Items

• Oral History: Clarke, Cheryl, 2018

  Cheryl Clarke was born on May 16, 1947 in Washington, D.C. Her father served in the U.S. Army in the Red Ball Express in France after the Allied invasion in June 1944. Growing up in Northwest Washington, D.C., Cheryl attended parochial schools, including Immaculate Conception Academy for high school. From 1965 to 1969, Cheryl attended Howard University and majored in English. During college, she worked part time at the Washington Post and at a Peace Corps office. In 1969, Cheryl came to Rutgers-New Brunswick as a graduate student in English. She earned her M.A. in English in 1974. Cheryl taught courses in the Urban University Program and discusses educational opportunity programs in the interview. From 1972 to 1974, she taught courses in the English Department at Rutgers. A life-long activist, Cheryl discusses her many experiences participating in social movements, including the anti-war and Black Power movements at Howard University, anti-apartheid activism at Rutgers, LGBT activism, feminism and lesbian-feminism, and activism surrounding the defense of Assata Shakur. From 1974 to 1978, Cheryl worked in Middlesex County in the Comprehensive Employment and Training Program. In 1978, she returned to Rutgers to study social work, obtaining her M.S.W. in 1980. In 1980, Cheryl began working in Student Affairs at Rutgers. In 1992, she served as the founding director of the Office of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian/Gay Concerns (now called the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities). From 2009 to 2013, Cheryl served as the Dean of Students for Livingston Campus. In 2000, she earned her Ph.D. in English. At Rutgers, Cheryl coordinated the university-wide Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes and the New Brunswick-wide Bias Prevention Education Committee, in addition to establishing the university-wide network of "Liaisons" and teaching numerous courses. Cheryl is the author of Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1982); Living as a Lesbian (1986); Humid Pitch (1989); Experimental Love (1993); After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (2005); and The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980-2005 (2006). From 1981 to 1990, she served as a member of the editorial collective of the feminist literary journal Conditions. In 2013, Cheryl retired after forty-one years at Rutgers. Cheryl and her partner Barbara Balliet co-own Blenheim Hill Books in Hobart, New York and organize the annual Hobart Festival of Women Writers.
• Oral History: Davis, Betty, 2016

  Betty Davis was born on April 17, 1944 in Washington, D.C. She grew up in Jersey City and Orange, graduating from Orange High School in 1962. From 1962 to 1966, Betty Davis attended Douglass College and majored in political science. She was active in the local NAACP group. In the interview, she describes her years at Douglass, including her experiences of being an African American student at Rutgers University. After graduating in 1966, Betty Davis joined the Peace Corps and served in Nigeria. She settled in Toronto, Canada and has spent her career working in computer programming.
• Oral History: Jackson, Michael, 2015

  Michael T. Jackson was born in Washington, DC in 1949. He studied African Studies at Rutgers University and graduated in 1971. Jackson also earned his Masters of Divinity at the University of the South's School of Theology. He worked in social service and administration and retired as the Executive Director of the St. Vincent's Episcopal House in Galveston, Texas in 2014.
• Oral History: Khan, Ricardo, 2012

  Ricardo 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.
• Oral History: Morrison Rodriguez, Barbara, 2015

  Dr. 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.