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Interviewee: Brenda Beattie Neuman

Interviewer: Steven Payne

October 17, 2020

Oral history recorded for the Bronx African American History Project on October 17, 2020 with Brenda Beattie Neuman, who grew up in the United Workers Cooperative Colony, or the Allerton Coops. Brenda's adopted parents, the Beatties, were both of African American descent, and it was not until many years later that Brenda discovered her own ancestry—her birth mother was an Ashkenazi Jew, and her birth father was a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. Brenda herself, however, was raised as an African American by her adopted parents. In her oral history, Brenda speaks about her experience growing up in the Coops, the different treatment of Black families in the building, especially during the 1930s (even though it was one of the first interracial housing complexes in New York City), her own successful efforts to make the Coops a national landmark in the 1980s, and much more. The interviewer is Steven Payne, director of The Bronx County Historical Society. The Bronx African American History Project is a community-based oral history project of Fordham University and The Bronx County Historical Society.

LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: http://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/baahp/id/91

Disciplines

African American Studies | Public History

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