[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 25 (Monday, March 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO THE BRONX AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY PROJECT

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                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 7, 2005

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Bronx 
African-American History Project which is dedicated to finding, 
promoting and preserving the history of African Americans in the Bronx, 
New York.
  Fordham University's Department of African American Studies and the 
Bronx County Historical Society have launched the African American 
History Project in order to respond to the growing demand for 
information about Blacks in the Bronx from schools, churches and 
community organizations. The goal of the project is to create and 
collect the resources necessary to tell the story of African Americans 
in the Bronx and to get that story out to the public through lectures, 
media appearances, books, articles, public exhibitions, and documentary 
films. This important project has been operating for over two years. 
During that period its research team--headed by Dr. Mark Naison, Dr. 
Peter Derrick, Brian Purnell, Patricia Wright, Delores Munoz, and 
Colleen McCafferty--have accumulated more than 100 interviews and 
catalogued countless personal records and mementos for preservation and 
public education purposes.
  The Bronx is home to the eighth largest concentration of African 
Americans in the country, but unfortunately not much has been written 
about this diverse population. As a result, events such as the 
migration of upwardly mobile black families from Harlem to the Bronx in 
the 1930's and 1940's; the development of the Bronx's eclectic musical 
culture fusing jazz, rhythm and blues, Latin Music and Calypso; the 
rise of Black political leadership in the Bronx or the migration of 
West Indians and West Africans to the Borough have been missing from 
textbooks and oral histories. Now this history will be available to the 
world thanks to the Bronx African-American History Project.
  Mr. Speaker, Aristotle once stated: ``If you would understand 
anything, observe its beginning and its development.'' As a result of 
the extraordinary efforts of Fordham University, the Bronx County 
Historical Society, and active citizens such as Leroy Archible, Harriet 
McFeeters, Nathan Dukes, James Pruitt, Robert Gumbs, and the late 
Arthur Crier Jr., the world will be able to observe the beginning and 
development of the African-American community in the Bronx and thus 
gain a deeper understanding of its rich and beautiful history. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in paying tribute to all who have been integral 
in the development of The Bronx African-American History Project.

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