Joseph Belsky

Narrator: Joseph Belsky
Date Recorded: 08/15/07
Interviewed by: Betsy Reid
Topics: Japan
Bibliographical Note:
Dr. Joseph Belsky moved to Ridgefield in 1961 and started his medical practice on Catoonah Street. He was active in town politics and served on the School Building Committee and the Board of Education in the 1960s. Dr. Belsky and his family moved to Japan in 1969 where he worked for three years on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Japan. In this clip Dr Belsky recalls the Board of Education considering a request for a young black man named Prince Chambliss, from Birmingham Alabama, to attend high school here in 1964. In spite of the controversy Mr. Chambliss did attend Ridgefield high School and graduated in 1966. Mr. Chambliss wrote about his experience in his book titled Prince of Peace: A Memoir of an African American Attorney, Who Came of Age in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement. The Ridgefield Historical Society has a copy of his book in its lending library.