Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Arelene W. Clinkscale knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue a career in teaching. Throughout her decades long career in education, Dr. Clinkscale has been a role model and trailblazer in education in Rockland County,...
1st African American Teacher in Pearl River1st African American Female Principal in Rockland County1st African American School Superintendent in NY State Dr. Arlene W. Clinkscale is a role model and ground-breaker in the world of education in Rockland County. She was the first African American school teacher hired in...
Monday, December 9, 2019, 6 PM Rockland Community College Technology Center, Ellipse Rm 8180 Rockland Community College – 145 College Road, Suffern, NY 10901 This Program is the Culmination of our Event: 1619 – Remembering 400 years: Knowing the Past to Understand our Present and Future Learn about our...
Knowing the Past to Understand Our Present This is a community event for the entire family in observance of the documented arrival of African people during 1619 in Jamestown Virginia. Sponsored by the African American Historical Society of Rockland County (AAHS). The year 2019 marks 400 years since the documented...
Thank you for attending our Annual Meeting held at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY, on Mon, Dec 17, 2018. The below highlights of the meeting including an annual update of the Society’s activities by Co-President Drusilla Kinzonzi, and a keynote presentation by David Lucander, PhD. David Lucander, PhD,...
By Jamila Brathwaite The St. Charles African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church today stands on Valentine Road in Sparkill, New York. In 1897, the church was rebuilt in its present location; however, in the mid-1800s, free blacks and former slaves built the original church near the Rockland County line in...
Dr. Edmund W. Gordon W. E. B. DuBois once asked a question having to do with whether America could have become America without the participation of the African peoples. He and most informed people answer that question in the negative. The elements of culture, intelligence and labor that flowed...
By Dr. Travis Jackson The discovery of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan in 1991 stimulated an interest in slavery, as it had existed in New York City during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Until that time, the city’s deep association with slavery was not widely known; most...
Civil War Soldier Monologue My name is William Henry Myers and I am a proud CITIZEN of Nyack, New York and these United States! Now, I put emphasis on citizen because unfortunately during many years of my life, I wasn’t considered a citizen or even a human being. See,...
By Jamila Brathwaite During World War II, Rockland County became home to the largest U.S. Army embarkation camp in the United States. Camp Shanks was located “in and around Orangeburg in the Town of Orangetown, New York.” The installation was named for Major General David Cary Shanks (1861–1940) who...