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Interview: Jackson, Peter, 1991Peter Jackson graduated from Rutgers-Newark in 1969 and later joined the faculty in the Master of Public Administration program. He was a member of the Black Organization of Students (BOS) and was instrumental in negotiations with the university administration and in the group's takeover of Conklin Hall in February 1969.
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Interview: Jones-Hicks, Delora, 1991Delora Jones-Hicks was secretary for the Business and Industrial Coordinating Council before joining Rutgers-Newark's Office of Public Information in 1968. During her time at the university, she wrote press releases, developed relationships with news organizations, planned events, and was in charge of public relations with the surrounding community. She also served as chair of the Organization of Black Faculty and Staff.
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Interview: Jones, Roy L., 2021Roy L. Jones was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1946. He spent his early years in segregated Fort Lauderdale. In 1957-'58, he moved to Atlantic City, along with his mother and four brothers, following an aunt who had moved there in the 1940s. He shares his experiences growing up in the Black community in Atlantic City. After attending two HBCUs, he went to University College at Rutgers-Camden and then enrolled in the Rutgers Camden College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), graduating in 1970. At CCAS, he was active in the Black Student Unity Movement (BSUM). In the interview, he discusses the demands of the BSUM for greater inclusivity and diversity at the University and the takeover of the College Center on February 26-27, 1969. He helped found the Black Cooperative Association, or Black Co-op, in Camden, which provided food, housing, childcare, healthcare and engagement in the arts. He was also a part of the Cooper-Grant Neighborhood Association, which opposed gentrification in Camden. In the second interview, Jones discusses his experiences as an EOF administrator at Rutgers-Camden and his involvement in the Black student protest movement. He also shares remembrances of the Camden uprisings. His work in environmental justice began in 1971 with opposition to building an incinerator in Camden and has continued through involvement in organizations such as the South Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and the National Institute for Healthy Human Spaces. He delves into his work in addressing water safety issues in Camden and in the city's public schools. He became a Senior Environmental Fellow in 2008 and has authored several publications, including Toxic Schools in New Jersey. This interview was recorded as part of the Black Camden Oral History Project.
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Interview: Khan, Ricardo, 2012Ricardo Khan was interviewed as part of the City of New Brunswick Redevelopment Oral Histories project at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy circa 2012 (the exact date of the interview is unknown). This research project spanned from 2009 to 2016 and resulted in the publication of the book New Brunswick, New Jersey: The Decline and Revitalization of Urban America (Rutgers University Press, 2016). The video of Mr. Khan's interview and the accompanying transcript are available in digital format. As co-founder of the Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, Ricardo Khan’s interview offers insight into the theater scene during redevelopment. After finishing his MFA at Rutgers, Khan became involved in the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act program and then a similar program that allowed him and his partner Lee Richardson to found what eventually became called Crossroads. The theater was originally in Hiram Market, explains Khan, and it was an integral part of the diverse community there. Khan discusses the evolution of Crossroads and how key figures promoted it, culminating in the theater moving to its current location on Livingston Avenue. He discusses the formation of the Cultural Center and the major people involved in that effort. In 1999, Crossroads won a Tony Award for best regional theater. He discusses the positive impact that redevelopment had on the arts but points out the effects on neighborhoods that were razed.
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Interview: Lawrence, Lincoln, 1991Lincoln Lawrence grew up in Jersey City and received his bachelor of science from Jersey City State College and a master's degree in school administration and supervision from Seton Hall. From 1963 to 1967 he was a science teacher and cultural coordinator at West Kinney Junior High School in Newark. He later worked as supervisor of math and science teachers and director of School Audio-Visual Materials Center for the city of Newark and instructor of manpower training at the Montgomery School in Newark. In 1968 he became assistant director of admissions for the Rutgers-Newark campus, and from 1970 to 1987 he served as Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Newark.
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Interview: Martin, Joshua W. III, 2022This interview was recorded as part of the Black Camden Oral History Project. Joshua W. Martin III was born to Bernice B. and Joshua W. Martin in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1944. In this interview, Martin describes his childhood in Columbia, his formative experience working at his father’s barbershop, and his fascination with science. He discusses his decision to go to Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, and his experiences there from 1962 to 1966. Following his graduation, he began working for DuPont Company working in science and technology. He discusses his experiences as the first Black employee at the professional level at his facility and his projects there, including developing a patent for DuPont. During this period, he took graduate courses in Materials Engineering at Drexel University between 1968 and 1971. He left DuPont and Drexel and began attending Rutgers Law School in Camden in 1971. He discusses his time at the law school, particularly his work with the local organization Black People’s Unity Movement (BPUM) and his participation in their economic development work, including helping to start a Burger King near the Rutgers campus in Camden. He also talks about his relationship with the community leaders in the BPUM. After his graduation in 1974, Martin went to work for Hercules Incorporated as a patent attorney. He also served on the Board of the Better Business Bureau and the Delaware Public Service Commission. In 1982, Martin became a Superior Court judge for the State of Delaware, and he shares some of his experiences and perspectives on the justice system in the interview. Following seven years of service as a judge, Martin became General Counsel for Bell Atlantic Delaware (later Verizon Delaware) in 1990 and was made President and CEO in 1996. He ended his time with Verizon in 2005, after which he joined the law firm Potter Anderson & Corroon. Additionally, he discusses his work overseeing the delivery of health care and mental health services in several Delaware Department of Correction facilities between 2006 and 2010.
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Interview: McLeod, Bruce, 2011Bruce McLeod was born in Jamaica and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. McLeod then joined the US Army, where he served as a medic during the Vietnam War.
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Interview: Mitchell, Bryant, 2015Part 1 - Bryant Mitchell was born on July 13, 1947, in Hampton, Virginia. An art history major, he graduated from Rutgers College in 1969. While at Rutgers, he was named most valuable player for the 1968 football season. He is a 1992 Rutgers Football Hall of Fame inductee. During Mr. Mitchell's first interview, he recalls growing up in Virginia, an early exposure to Civil Rights activism by way of his father, Henry Bryant Mitchell, and his time at Rutgers. He joined the 25th Infantry Division in 1969. Part 2 - Mr. Mitchell served in the 25th Infantry Division from September 1969 to September 1971 as a combat MP. He was stationed at Cu Chi before being assigned to Dau Tieng. After leaving the military, Mr. Mitchell entered the University of Virginia Law School and graduated in 1975. Currently, Mr. Mitchell works in real estate, owning his own brokerage in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
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Interview: Morrison Rodriguez, Barbara, 2015Dr. Barbara Morrison-Rodriguez was born in Washington, DC in 1947. She graduated from McKinley Technical High School in Washington, DC, and went on to Douglass College. Barbara graduated with a degree in Sociology. In 1979, she earned a Master's Degree in Social Welfare Research from Columbia University's School of Social Welfare and later, a PhD in Social Welfare Research and Evaluation.
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Interview: Moss, Simeon, 1997Simeon Moss graduated from Rutgers College in 1941. Mr. Moss served as an infantry officer in the 92nd Infantry Division during World War II. He had a long career in educational leadership and administration.
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Interview: Petway, Sandra M., 2022This interview was conducted by Professor Deborah Gray White for the Scarlet and Black research project. Sandra Petway, known to her friends and fellow athletes as Sandee, started the women’s track and field program at Rutgers–New Brunswick in 1974, a year after joining the university as a physical education instructor. She was the first Black head coach at Rutgers and led the track team until 1980. In 2022, she was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in recognition of her contribution to women’s sports and the many successes that her track team achieved during her tenure. Petway was born in 1950 in Plainfield, NJ, and grew up in Vineland in South Jersey. She attended Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), where she developed her leadership experience by creating a women’s varsity track team as an undergraduate student. In her interview, she discusses her memories of Rutgers athletics in the 1970s and the changes that Title IX brought to the university. She also discusses her family history and the impact that her mother, teacher and principal Pauline Petway, had on the community in Vineland.
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Interview: Pinn, Vivan, 2018Vivian Pinn, MD, was the first full-time Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) from 1991-2011 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NIH Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health. In 1967, Dr. Pinn graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine as the only African American woman in her class. Dr. Pinn was a Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at Howard University College of Medicine, Associate Professor of Pathology and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Teaching Fellow at Harvard Medical School. In this interview Dr. Pinn discusses impressions of the women in her life and how this influenced the woman she was to become. She then speaks about the moments in her life that impacted her career path in medicine that coincided with the struggles of being black woman in medicine. She closes this interview with advice to women graduating from college and entering the workforce.
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Interview: Price, Clement A., 1991Clement A. Price was born in Washington, D.C., in 1945 and attended the D.C. public schools. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from University of Bridgeport. After a year teaching African American history at Essex County College, Price joined the faculty at Rutgers-Newark in 1969, where he was initially hired as a part-time instructor. Soon after his appointment in Newark, he enrolled in the history Ph.D. program at Rutgers-New Brunswick, which he completed in 1975. Dr. Price taught at Rutgers-Newark for 45 years and established himself as one of the university's most esteemed faculty members. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including serving as chair of President Obama's transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities and vice chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. He has played leadership roles with many organizations in New Jersey, including the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Fund for New Jersey, the Newark Public Schools, the Newark Black Film Festival, the Newark Public Library, the Newark Education Trust, and the Save Ellis Island Foundation. Over the years, Dr. Price has published widely in African American History, Urban American History, and American Cultural Policy. He continued teaching history at Rutgers-Newark as Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor until his death in 2014. The Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience at Rutgers-Newark was named in his honor.
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Interview: Ramsey, James H., 1992James Ramsey holds a bachelor's degree from Tennessee State University and a master's in education from Brown University. He began his career as a biology teacher in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and joined Rutgers-Newark as a professor of biology in the Academic Foundations Department in 1969; he was appointed its director in 1970. The Academic Foundations Department provided remedial programs for students who were underprepared for college work. Ramsey was key in developing the center and making it an integral part of the university. Ramsey later served as mayor of Montclair, New Jersey, from 1984-1986 and on the Montclair board of education. He has also been active in numerous civic affairs in the City of Newark.
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Interview: Ringgold, Faith, 2008Faith Ringgold began her artistic career more than fifty years ago as a painter. Today, she is best known for her painted story quilts – art that combines painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. She has exhibited in major museums in the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She is in the permanent collection of many museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Her first book, Tar Beach was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, among numerous other honors. She has written and illustrated eleven children’s books. She has received more than seventy-five awards, fellowships, citations and honors, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship for painting, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards and seventeen honorary doctorates, one of which is from her alma mater The City College of New York. In this interview Ringgold begins with her childhood in Harlem, New York City, during the 1930s and the influences that impacted her life. She then addresses her experience during the Harlem Renaissance and struggles as a Black female artist, then moves on to her social activism within her art and the development of her mature style.
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Interview: Robinson, Daniel Edward, 2008Daniel Robinson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925. After graduating from high school in 1943, he joined the Marine Corps. He did his basic training at Camp Lejeune. He served in the Pacific Theater during World War II as part of a defense battalion. In 2012, Robinson was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal as a member of the Montford Point Marines. In the accompanying photograph, Robinson (second from right) is receiving the Congressional Gold Medal from Congressman Frank Pallone Jr.
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Interview: Roper, Richard, 1991Richard Roper graduated from Rutgers-Newark with a bachelor's degree in economics and completed a master's in public affairs at Princeton University. During his years at Rutgers-Newark, he served first as the president of the NAACP chapter, and then as co-founder and president of the Black Organization of Students (BOS), which was organized out of the time of social unrest following the Newark Riots and an era of civil rights struggle. After college Roper held a number of positions in Newark and federal government. He was a legislative aide and lobbyist for Newark's first African-American mayor, Kenneth Gibson, served as director of the Office of Newark Studies, was appointed special assistant to the secretary of commerce, Juanita Kreps under the Carter Administration, and served for 12 years as assistant dean at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
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Interview: Roper, Richard, 2019Born in 1945 in DeLand, Florida, Richard W. Roper grew up in Brunswick, Georgia and attended public schools there. As a teenager, he became involved in the civil rights movement through a local chapter of the NAACP. After attending West Virginia State for two years, Roper enrolled at Rutgers-Newark's University College in 1965 and then transferred to the Rutgers Newark College of Arts and Sciences as a junior in 1966. He co-founded the Black Organization of Students (BOS) at Rutgers-Newark and made a presentation to the Rutgers Board of Governors in 1968 to address issues of diversity and representation on campus. After graduating in 1968, he worked for the Department of Higher Education in New Jersey, implementing the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) at its inception. When members of BOS occupied Conklin Hall in February 1969, Roper served as a liaison to the student protesters. He earned a M.P.A. from Princeton University's (then called) Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Early in his career, he worked as an education program director at the Greater Newark Urban Coalition, as an assistant to the director of the Division of Youth and Family Services, as a legislative aide for Newark Mayor Ken Gibson, and as Director of the Office of Newark Studies. He worked in the Carter administration as Special Assistant to Secretary of Commerce Juanita Kreps and then as Director of the Department's Office of State and Local Government Assistance. He held several positions over twelve years at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He was a Senior Fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. He served as the Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Office of Economic and Policy Analysis and Office of Business and Job Opportunity. He ran his own consulting firm, the Roper Group, and then returned to the Port Authority as Director of the Planning Department. He has served on the Rutgers Board of Governors and on boards at La Casa de Don Pedro, New Jersey Coalition for Diverse and Inclusive Schools and Bethany Baptist Church in Newark. He is the co-editor of A Mayor for All the People: Ken Gibson's Newark.
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Interview: Sanks King, Vivian, 1991Vivian Sanks King was a member of the NAACP while enrolled at Rutgers-Newark, but migrated toward the more militant Black Organization of Students (BOS), and became an active leader. She graduated in 1970 with a political science degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-Newark, and in 1985 completed her law degree at Seton Hall Law School. She served as General Counsel for the University Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) before going into private practice and has received numerous awards and honors for her dedicated service in law and policy. She presently serves on the Boards of Leadership Newark, New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey, New Jersey Women and AIDS Network, the Garden State Bar Association, and is past chair of the Community Health Law Project.
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Interview: Shuford, Deborah, 2018Deborah Shuford was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1959. Her parents grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, before moving to Newark. For most of her childhood, her family lived in the Weequahic section. Deborah attended Chancellor Elementary School and Arts High School in Newark. During one summer in high school, Deborah attended the Technical Enrichment Program at Stevens Tech in Hoboken. From 1977 to 1981, Deborah went to Douglass College. She began as an engineering major and switched to journalism and English literature. Deborah earned her bachelor's degree in the Douglass College Class of 1981. Deborah worked for many years in the communications field. She interned at WOR-AM talk radio. She worked at ABC Radio and Television Network and then at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). In 2001, Deborah began studying for her master's degree at American University. After earning her master's in film in 2003, Deborah worked as a professor at institutions of higher education, including McDaniel College, Howard University and Rutgers University, where she developed a variety of courses in film studies and African American studies. She also worked as a producer, writer and documentary filmmaker. In addition to being an active alumna at Rutgers-New Brunswick, Deborah has volunteered at the New Jersey Tree Foundation and as a career coach at New Start. In the first interview session, recorded on June 8, 2018, Deborah discusses her family's history in Lowndes County, Alabama, notably her grandmother's involvement in the voter registration efforts spurred on by Stokely Carmichael and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the summer of 1965. In discussing her childhood, Deborah talks about her family, siblings, parents' careers, traveling, education and neighborhoods in Newark. In the second interview, Deborah talks about the military service of her family members. She traces her family's roots in Alabama and her parents' migration to New Jersey. Growing up in the Weequahic section of Newark, she compares and contrasts the city before and after the Newark rebellion of 1967. In the third interview session, Deborah discusses her experiences during high school at Arts High in Newark. In 1977, she began attending Douglass College as an engineering major. She switched to journalism and recalls memorable professors Roger Cohen in journalism and Cheryl Wall in English. She describes student life and traditions at Douglass and the impact that Dean Jewel Plummer Cobb had upon her, as well as the college.
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Interview: Snell, Harrison, 1991Harrison Snell grew up in Newark and graduated from Rutgers-Newark in 1970. He received his law degree from Rutgers-Newark School of Law in 1973, and has practiced law for many years as a member of the State Bar Associations of New Jersey, New York, and Washington, DC. While at Rutgers-Newark, he served as president of the Black Organization of Students (BOS) and played an integral part in the planning and negotiation of the 1969 takeover of Conklin Hall and related events.
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Interview: Stokes, Ronald J., 2015Ronald J. Stokes was born in East Orange, New Jersey in 1946. During the Vietnam War, Stokes served in the United States Army. He attended Rutgers-Newark and graduated with a degree in Management in 1983.
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Interview: Stringer, C. Vivian, 2009C. Vivian Stringer is the former head coach of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team from 1995 to 2022. Stringer holds the distinction of being the first coach, men’s or women’s, in NCAA history to lead three different women’s programs to the NCAA Final Four. She is the fifth all-time winningest coach in women’s basketball. She was formerly the head coach of the University of Iowa women’s basketball team and the Cheyney State women’s basketball team. Stringer was the 2001 inductee into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She is the three-time national coach of the year and was the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 2004 U.S. Olympic team. In 2009 In 2018, she won her 1,000th game as a head coach, which made her the first African-American college basketball coach to win 1,000 games. She was honored with the degree of Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Howard University on May 10, 2008, the university's 140th commencement address. She was also inducted as an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority on July 15, 2008 during the sorority's Centennial Ball in Washington, DC. Stringer is also the author of the autobiographical book “Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph”. C. Vivian Stringer discusses the leadership style she has developed over her years as a coach and the particular responsibility she feels as a black woman in a leadership position. She also talks about the way she helps transforms the lives of young women and ends with advice she gives to the interviewer as a young woman with hopes of leadership in her future.
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Interview: Van Blake, Donald, 2007Donald Van Blake was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, and during the Second World War served in the "Red Ball Express" as a truck driver. After the war, he was active in the Civil Rights Movement and went on to have a career in transportation.
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Interview: Venable, Bernice, 2015Bernice Proctor Venable grew up in Somerville, New Jersey. In the interview, she discusses being raised by a foster parent after the age of thirteen and the support she received from her community in Somerville. She went to Douglass College, where she sang in the Rutgers University Choir and worked as a reporter for The Caellian. She majored in Spanish. Later, she earned her M.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from Rutgers, M.A. in Guidance and Counseling from Rider, and doctorate in Educational Administration from Rutgers. She went on to a career in education as a teacher, guidance counselor and administrator in Franklin, Somerville, Elizabeth, Irvington and Trenton. She served as Superintendent in Trenton for six years and in Irvington for two years. She testified on behalf of the plaintiffs in Abbott v. Burke, the landmark decision in which the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the state must ensure parity in educational funding between poorer urban school districts and affluent suburban districts. In 1992, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey). She and her spouse funded a computer lab at the Hale Center that is dedicated to Paul Robeson. After retiring as an educator, she joined AlphaGraphics, working in sales and marketing.
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Interview: Walker, Steven, 2016In his interview, Steven Walker describes his upbringing in the town of Montclair, New Jersey during the mid-1960s, his experiences as a first-generation college student studying journalism at Livingston College at Rutgers-New Brunswick during the early 1980s, and his career as a journalist in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. With family roots going back to Jamaica, Walkers' grandparents came from Mississippi and North Carolina. During World War II, his father, a Montclair native, served in the Red Ball Express in France after the Allies invaded Europe in 1944. During his early school years, he experienced diversity in Montclair that had not existed when his parents were growing up there. This continued into his years at Livingston College, where he became a founding member of the Rutgers chapter of Kappa Delta Rho, an organization with members coming from a wide variety of backgrounds. He was also a regular contributor to the Daily Targum and the Black Voice, both student-run newspapers operating at Rutgers. After graduating from Livingston College in the Class of 1986, he started his professional journalism career writing for the Herald and News in Passaic, New Jersey. He went on to work for such publications as The Star-Ledger, The Source, The Orange Transcript, The West Orange Chronicle and The East Orange Record. After working as a field investigator for the N.J. Department of the Public Advocate, he became an investigator for the N.J. Division on Civil Rights. Walker lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife and son.
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Interview: Wall, Cheryl A., 2015Cheryl Wall (1948-2020) was a Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English and former Chair of the English Department. Wall was an author and a specialist in Black women's writing, the Harlem Renaissance, and Zora Neale Hurston. She was a co-chair of the President's Council on Institutional Diversity and Equity. Joining Douglass College in 1972 as an assistant instructor, in her interview Wall described her role in the development of the college and its legacy today. She discussed the intrinsic value of the humanities in the context of a liberal arts education, student activism on campus, and the evolution of the Douglass Woman.
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Interview: White, Deborah Gray, 2016Deborah Gray White is the Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of History at Rutgers University. During her forty years at Rutgers, she has not only been a professor but also the co-director of "The Black Atlantic: Race, Nation and Gender" project at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis (1997-99), a research professor at the Rutgers Institute for Research on Women (1999-2000), and chair of the history department (2000-03). As an Americanist who specializes in African American and American Women’s history, Professor White is especially interested in issues of identity and the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality. In this interview, Dr. White begins by talking about the influential women in her childhood. Then the interview transitions to her work as a historian and what her title at Rutgers means. She also discusses her work directing a major institutional research project that uncovered the history of enslaved and disenfranchised populations in Rutgers history. The project resulted in the publication of the book Scarlet and Black: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History. The interview ends with her advice for young Black women on how to obtain the type of success Dr. White has achieved.
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Interview: Wilson, Clarence, 2011Clarence Wilson was born in Virginia and migrated to the North during the Great Depression in the 1930s, initially relocating to Pennsylvania and later to New Jersey. During the Great Depression, Wilson worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps, serving in a segregated unit. In the 1942, Wilson was inducted into the military where he served as a truck driver in the segregated 263rd Quartermaster and 3404th Quartermaster Truck Companies and was among the first waves of American soldiers to land in North Africa. Wilson participated in US military actions across North Africa, Sicily, and Italy until the war ended in 1945. After his honorable discharge, Wilson raised a family and worked in the chemical industry until his retirement.
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Rutgers Oral History ArchivesBased at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, the Rutgers Oral History Archives (ROHA) has recorded numerous interviews with Black participants, primarily Rutgers alumni and faculty. The collection also includes several interviews with Black New Jerseyans who are not affiliated with Rutgers University. Many of the interviews highlight the military experiences of Black veterans. ROHA interviews usually trace the full course of the person’s life, detailing their family history and experiences beginning with childhood memories. Established in 1994, ROHA grew out of a project that originally focused on World War II memories. Since then, ROHA has expanded to include life-course interviews on many themes related to Rutgers and New Jersey social and cultural history. ROHA frequently partners with Rutgers faculty to conduct and preserve oral history projects around specific research topics, such as urban redevelopment in New Brunswick and Black activism in Camden. ROHA's digital collection includes over 1,275 oral history interviews with full-text searchable transcripts; the audio recordings are not published. Select video interviews recorded as part of the City of New Brunswick Redevelopment Oral Histories Project have been published digitally. From ROHA’s establishment in 1994 until 2014, it appears that only approximately 1% of the interviewees were African American. A greater effort to record interviews with Black participants resulted from the 2015 Black on the Banks conference that brought together African American alumni of the 1960s generation. In five years since the conference, ROHA doubled the number of Black voices in the collection. The effort to record interviews with African American alumni, faculty, and staff is ongoing.
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Rutgers-Newark in the 1960s and 1970s Oral History CollectionRutgers University librarian Gil Cohen conducted 60 oral history interviews as part of a project to document the city of Newark and Rutgers University-Newark as they were in the 1960s and 1970s. This collection includes 11 interviews with Black students, faculty, and administrators who discuss their memories of the 1969 Conklin Hall takeover by the Black Organization of Students (BOS). The interviews were recorded in the early 1990s, and the collection is housed at Special Collections and University Archives in New Brunswick. The audio recordings and transcripts for this collection have been fully digitized by Rutgers University Libraries.
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Scarlet and Black InterviewsDr. Deborah Gray White, Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University–New Brunswick and the founding director of the Scarlet and Black research project, has conducted several interviews with a focus on African American history and athletics at Rutgers University. These interviews have been integrated into the Rutgers Oral History Archives (ROHA) digital collection.
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Transforming Lives Documentary FilmsThe IWL Transforming Lives Documentary Series contains student-produced short films on women leading change in a variety of contexts. This project at the Institute for Women's Leadership combines filmmaking and interview skills to help undergraduates learn from women leaders who are making a difference in the world and to gain an understanding of the use of media as a vital tool for creating social change in the 21st century.