Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Oral Histories Bronx African American History Project 10-2-2015 Jones, Geraldine Jones, Geraldine. Bronx African American History Project Fordham University Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/baahp_oralhist Part of the African American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Jones, Geraldine. Interview with the Bronx African American History Project. BAAHP Digital Archive at Fordham University. This Interview is brought to you for free and open access by the Bronx African American History Project at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oral Histories by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Interviewer: Mark Naison Interviewee: Geraldine Jones Date: N/A Page 1 Naison: What's your name mam? Jones: My name is Geraldine, my name is Geraldine Jones. Naison: What year did your family move to the Bronx? Jones: My family moved in 47 Naison: And where did they come to the Bronx from? Jones: I moved from Madison Ave. we owned one of those Blackstone. And they was going to tear down those houses and make a school, and we sold the house and we move in the Bronx. And we moved in 47. The neighborhood I moved in was anybody, we were the only blacks in the neighborhood. N aison: And what street was this on? Jones: Then it was Oak Tree Place. Then we moved from Oak Tree Place on Belmont Ave. Naison: Right Jones: 21 Belmont Ave. There I stayed almost about fifty years. I raised my children there. They went to 81. Martin; they went from there to ... Naison: Oh you went to St. Martin of Tours Jones: St. Martin of Tours. When I moved in the neighborhood there wasn't St. Martin of Tours got burnt down before I was there. We built the church, and that was my parish that's where my children went to school. They grew up there; they went to college and everything. Well we was the only black people in the neighborhood had a Laundromat on I 80th Street. We were the only blacks in that building that I lived. It was all Italian and Jews. We had a hard time living up there. My husband and me myself had to walk my children to school because the Italians weren't used to the black peoples in the neighborhood. We are close body Italians, nothing but Italians, you know levity. Finally they got used to us, in the long run. My kids was in school everyday my kids would come home with a bruise on them. My husband had to go or I , we finally straightened things out. Naison: Did they go to Catholic school or Public school? Jones: They went to Catholic School, St. Martin's. And from there to Aquinas Naison: Right Interviewer: Mark Naison Interviewee: Geraldine Jones Date: N/A Page 2 Jones: That's Catholic. We are Catholic. They used to, march us to church, those boys in the back of us calling us all kinds of names. In those days we wasn't called blacks, we was called Niger's. That's what they, in those days. Whether you all know it or not, that's what we was called. And finally they began to coming around at us. We lived there; my husband said we sold the house, we going to live here without any problems. Naison: Now you bought a house there? Jones: No we didn't buy a house. We bought a house first, umm on over Washington Ave. Naison: Right Jones: When we first moved up here we bought a Lemon; we took out our money and invested in a Lemon. N aison: On Washington and where? Jones: Off of Washington and 166th Street. N aison: Right Jones: We bought a Lemon from some Irish people. We stayed there for about two years. That house cost us more than what we put in it. Then we moved from there up on Rd. *not exactly sure of what she said*** in the Bronx where I am now. And that's where I stayed because I lost my husband and my two children, and me myself I'm still there. Naison: And this is on Belmont? Jones: No I'm not living on Belmont. Right around the corner, I'm a senior citizen now. I'm eighty-six, so I'm right around the corner now. Naison: Now how did you get that apartment in that neighborhood? Jones: Through my lawyer, though our lawyer. My husband hired a lawyer, that's how we got the apartment. Naison: Now when you were going through all these things, in that Italian neighborhood, did you ever think about moving back into Morrisania where ... Jones: No, (I'm going to open a window) because in those days they say Harlem, we call ourselves move in, Harlem in those days was in Harlem. Not everybody is going back to Harlem. It is the same as where I am living now. The Italians was running away from us. They was burning down the houses, they was every Friday night we was in the Interviewer: Mark Naison Interviewee: Geraldine Jones Date: N/A Page 3 streets because they was burning house down in the back of us or on the side. The Landlord was paying these people to burn these houses down. I guess you all know about that. Naison: Now so you lived through the fires. Jones: I lived through all of that. Naison: Now the neighborhood you are living in, how far North of Tremont was it where you moved to? Jones: Just around the corner about two blocks. Naison: Two blocks north of Tremont. And what year did you move to that apartment? Jones: Were I'm now? Naison: No to the one you know you moved into with your husband at Belmont. Jones: Oh we moved there in 47. Naison: And how long have you lived in the house you live in now? Jones: Jones: I've been there for twenty-three years. The building is twenty-three years old. And I was the president of that building; I was the president of that building. Naison: Now did you work with the Crotona Community Coalition? Jones: I worked with the community coalition with umm ... Naison: Was it Jacob? Did you work for the Boston Tercobo? Jones: Tercobo, Jacob I know when he comes here from his home. We formed the coalition, and I worked with him in that neighborhood until he died. That's right. And me myself was a administrator of buildings. I saved the building where we was living. Naison: Wow! Jones: Because they was going to tare it down, and I went to school to study to be a administrator and I saved that building. Naison: Now where did your children end up going to College after Aquinas? Jones: My daughter went to, My son he went to what's the one off of. .. Naison: Not Fordham. Interviewer: Mark Naison Interviewee: Geraldine Jones Date: N/A Page 4 Jones: No, no, no, no my daughter went all the way up, Leman, Naison: Leman oh to Leman. Ok Jones: My daughter went to Leman, and my son he went over off of the Concourse, what is the ... Community College Naison: Community College. Right ok Jones: In the meantime, I had lost my husband when my kids was still in Catholic school. Naison: Wow Jones: But through Mrs. Dates, Estelle Dates, she opened up a way for me to get both of my kids in college. Naison: oh that. .. Now you husband owned a Laundromat is that ... Jones: That's right. Naison: And where was his Laundromat located? What street? Jones: It was 180th Street between Author and Belmont. And we was the only, and they used to the Italians and the Jews would bring their clothes and they would go to work and they would leave them and my husband would always fold them and give them back. The neighborhood they got to like us very well. My husband passed away, when he passed left me with the Laundromat so I sold the Laundromat. I didn't sell it right them because it was beginning to get the blacks in the neighborhood, moving in; the Spanish was living there, all ethnicities. Every time you turned around they was breaking in the Laundromat, they was taking stock, they did so many things to me that I was ready to give it away for nothing. The laundry, so you want to say something else? Naison: Yeah When did you first notice the Landlords burning the buildings around where you were living? Jones: We lived there about six years before we found out that the Landlords began to burn down the buildings. They even started burning down 180th Street because from 3rd Ave. all the way to Southern Blvd, you could buy anything you want. There was stores all the way, all along there, but after they started burning. They burned down all the way down there was no stores no nothing. Now they got all little town hall. Naison: Right. I know that neighborhood pretty well because I've worked with Father Flint at St. Paul's Schools Interviewer: Mark Naison Interviewee: Geraldine Jones Date: N/A Page 5 Jones: That's my, I go there. Naison: And Sister Barbara at Thorp. Jones: That's right. Naison: You know because that neighborhood was hit very hard by the crack epidemic in the ... Jones: Very hard. Naison: In the eighties and nineties.