Search

Emmanuel George interviews Samuel Anderson on April 11, 2024 at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. Samuel Edward Anderson was born on August 16, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents' ancestry consists of Jamaican, Barbadian, and West African roots. At the age of four, Anderson and his family moved to Germany due to his father's service in World War II. He learned German and attended kindergarten. At the age of eight, his family returned to the United States and lived in Amityville, New York. In middle school, he lived in Panama and in high school he lived in New Britain, Connecticut.

Emmanuel George interviews Shirley Baker on April 12, 2024 at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. Shirley Baker was born in Blakley, Georgia. She moved to Florida with her family around 1955. She discusses her mother's ancestry in Georgia. Shirley Baker describes her childhood growing up with her family in Hallandale, Hollywood, Dania, and Fort Lauderdale. She attended schools such as Colins Elementary, Chester A. Moore Elementary, Lanier Junior High, and Attucks High School. She recounts school integration during her tenth-grade year of high school at Hollywood Hills High School. She was part of the first integrated graduating class of Hollywood Hills High School in 1969. She describes the segregated conditions of Broward County, explaining the close knit African American community in Liberia. Shirley was the first African American to work in the mayor's office as a receptionist in Fort Lauderdale.