Items

• Interview: Armstead, Bryson C. Sr., 2013

  Bryson C. Armstead, Sr. was born on December 21, 1923, in Haddonfield, New Jersey. He graduated from Memorial High School and worked for Campbell’s Soup before World War II. During the war, Bryson joined the US Navy and served as a steward’s mate. After the war, he pursued college and graduate education on the GI Bill. He received BA in social science from St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, NC, and a master's from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), and pursued additional graduate work at Temple University in Philadelphia. He taught elementary schools for 35 years and retired from the Philadelphia School District in 1986. He lived for many years in Lawnside, NJ, and served as a Lawnside Borough Councilman for 9 years. He served on the Board of Education in Lawnside as well as in Camden. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. His community spirit was exemplified through his tireless efforts for more than thirty years to restore and maintain Mount Peace Cemetery, a historic black burial ground, in Lawnside. Mr. Armstead's interview primarily focuses on his early life in Camden County, World War II military experience, and his education following the war. It appears that a second oral history session was planned, but did not take place. Mr. Armstead passed away in 2014.
• Interview: Crawley, Lea, 1994

  Mr. Crawley was born in Danville, Virginia in 1914. He attended Westmoreland High School in Virginia before attending Hampton Institute for three years and then attended West Virginia State with a major in agriculture. He served in a segregated Army quartermaster unit in the ETO during World War II. After the war, he used the GI Bill to study architectural drafting and opened his own business by the name of Burton & Crawley Contractors.
• Interview: Edwards, Lena Frances, 1982

  Lena Frances Edwards, M.D., (1900-1986) was an African American obstetrician and gynecologist who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her service in 1964. Dr. Edwards graduated from Howard University College of Medicine in 1924. For most of her 59 years of professional life, she practiced medicine in Jersey City, New Jersey, both in private practice and on the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital staff. During her years in Jersey City, Dr. Edwards started a chapter of College Women National, the Jersey City College Women, an organization that raised money to give tuition to women who wanted to earn an education. Dr. Edwards taught at Howard University from 1954 to 1960, following in the footsteps of her father who taught at Howard University School of Dentistry. After her time at Howard, she began an endowment scholarship fund for Black women from poor backgrounds. Dr. Edwards was interviewed as part of the Medical History Society of New Jersey-Oral History Program's project "The Health Professions in New Jersey During the Great Depression, 1929-1939." The interview was conducted on December 7, 1982, at the Jewish Hospital, Jersey City, by Linda Holmes, who was a professor at UMDNJ-School of Health-Related Professions. The interview focuses on Dr. Edwards' general and obstetric practice during the 1920s and 1930s largely centered on the African American, immigrant, and blue-collar populations. The conversation also addresses her philanthropic efforts throughout her life. In addition to this oral history interview housed at Rutgers, researchers interested in Dr. Edwards's life and work in New Jersey are also encouraged to consult the oral history recordings and transcripts on file at Harvard University's Schlesinger Library, where Dr. Edwards was interviewed in 1977 as part of the Black Women Oral History Project. The Schlesinger Library has digitized the transcripts and audio recordings from that project, and they can be found on the library's website. Additionally, a biographical book about Dr. Edwards was published in 1979, titled Medicine, Motherhood and Mercy: The Story of a Black Woman Doctor, written by Sister M. Anthony Scally.
• Interview: Gaither, Cornelius, 2014

  Dr. Cornelius E. Gaither was born in Philadephia in 1928. He attended an all black elementary schooll in West Chester, Pennsylvania before attending an integrated high school. Gaither attended Lincoln University in 1945 and went on to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee to earn his doctorate degree in Dental Surgery. He joined the Air Force in 1955 and spent three years an oral surgeon in Germany. Gaither retired in 1987 having served over thirty years in the Reserves.
• Interview: Hatfield, Kent, 2012

  Kent Hatfield was born September 17, 1959, in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He grew up in New York City, in the Bronx, where he attended Saint Angela Merici, a Catholic elementary school. After moving to New Jersey, he attended Belleville High School. Following his graduation, he decided to pursue a career in the military, and at age eighteen, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in Newark, New Jersey, in January 1978. He completed basic training and advanced training at Fort Gordon, Georgia. During his time in the service, he was initially sent to a post in South Korea called Camp Castle from 1978-1979, before being transferred to Fort Hood in Texas. He was honorably discharged in August 1987. Afterwards, he decided to join the Reserves, where he was active for four years as part of the 78th Division in Morristown, New Jersey. Hatfield was a longtime patron and employee of Manny’s Den, also known as The Den, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
• Interview: McLeod, Bruce, 2011

  Bruce 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.
• Interview: Robinson, Daniel Edward, 2008

  Daniel 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.
• Interview: Van Blake, Donald, 2007

  Donald 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.
• Interview: Wilson, Clarence, 2011

  Clarence 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.