Childhood in the New London Road Community

 

In this section, residents of Newark remember their childhood in the predominantly Black New London Road community. Topics of discussion include school, childhood games, and the neighborhood social life.


Reid Barrow interviewing Marva Bond-Smith

In this clip, Marva Bond-Smith remembers the good times she had within the New London community. She describes three different activities her and the community did to have fun when she was a child. The first event was sledding down the hill between the St. John Church on Cleveland Avenue and Corbitt Street. Second, during warmer months when it would rain, they would go outside and build paper boats to float them in the streams that would gather in the curbs of the streets. The last event she describes occurred during the summer months when the community would gather out on the streets of their neighborhoods and have what she described as a block party. The police would section off the end of the streets and the residents would come out, have a party, and eat.

Julia Manson interviewing Crystal Hayman-Simms

Crystal Hayman-Simms spoke to her experience growing up in Newark. In this clip, she  describes her experience with integration as a fourth grader, and some of her first memories of being discriminated against.

Valeria Medina Zuniga interviewing Wilma Tucker Jones 1

In this clip, Wilma Jones talks about her experiences growing up in Newark, Delaware. Jones mentions the activities the community would hold such as block parties, skating parties, and movie showings.\

Valeria Medina Zuniga interviewing Wilma Tucker Jones 2

In this clip, Wilma Tucker Jones talks about her childhood and her adoptive mother, Cecilia James Lewis. Jones talks about her upbringing and the inheritance of her current home.

Daniel Minze interviewing Esther Hayman Welch

In this clip, Esther Hayman Welch describes her experience with racial issues in Newark, Delaware. Esther said that she was raised in a way that kept her away from many of these experiences, but in this clip, she recalls an incident from her third-grade classroom.