Ramona La Roche interviews Chief Nathaniel Styles on May 12, 2022 at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC). Chief Nathaniel Styles was born in June of 1962 in Tampa, Florida. He discusses his family roots in South Carolina and Georgia, and describes his matriarchal lineage. His mother Martha Beverly Ann Core was one of the first African Americans to work in the Eastern Airlines reservation office. His father Nathaniel Styles, Sr. was the first African American male youth social worker in the state of Florida. He connects his relationship with spirituality and community to values he learned throughout his childhood at the Spiritual Guidance Temple in Pompano Beach, Florida. Chief Nathaniel Styles describes his involvement in the fashion industry as a teenager. Later in his life, he became a high chief in the Yoruba kingdom as well as in Ghana. He recounts his experience traveling to Ghana and serving on the Research Committee for the building of AARLCC. He also describes his experience pouring libation with the high priest of the Benin Kingdom during the groundbreaking ceremony of AARLCC in October 1999.
