Earle Alexander

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT SUMMARY
Dr. Earle Alexander

143rd interview
Interviewee: Dr. Earle Alexander
Interviewers: Dr. Mark Naison, Dawn
Interview took place February 6, 2006
Summarized by Concetta Gleason 12-20-06

Dr. Earle Alexander was born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. Alexander’s mother immigrated to the U.S. from Trinidad and his father from Grenada. His parents met in New York and had three children together. Alexander’s parents decided to move the family to the Bronx in the mid-1930s. The family lived on Washington Ave, and he attended P.S.42. His mother was very involved with the neighborhood and eventually became the president of the local Parent Teacher Association. Because of his father’s job on the railroad the family traveled to many different places throughout the country. The family was Episcopalian and St. Paul’s Church was nearby their house. However, there was a “Gentleman’s Agreement” between St. Paul’s Church, a white church, and St. David’s Church, a black church, that whenever a member of the opposite race came to their church they would send them to the other congregation. When his mother found out about the agreement, she went to see the Bishop from New York, Bishop Manning, who was able to force the church to accept the family.

Both of Alexander’s parents heavily emphasized education and politics. Earle attended P.S. 55 Junior High School and attended Rose Prep for high school. His father brought home many magazines and newspapers and quizzed the children about world events. A level of interest and knowledge about international and domestic issues was expected in the Alexander household.

The kids took music lessons privately and Earle would go on to play in the high school orchestra. Earle had a speech impediment as a child and music was his only means of self-expression. His neighborhood was composed predominately of Jewish families. The neighborhood and Crotona Park was relatively safe where he played outside as a child. When World War II broke out the neighborhood began to change negatively and many families moved away to a higher quality building near Boston Road.

Earle attended St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina despite his parent’s fear of racial discrimination in the South. A class distinction occurred among the black community dependent on what school you attended, especially if you went to college. Despite living in the segregated South, the school was very self-contained and contained a class of upper crust black professionals, such as Earle’s uncle whom previously attended the school.

After Earle graduated St. Augustine’s College, he was drafted into the army. Upon a former professor’s suggestion, Earle completed his medical degree in Germany at the University of Hamburg. Earle had learned the German language from his friends and neighbors as a child and kept up an academic interest in the subject throughout school. Alexander became interested in psychology in Germany and later attended NYU Bellevue for psychiatric training.

Key Words: Washington Ave, Claremont, “Gentleman’s Agreement”, Bishop Manning, Parent Teacher Association, the Democratic club, the Blood Brothers, Tobago Benevolent Association, St. Paul’s Church, St. David’s Church, Garveyite, Education, Politics, Episcopalian, Trinidad, Grenada, Jewish families, Physician, Nurse, Public Porter, The Apollo Theater, Railroad, St. Augustine’s College, the South, World War II, Germany, German language, University of Hamburg, Caribbean music, Americanized, Brooklyn, Trinidadian friends, Class distinction, Rose Prep, Psychiatry, Racial Discrimination, Integration

BACK TO TRANSCRIPT SUMMARIES INDEX