Items

• Oral History: Archibald, Alice Jennings, 1997

  Mrs. Alice Jennings Archibald was born and raised in New Brunswick New Jersey and graduated from New Brunswick High School in 1923 as salutatorian of her class. She attended Howard University and graduated there in 1927 with her Bachelor’s Degree, and also received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1928. Mrs. Archibald became the first African-American woman to graduate from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education in 1938. During World War II, Mrs. Archibald worked for Raritan Arsenal as a completion clerk and a neighborhood Air Warden. After the war, she joined the staff of the New Brunswick Urban League as assistant to the executive director in 1946 and then worked at the Employment Office as a counselor. With the Urban League, Mrs. Archibald hired the first black man to Johnson and Johnson, and hired the first black teachers in New Brunswick. She continued as a counselor until her retirement in 1972. Mrs. Archibald was a life-long member of the Mount Zion AME Church of New Brunswick, where she served as the church historian.
• Oral History: Fisher, Michael M., 2022

  This interview was conducted by Professor Deborah Gray White for the Scarlet and Black Research Center. Michael M. Fisher was a star football player at Rutgers University–New Brunswick from 1974 to 1978. He is known as Mike Fisher in the annals of Rutgers athletics. He was born in New Brunswick and grew up in nearby Edison. In his interview he recalls his experience growing up in Middlesex County, New Jersey, and participating in youth sports through the Pop Warner Little Scholars program. He discusses college sports at length, including recruitment, training, travel, rivalries, and the use of college athletes' image and likeness for promotional purposes in the 1970s. During his time at Rutgers, he was part of the undefeated 1976 Scarlet Knights team and played the first college football game at the Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands. He also shares memories of the social life on campus and the African American fraternities and sororities in the 1970s.