Interviews

People

Use the People page to browse and sort all interviews. This page allows you to filter interviews by the following criteria: 

  • Collection, i.e. the project that collected and preserved the interview.
  • Group, such as Rutgers alumni, faculty, administration, or non-affiliated interviewees. (Non-affiliated interviewees are African Americans who did not study or work at Rutgers University, but who granted interviews to Rutgers historians; they are typically past or present New Jersey residents who share their perspectives on Black life in New Jersey.)
  • Graduating class, relevant for alumni.
  • Rutgers campus (New Brunswick, Newark, Camden) or Rutgers school, such as Douglass College, Graduate School of Education, School of Engineering, and so on.

A sorting feature at the top of the People page allows you to arrange the results by last name, graduating class, or birth year.

You can also access the Names page to view a simple printable list of all interviewees.
 

Subjects

Check out the Subjects page to see an alphabetical list of organizations, schools, occupations, and themes mentioned in the oral histories.
 

Places

The interviewee's birth place, location of the recording, and other places mentioned in the interview are added to the Places index. Once you click on a location, you will see a list of all relevant interviews.

 

Advanced Search

You can simply type a name or keyword into the search bar at the top of this page and hit the [Search] button.
Or use Advanced Search to query specific property fields.
 

Browse abstracts

Below is a preview of several interview abstracts. You can browse all interview and collection abstracts on one page.
 

  • Interview: Alexander, Walter G. II, 2009

    Dr. Alexander was born in 1922 in Petersburg, Virginia. He attended Orange High school in New Jersey before he was accepted to Rutgers on a scholarship. He was a member of ROTC, the engineering program, and the Rutgers track team. A Tuskegee Airman, he graduated from Rutgers with a degree in mechanical engineering, then went to work for Douglas Aircraft as a draftsman in California. He enlisted in the USAAF in 1944 and trained at Keesler and Tuskegee Army Airbases as a fighter pilot. World War II ended before he was deployed. He later attended Howard University's dental school and became a distinguished dentist in New Jersey. Dr. Alexander was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Rutgers African-American Alunni Alliance in 2007. He was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2009.

  • 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: Wall, Cheryl A., 2015

    Cheryl 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.