A Special Q+A with Marquis Taylor

TM: Where did you grow up?

MT: I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I grew up in Canarsie but spent many weekends with my paternal grandparents in Bed-Stuy and my maternal grandparents in the South Bronx.

TM: What do you study?

MT: I am PhD Candidate in African American History at Northwestern. My dissertation research explores how Black college students responded to the expectations imposed on them by federal policymakers and administrators at Black colleges between 1918 and 1945. This three-decade period between the close of the First and Second World Wars constituted an intense era of state-building, strengthening of Black education, and the burgeoning consumer market; each of these forces resulted in competing visions of Black college students and their role within the Black community and a modernizing United States.

Focusing on Howard University, Tuskegee Institute (now University), and West Virginia Collegiate Institute, my dissertation considers how students’ sexual appetite, consumption and leisure practices, and perceptions of the nation prompted anxieties for an older generation of African Americans. Also, how administrators at those colleges deliberately worked to cement ties with members of Congress and different presidential administrations in hopes of receiving federal appropriations during the interwar period. In turn, Howard, Tuskegee, and West Virginia Collegiate Institute served as hubs to pilot programs affiliated with federal agencies like the Division of Venereal Disease and the National Youth Administration.

TM: Tell us about your work at the Museum!

MT: As Lead Researcher for A Union of Hope: 1869, I work with the Education Department to strengthen this tour’s content and assist with programs for K-12 students, school teachers, and public audiences. In addition, I conduct research based on questions posed by visitors and educators. The research reports range from questions about oyster consumption in the 1860s to mutual aid associations in the Eighth Ward and public schools for Black students during the 1860s.

TM: What were some of the highlights during your experience researching for and leading our new A Union of Hope: 1869 tour?

MT: I really enjoyed engaging with the public over the past year. From interviews to working with public school teachers, the Museum’s emphasis on the public has provided the opportunity to showcase the research conducted for this tour before an even larger audience. In this vein, I’ve also done some exciting programs during my time here, such as a virtual public program with Kat about celebratory traditions among Black New Yorkers following the end of slavery in New York and holding two reading group meetings with Museum educators.

It was also nice to share a bit about myself and the work I’ve done at the Museum at this year’s gala.

TM: What is your family’s immigration/migration story?

MT: Both sides of my family descend from southern-born migrants. My mother’s great-grandparents migrated to Manhattan from Virginia and North Carolina during the early 1900s. On my father’s side, his grandparents came to Harlem and Brooklyn from North Carolina and South Carolina at the height of the Great Depression.

TM: Favorite Tenement Museum tour and why?

MT: My favorite tour is A Union of Hope (I know that’s expected). Beyond helping with the research on this tour, I went to high school just a few blocks from Joseph and Rachel Moore’s 17 Laurens Street address. When I was in high school, there were no street markers or historical monuments to commemorate this community and the significant Black churches and institutions that were once located there. Also, at that time, the Tenement Museum had no permanent tour of a Black family. It’s been an amazing opportunity to see this tour added to the Museum’s offering and grow from its initial research phase to a completed recreated apartment. I hope A Union of Hope:1869 influences people to take an interest in this neighborhood and the communities formed there.

Check out Marquis’s latest article in The Gotham Center for New York City History: Civil War-Era Black New York And Historical Memory: Locating The Eighth Ward!