Found 3 collections related to African American youth

John "Snookie" Rendall Walker was a Harlem business entrepreneur and organizer/manager of several Harlem-based youth and professional athletic teams. He lived his entire life in Harlem (1919-1985), opening the Sugar Bowl Restaurant on West 137th Street and Seventh Avenue in 1947, which he co-owned with his wife, Dolores. In 1950, he organized Snookie's Sugar Bowl Five basketball team, which featured semi-professional and professional players and had its glory years from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. In 1951, Walker helped to reorganize the New York Renaissance, or Rens, the well-known professional basketball team, and was the team's manager-coach through the mid-1950s. In 1957, he organized the boys' Biddy Basketball League of Metropolitan New York and became its first commissioner. Walker's "Biddy" teams went on to win national and international basketball tournaments from the mid to late 1960s. He also formed youth leagues in softball and baseball for pre-teens throughout the 1950s to the 1970s, and an all-women's basketball team, the Harlem Globe Travellettes, in the early 1950s. The John "Snookie" Walker scrapbook consists primarily of printed material relating to the activities of several of the athletic clubs Walker organized and managed from the early 1950s to the 1970s. Included are a history of the Renaissance Basketball Team and news clippings about the team under his management, as well as Snookie's Sugar Bowl Five, the Biddy Basketball League, and the Harlem Globe Travellettes. The articles discuss games and players. There are also programs for tournaments in which these teams competed in New York City and out of state, 1950-1974. The collection includes a file of letters written by executives in various athletic organizations as well as from Jackie Robinson (1961) during his tenure as vice president of personnel with Chock Full o'Nuts. Information about "Snookie" himself is foundd in news clippings in addition to letters pertaining to a salute honoring him in 1985, recognizing his many years contributing to Harlem life. less

In 1992 and 1993 City Lore coordinated an oral history project focusing on the Northern migration experience and the maintenance of southern folkways within New York City's African-American church community. Fifty men and women who migrated from the South to New York during the post World War II years were interviewed. Topics covered in the interviews include how and why individuals left the South (generally for economic reasons, not blatant racism and violence); their experiences adjusting to life in New York; their retention of Southern cultural practices (food, especially soul food, gospel music, crafts including quilting, worship practices and church activities); the individuals' ongoing connections to the South through regular family visits, homecoming, etc.; and their thoughts on moving back to the South (or for those few who had already moved from New York, they compared their lives in both areas). The informants recount their positive relations with other black families and with white neighbors in the South and school experiences with strict yet caring black teachers. Neighborhood life in Harlem, central Brooklyn and parts of Queens during the 1940's through the early 1960's were recounted, as well as discussions covering life up to the early 1990's during the time of the interviews is included. The New York City interviews were conducted by City Lore Project Director Ray Allen and the Virginia interviews were conducted by Dr. Marilyn White. less

The Kenneth Marshall Papers document his career as an administrator for several federally funded urban youth group programs and related endeavors. The bulk of the collection contains New York City Youth Board process records (accounts of interaction with and observations of street gangs) for 1951-1953. Also included are the process records of a co-worker, Daniel Belknap, and a monograph published by the N.Y.C. Youth Board entitled "Reaching the Fighting Gang" (1960). There are files from his work with HARYOU, the proposal and other reports for the Mobilization for Youth program, papers on juvenile deliquency, education and social work issues, two drafts of his dissertation pertaining to street gangs, in addition to publications from Metropolitan Applied Research Center, and files and publications from his work with AT&T. Of particular interest are Marshall's files for the National Black Economic Development Conference (1969) and the related Black Manifesto. Marshall drafted a proposal for the initiation of the Black Manifesto's program. less