Scope and Contents Alan Townsend recalls his early time in New York as a counselor for girls’ school Callagy Hall, where he was part of union activism on staff; becoming accustomed to and understanding New York City youth as part of his job at Callagy Hall; starting as a SEEK counselor at Queens College in 1969; living on Christopher Street and the West Village in NYC pre-Stonewall, and later living in Springfield Gardens and Flushing in Queens and the Black communities there; growing up in North Carolina...

Abstract

This oral history was an interview of Samuel Heilman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College, by Obden Mondesir in April, 2020. In it, Professor Heilman talks about the effects of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 in his personal life and his primarily Jewish Orthodox community of New Rochelle, New York, the site of the first major American outbreak of the disease.