"I was raised in what is now the "jungle" of New York, the lower Bronx, and, indeed, at that time it was a very pleasant place. We played like all other kids. Where I lived was a very small enclave, a ghetto, but there were a number of ghettos. Most of the people there were immigrants; first generation Americans from Italy, Ireland, Poland, and there were a few French people. In a way, in a peculiar way, it was an integrated community composed of several separated ghettos. That was about the norm in those days. The idea of integration hadn't really gotten started, so I think that for anyone living today it would be a period that would be really difficult to understand...it was...in spite of some of the racism which I began to learn in school, a rather pleasant life."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ollie Harrington Why I Left America and Other Essays (1993)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Bronx
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Bronx
The Bronx is New York City's northernmost borough. It is the only one of the city's five boroughs situated on the United States mainland rather than on an island. It was named for Jonas Bronck, a sea captain and resident of the mid-1600s.
3 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Bronx →
Related Quotes
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning."
"My name is Benny Blanco from the Bronx. - You know me?"
"White people in New York talk about Alabama as though they had no Harlem. To ignore what is happening in their own ba…"
"where are the women writers of the Harlem Renaissance being taught? Why did it take so long for Zora Neale Hurston to…"
"I've never believed that the people really were willing and able to pay the price of integration. From a practical st…"
"I've walked through the streets in East Harlem, and people have said, "Dónde está los Young Lords?" Where did they go…"
"All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand;…"
"About the time I was 17 and graduated from high school, I went to Harlem, and that was a most beautiful place where, …"
"Everyone has their own Stonewall legend."
"The last goal I set for myself was to find the Stonewall. The news of the battle against the police in C.E.1969 had a…"