Comments

Oral history recorded for the Bronx African American History Project on June 28, 2023 with Norris Burroughs, who grew up in the United Workers Cooperative Colony, or the Allerton Coops, during the 1950s and 1960s. His father, Eric Burroughs, was a theater and radio actor who, among other roles, played Hecate in Orson Welles's Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth in 1936 ("Voodoo Macbeth," as it is commonly called). His grandmother, Williana Burroughs, was a public school teacher, activist, and one of the first African American women to run for public office in New York State, as part of the Communist Party U.S.A.'s ticket during the early 1930s. In his oral history, Norris speaks about his family history, his father's acting career, his experience growing up in the Coops and the Allerton neighborhood, his own forays into live musical performance, his lifelong fascination with visual art, especially cartoons, and many other topics.

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/106

Disciplines

African American Studies | Public History

Download
COinS