Bronx Historian's Archives Left to Fordham

Notes on back of photo read "Pucho Band" and "Black Catskills." 

Morgan Powell’s book collection arrived at the Fordham University Archives this morning, buttressing the late historian’s already substantial contribution to the Bronx African American History Project.

Powell was just 40-years-old when he died last month and the Medical Examiner’s Office is still investigating the cause.

Morgan Powell

Much to the surprise of University Archivist Patrice Kane, Powell donated a significant portion of his archives late last year. The archives were chock-full of research in his two primary interests: African American history and local ecology.

“We don’t usually get archives donated from someone so young,” said Kane, leafing through one of Powell’s meticulously annotated binders. “But he definitely understood archival standards.”

Much of the material donated is not necessarily from an original source, but the thousands of copies of receipts, photos, maps, articles, and even an undertaker’s notice with a Post-it marked “traces of slavery,” represent an amalgamation of disparate sources pulled together for the free tours he gave to Bronx residents. Powell never charged for the tours.

One of Powell's tour maps.

“He knew that the Bronx was the poorest borough in the city and people wouldn’t be able to come if he charged,” said Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African and African American Studies. “He understood the people very well and that’s why he’s revered.”

Naison said that despite Powell’s limited academic training, his research was rigorous and presented some highly original connections.

Powell’s tour guide binders have an almost jazz-like quality with their loose associations. Maps act almost like music bars that anchor the process, archival materials providing the notes, and marginalia dropped in like riffs on the theme.

Powell's archives include the undertaker's notice of the"faithful servant" whose grave sits beside Augustus Zerega.

Some of the notes are pretty straightforward, but others include detailed stage directions for the tour guide, like this instruction for the Bronx Zoo: “discuss on lowest grade near waterfall so that the echo of the presenter’s voice bounces off the retaining wall immediately behind tour-goers.” Then there are investigative notes, like this one: “Connect the dots. The Bronx was part of Lower Westchester during every census conducted during the slavery epoch so there is a way to find out where our ancestors worked and in whose bondage. 8.29.2010 M.P.”

“Not everyone thought of linking African American history to the rivers, waterways, and parks,” said Naison. “The tours he led were totally original. I’ve never known an independent scholar that created as much excitement as Morgan Powell.”

An unidentified photo.

Powell's archive includes recent history.

— Tom Stoelker

African Immigration Research Lecture Series Gets Green Light

Although they are separated by thousands of miles, The Bronx and the African continent have deep ties to each other. Just how tight that bond is will be explored in new lecture series, courtesy of Fordham’s Bronx African American History Project.

Thanks to a recently awarded $11,700 grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, six lectures, which will be open to the public, will be staged during the 2009/2010 academic year.

Jane Kani Edward, Ph.D., Director of African Immigration Research for the Bronx African American History Project and a post-doctoral fellow, tells us that topics to be covered include: African women and Art, African-owned businesses, religion and African immigrant community, African immigrant families and issues of cultural continuity and change, African musicians and music, and Migration and Remittance.

The lectures will be held at the Rose Hill campus, and other venues around the borough, including the Bronx Museum of the Arts and P.S. 140, on Eagle Avenue and 163rd street. Coming as it is after the success of last years’ lecture series, “The Bronx is Building: The Bronx as Site of Political Mobilization and Cultural Creativity,” we’re looking forward to what this series has to offer.

For more information, visit www.fordham.edu/baahp.

—Patrick Verel

Book Signing for The Rat that Got Away

Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African American Studies and History and director of the Bronx African American History Project, and Allen Jones, a Bronx-born manager for foreign currency exchange at Dexia Banque Internationale at Luxembourg, will celebrate the publishing of The Rat that Got Away: A Bronx Memoir (Fordham University Press 2009) on Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 6 p.m. at Books in the Hood, 815 Westchester Ave., The Bronx.

In the book, Jones recounts how he grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx in the 1950s, when that neighborhood was a place of optimism and hope for upwardly mobile Black and Latino families. But although he came from a two-parent household with many mentors, Jones—like many of his neighbors—saw his neighborhood battered by job losses and white flight, and a crippling drug epidemic lured him to heroin, first as a user, then a dealer.

He spent four months on Rikers Island, where he experienced a crisis of conscience and a determination to turn his life around. Sent to a New England prep school upon his release, Jones used his basketball skills and street smarts to forge a life outside the Bronx, first as a college athlete in the South, then as a professional basketball player, radio personality, and banker in Europe.

For more information, contact Books in the Hood at (347) 270-1215 or at www.myspace.com/booksinthehood

—Patrick Verel

The Notorious Ph.D. "(When you're from the Bronx) You Got to be Strong"

Mark Naison, Ph.D.—The Notorious Ph.D.—rapped "(When you're from the Bronx) You Got to be Strong," a tribute to Supreme Court Justice Nominee Sonia Sotomayor on behalf of the Bronx African American History Project at Fordham University. Music by DJ Charlie Hustle. (Portions of this video were shot at the PS 140 graduation ceremony on June 24, 2009.)