Oral histories documenting New Haven, Connecticut

Scope and Contents: Bret Bissell moved to New Haven in the mid-1960s as an intern for the National Assocation of Intergroup Relations. He eventually became executive director of the Human Relations Council in New Haven. After this group folded, Bissell, a self-described "social engineer," worked for a number of federally funded agencies, dealing at various points with integration, community planning, and housing. He discusses New Haven's years as a "model city," when the city served as the test...

Scope and Contents: Interviewer: Ray, Ellen

Scope and Contents: Virginia Blaisdell moved to New Haven in 1962 after graduating from Wellesley College and became involved in the American Independent Movement. Blaisdell left that group in the early 1970s as she became involved in feminist politics. Her interview focuses on her experiences as a feminist and her relationships with other political activist groups. Blaisdell discusses her impressions of the American Independent Movement and the Black Panthers, both of which she felt were too male-dominated. She...

Scope and Contents: John Bontatibus was born in Clinton Avenue in the Chatham Square section of Fair Haven in 1932, which was then known as "Clam Town." Bontatibus remembers working on his father's milk farm in Branford, and making deliveries around the New Haven area. Bontatibus dwells on the variety of childhood activities available around Fair Haven: street games after school, playing in Indian Cave in Fair Haven Heights, ice skating in Hollywood Park, being in the Boy Scouts, going to Savin Rock in...

Scope and Contents: Deborah Bovilsky was raised in Kentucky, and attended Northwestern University before moving to New Haven in mid 1960s. Her husband, Jay, attended Yale Law School while Deborah studied psychology at Columbia University. She lived for a number of years in downtown New Haven, and was active in leftist causes during the 1960s. She discusses her impressions of the Bobby Seale/Black Panther trial and New Haven's redevelopment plans. She also discusses a number of unique community programs that grew...

Scope and Contents: Arthur Brandenberg came to Yale in 1961 to serve as chaplain to Methodist students and took part in antiwar and civil rights activism on campus until he left in 1971. On the verge of being fired from Duke University for his liberal racial views, Brandenberg accepted an invitation from William Sloan Coffin, Jr., the University Chaplain, to come to Yale. Brandenberg discusses the religious community at Yale in the 1960s and the community and national activism of the campus ministries. Brandenberg...

Scope and Contents: Interviewer: James, Jennifer; Beyersdorf, Mark; and Bettwy, Bix

Length (min): 80, 73

Scope and Contents: Sam Slie was born in 1925 and grew up in the Oak Street neighborhood of New Haven. He discusses his experiences as an African American in New Haven during the Great Depression and in the southern United States during World War II. Slie describes the Oak Street neighborhood as very ethnically diverse. He had Jewish and African American friends and talks about the variety of small businesses that Jews and African Americans owned. He did not personally feel much racial tension growing up. Slie...

Scope and Contents: Mercedes Soto, who grew up in Gary, Indiana, describes her involvement in LEAP since 1995. LEAP, Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership, is a New Haven youth mentoring program that began 1992. She discusses her experiences working with displaced and unmotivated New Haven youth in both after-school and summer programs. She describes the visions, challenges, and rewards of interacting with and empowering young people. She talks about the skills she believes LEAP creates and enhances...

Scope and Contents: Peter Spodick was born in New Haven, and attended Yale College and Yale Law School. He grew up in Woodbridge, but spent a great deal of time in New Haven as child. He describes his childhood as an age of innocence. Although he was part of small Jewish minority in Woodbridge, Spodick felt no discomfort on this count. He remembers walking the streets of downtown New Haven at night, with no sense of fear. But now, Spodick suggests, things have changed. Spodick describes the changing role of Yale...

Scope and Contents: Nancy Stitzer, a white student, was part of the first generation of students who were bussed to Bassett Junior High School. She also Hillhouse High School during the 1967 race riot there. Stitzer remembers the bussing and integration experience very negatively and believes that it hurt the cohesion of her school class. She explains that many students went to private schools if their parents could afford it, while those who could not faced bussing and redistricting that broke up their classes...