Items

• Interview: Amutah, Ndidi, 2016

  Ndidi Amutah was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1981 to Nigerian parents. Dr. Amutah grew up in Trenton and graduated from Trenton Central High School in 1999. She attended Livingston College at Rutgers, where she was active in the Livingston College Governing Association. After graduating from Livingston in 2003 with a B.A. in African Studies and a B.S. in Public Health, she earned a Master's in Public Health at George Washington University. Dr. Amutah attended the University of Maryland, College Park and studied maternal child health for her Ph.D. Dr. Amutah completed a Kellogg Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, served as a professor at Montclair State University, and then became a professor of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine.
• Interview: Clarke, Cheryl, 2012

  Cheryl Clarke is a black lesbian feminist whose poetry, editorial work, and career at Rutgers have had a significant impact on black, lesbian, and women’s communities. She is the author of four collections of poetry, often centered around themes of black women’s issues and lesbian issues. She served as an editor of the lesbian publication Conditions for nine years and began working at Rutgers University in 1970. At Rutgers, she served as the founding Director of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian/Gay Concerns, which became the Office of Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities in 2004. She was the Dean of Students of Livingston Campus between 2009-2013 and retired from Rutgers in 2013 after 41 years of service. In this interview, Clarke discusses her upbringing in Washington, D.C. during the Civil Rights Movement, her passion for writing, and the role of feminism. Clarke proposes the idea that we, as a society, must be in the “project of transformation” to “create a new humanity” as we reconcile gender and race issues. --- See also an additional interview with Cheryl Clarke, recorded in 2018 by the Rutgers Oral History Archives.
• Interview: Graham, Patricia, 2015

  Patricia Graham was born in Saluda, South Carolina, on March 9, 1949. She grew up in Philadelphia and then moved to New Jersey during high school. Dr. Graham graduated from West Side High School in Newark in 1966. She attended Essex County Community College and then Rutgers-Newark, before transferring to Livingston College at Rutgers-New Brunswick. During college, Dr. Graham participated in the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program. Majoring in urban studies and secondary education, Dr. Graham graduated from Livingston College in 1972. She went on to earn her Master's degree in education at Antioch College and Ed.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. From 1977 to 2013, Dr. Graham served in various positions at East Stroudsburg University, where she is now a professor emeritus.
• Interview: Walker, Steven, 2016

  In 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.