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Robert Sonkin Alabama and New Jersey CollectionAFC 1941/018Prepared by Amy Palmer and Judy NgDecember 2005
Biographical HistoryBorn in the Bronx, New York in 1911, Robert Sonkin was an educator, ethnographic researcher, and author. A graduate of the City College of New York and Columbia University, Sonkin taught at the Department of Public Speaking at City College from 1929 to 1976. In the late 1930s, he worked with Charles L. Todd, his colleague at the Department of Public Speaking, to document the experience of residents of the FSA migrant worker camps in California in 1940 and 1941. In the summer of 1941, using money granted by City College of New York to document Americana, Sonkin traveled to Shell Pile, New Jersey, and Gee's Bend, Alabama to record the religious music and personal reflections of African Americans living in those communities. In Gee's Bend, Sonkin also recorded conversations about the FSA projects that were being undertaken there. During World War II, he worked with the Archive of American Folk Song to document popular reactions to America's involvement in the war, and served in the Army Signal Corps. In the late 1970s, he again collaborated with Todd to produce the book Alexander Bryan Johnson: Philosophical Banker. He is also the author of The Voice and Speech Handbook. He died in New York in 1980. Return to the Table of Contents Scope and ContentThe collection consists of documentation from Robert Sonkin's field recording trip to Shell Pile, near Port Norris, New Jersey, and from there to Gee's Bend and other locations in Alabama in June-July 1941. Sonkin recorded two discs of African American quartets performing gospel music in Shell Pile, June 25, 1941. His field notes also describe the African American community of Shell Pile, named for the oyster shucking industry established there near Port Norris, N.J. Forty-nine of the sixty-three discs were made in various locations in Gee's Bend, Alabama, and include prayer meetings, sermons, gospel music, spirituals, hymns, jubilee quartet singing, blues, children's songs, recitations and conversations. These discussions cover health and home remedies, the Gee's Bend school, and the Farm Security Administration's (FSA) Gee's Bend study. Sonkin also recorded ten discs in other areas in Alabama, including gospel quartet music in Bessemer, Alabama; interviews in Camden and Palmerdale, Alabama; and gospel music in Rehoboth and Greensboro, Alabama. Narratives by two former slaves, Isom Moseley and Alice Gaston, were recorded on July 22, 1941. In addition to the recordings, there are typescript copies of research materials about Gee's Bend, Alabama dating from 1937-1939, including a paper, "An exploratory study of the customs, attitudes and folkways of the people in the community of Gee's Bend," by Nathaniel S. Colley of the Tuskegee Institute. Other reports on farm production, construction of new housing and barns, home economics, and community health, which were issued by government agencies, are included in the collection. Return to the Table of Contents Selected Search TermsPeople
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Return to the Table of Contents Container ListSeries I: ManuscriptsAdministrativeFolder list, AFC Collections Database and LC Catalog record printouts Correspondence (1938)2 letters Notes (1937-1941)Field notes covering AFS 5035 to AFS 5098 (October 1937 to July 3, 1941); Field notes (1941); Superstitions (no date); "Taken from Charles L. Todd / California Migrant Labor Collection" Recording Logs (June 25 - July 25, 1941)3 copies (AFS 5040 to AFS 5098) Reports (1937-1939)"Big World At Last Reaches Gee's Bend," transcript of article from NY Times Magazine (August 22, 1937); "Exploratory Study of the Customs, Attitudes and Folkways of the People in the Community of Gee's Bend," by Nathaniel S. Colley (n.d.); "Gee's Bend," by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Farm Security Administration, 2 copies (Sept. 16, 1939; revised Jan. 17, 1941); "Gee's Bend Annual Health Report 1938-1939," by Annie E. Shamburg, Project Nurse (n.d.); "Gee's Bend Farms, Farm Security Administration Report of S. T. Haynes, Farm Supervisor" (n.d.); "Gee's Bend Farms Report of W.K. Idlett, Home Economist," 2 copies (n.d.); "Gee's Bend-Report," no author (n.d.); "Gee's Bend: Report on Visit Made April 17-21, 1939," by Constance E. H. Daniel; "Narrative Report Covering the Economic, Educational, Social and Community Progress for the Gee's Bend Project for the Year, 1938"; "Report on Gee's Bend," no author (n.d.). Transcriptions (June 25 - July 25, 1941)Texts of songs, summary of interviews (AFS 5040 to AFS 5073) Transcriptions (June 25 - July 25, 1941)Texts of songs, summary of interviews (AFS 5074 to AFS 5098) Series II: Sound RecordingsDiscsAFS 5035-509864 disc recordings recorded in Port Norris, New Jersey and Alabama. Specific locations in Alabama include Gee's Bend, Palmerdale, Birmingham, Bessemer, Camden, Greensboro, Selma and Rehoboth. Collection Concordance by FormatAppendix A: Locations where Recordings were MadeAlabama
New Jersey
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