Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (Finding Aid)

Rosalyn Terborg-Penn

1941 -

Favorite Color: Purple

Favorite Time of Year: Spring

Favorite Vacation Spot: Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Interview Length: 86 minutes

Interview Date(s): June 15, 2004

Interview Location(s): Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland

Abstract

Author and educator Rosalyn Terborg-Penn shares her family history, discussing her ancestors' origins and her parents' backgrounds and personalities. Terborg-Penn describes her experiences growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, remembering family holidays, her elementary shcool, and her family's involvement in the church. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn describes her educational history from junior high school onwards, and her path into teaching. She reflects on her encounters with race and racism throughout high school, and her involvement with civil rights organizations in college during the 1960s at Queens University and George Washington University. She recounts her first professional job at a settlement house in Washington, D.C., and her move to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland where she obtained her Ph.D. and a full-time teaching position. She then recalls the beginning of her involvement in black women's studies. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn describes her experiences in academia, and the historical invisibility of African American women. She relates her own experiences delving into black women's history, and pushing for women's history courses. She stresses her belief in the importance of education, mentoring and role models for African Americans, and describes her current hopes for her own work, and for the African American community. She describes a number of photographs from her and her family's history.

49 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)