Welvin enjoyed playing baseball when he was young and was in Negro Leagues. His father started him with baseball and …

Coleman, Dennis And Mcfeaters, Harriet Interview 2, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Dennis Coleman is a longtime Bronx activists, political leader, and educator. This interview examines his experiences with the Board of Education in the Bronx. Coleman served in the New York State Senate from 1955-1956 and was on a committee that examined different education programs throughout the state, especially in inner city schools. When he returned to the Bronx, he was appointed to serve on a local Board of Education in 1966.

Coleman discusses the 1968 Bronx Teachers strike, specifically the actions of teachers on both sides of the picket line, the issues, parental involvement, and the participation of advocacy groups, …

Morris, Paula, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Paula Morris’ earliest memories of the Bronx are of Ritter Place. It was majority African American and had a great sense of community. Her father was initially a police officer, but later in life became a photographer. She was always aware that her mother, Maxine Sullivan, was a famous musician. Her mother’s fame, however, did not affect her upbringing. She still had to live by the same rules as everyone else she knew.

She attended P.S 54 for elementary school. The sense of community she experienced on her block continued at the school. Parents were always involved with their children. …