Permission to quote from this transcript must be obtained from the Rutgers Oral History Archives. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Ernest Hilberg: I was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, July 25, , and I lived on what was called by the locals, "Mortgage Hill," and the reason was that everybody but my father seemed to have a mortgage that only required you to pay interest, preceding ; hint.
The FHA [Federal Housing Administration], by the way, came through and said, "As long as you keep the place neat and clean and [you are] making a payment, you can stay in your house," because an empty house is worthless.
Proceeding with I mention this because it was the first time I came in contact with people of a different color and it was quite interesting, One school was almost totally black; every other school was almost nil, and this, you saw the way it was planned, that it was obviously gerrymandered.
It turned out, there was one test that I took in grammar school that I must have aced, because I wound up in the top science classes of junior high. I mention this because I said, "I'm taking the scientific course. I don't care what you say, I am going to college," a warning about guidance teachers ; I went on to Thomas Jefferson [High School]. In an effort to save money, I worked.
In those days, three hundred dollars would get you through the first semester and, it turned out, Rutgers refused me, but my mother knew Dean Earl Reed Silvers very well and he was the Dean of Men at that time.
