Sonkin, Robert, 1910-1980
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person
Sonkin, Robert, 1910-1980
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Name :
Sonkin, Robert, 1910-1980
Sonkin, Robert
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Name :
Sonkin, Robert
Sonkin, R.
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Name :
Sonkin, R.
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Biographical History
Biographical History
Born 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.
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External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/33246763
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n77009199
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n77009199
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7349919
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Languages Used
Subjects
Slavery
African American families
African American farmers
African American gospel singers
African American gospel singers
African Americans
African Americans
African Americans
African Americans
African Americans
African American school children
Blues (Music)
Field recordings
Field recordings
Field recordings
Folk songs, English
Folk songs, English
Freedmen
Gospel music
Gospel music
Hymns, English
Jubilee singers
Traditional medicine
Sharecropping
Slave narratives
Spirituals (Songs)
Nationalities
Activities
Occupations
Collector
Legal Statuses
Places
Shell Pile (N.J.)
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Gee's Bend (Ala.)
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>