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Crown Heights History Project collection

Call Number

1994.006

Dates

1993-1994, inclusive
; 1993, bulk

Creator

Brooklyn Historical Society (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)

Extent

76.31 Gigabytes in 247 files, total running time: 38 hours, 7 minutes, 56 seconds; 3.31 linear feet in 1 record box, 3 document boxes, 2 flat boxes

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

Oral Histories include recordings collected through the Crown Heights History Project, undertaken by a partnership of cultural institutions led by Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) in 1993. The recordings contain over forty voices with perspectives on the racial tensions and discrimination that preceded three days of violence and unrest in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1991, the actions of the police, city government and mass media during the crisis, and the forms of reconciliation in the succeeding months. Among the narrators are Jamaican Americans, Guyanese Americans, Lubavitcher Jewish Americans, Reformed Jewish Americans, descendants of European and Russian Jews, and African Americans with roots in the Southern United States.

Biographical / Historical

History of Crown Heights: From the late nineteenth century up to the World War I era, the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn was known for being an upper and upper middle class residential enclave. Russian Jews, Irish, and Italians moved there as a part of the boom in immigration from 1880 to 1940. Smaller migrations to Crown Heights occurred as well, with Caribbean migrants among these. Seeing an opportunity for first-time home ownership, some of Harlem's African American residents moved to the neighborhood in the 1930s. A great wave of Caribbean immigration occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, and with many White residents removing to the suburbs, those immigrants along with Caribbean Americans and African Americans made up a great majority of the population from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Lubavitcher Hasidim, a Judaic movement that established its headquarters in Crown Heights in 1940, accounted for about eight percent of the population, according to early 1990s figures.*

In 1991, long simmering tensions between members of the Lubavitch Hasidim community and Black community erupted in neighborhood unrest and violence. That August, a car driven by Yosef Lifish of the Lubavitch Hasidim, struck Gavin Cato, a Guyanese American boy, along with his cousin. Cato died at the scene. Within hours and a few blocks away, a mob attack and stabbing of Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian rabbinical student, was instigated by an African American man, Charles Price, and committed by a Carribbean American teen, Lemrick Nelson. Rosenbaum later succumbed to his wounds, and the resulting three days of strife was encapsulated as the "Crown Heights Riot" by the news media.

The Crown Heights History Project at Brooklyn Historical Society: Two years after the Crown Heights Riot, Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), Brooklyn Children's Museum, and the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History started a collaborative project to examine the subtle community disconnects prior to August of 1991, the feelings and meanings of the flashpoint events, and the existential unease and healing movements in the communities afterwards. "Bridging Eastern Parkway" was the tentative title for the mounting of exhibitions at all three institutions. Cultural anthropologist Jill Vexler and historian Craig Wilder conducted research and interviews with the Crown Heights neighborhood residents and then curated the exhibitions. Collectively retitled the "Crown Heights History Project" in late 1993, BHS went on to present "Crown Heights: Perceptions and Realities" in 1994. Brooklyn Children's Museum presented "Crown Heights: The Inside Scoop" and the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville presented "Crown Heights: The African Diaspora." Oral history interviews, conducted by Vexler and Wilder, with assistance from Aviva Segall, made up a substantial component of the exhibition preparation and exhibited materials.

*Rule, Sheila. "The Voices and Faces of Crown Heights." New York Times (New York, NY), April 15, 1994.

Arrangement

The described series of oral histories as well as an unprocessed series of exhibition files comprise the Crown Heights History Project collection. Oral histories and transcripts were kept in their original order, largely arranged alphabetically by the narrator's last name. Exhibition files have not yet been processed.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains oral history recordings and transcripts, as well as exhibition materials, from Brooklyn Historical Society's Crown Heights History Project, also known as "Bridging Eastern Parkway." Crown Heights History Project oral histories include audio and transcripts created and collected within the context of an exhibition project undertaken in part by BHS in 1993 and 1994. Three interviewers recorded conversations with over forty narrators. In addition to exhibition product value, the oral histories were conducted as life history and community anthropology interviews; topics of discussion include family and heritage, immigration and relocation, cultural and racial relations, occupations and professions, education and religion, housing and gentrification, civil unrest and reconciliation, media representation and portrayal, and activism. The series of exhibition research materials document the outreach efforts for interviews and materials from the community as well as exhibition scripts and curatorial notes.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers with varied restrictions according to narrator agreement. Many oral histories can be accessed onsite at the Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and online on the Oral History Portal. Unprocessed exhibition research materials are open to researchers upon request and are accessible onsite at the Othmer Library.

Conditions Governing Use

Use of the oral histories other than for private study, scholarship, or research requires the permission of BHS. Please see the Oral History Note for guidelines on using Brooklyn Historical Society's oral history collections. For assistance, contact library@brooklynhistory.org.

Preferred Citation

[Narrator Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer First name Last name], [Month day, YYYY], Crown Heights History Project collection, [Object ID]; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Recordings and transcripts were collected through the Crown Heights History Project, undertaken by a partnership of cultural institutions led by Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) in 1993.The curator of the project, Jill Vexler, retained the project records. Brooklyn Historical Society acquired the collection from Ms. Vexler in 2012.

Related Materials

In addition to this collection, Brooklyn Historical Society has oral history collections and other records related to the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn:

- The West Indian Carnival Documentation Project Records includes thirty-four interviews dating from 1994 to 1995 (2010.019)

- The Listen to this: Crown Heights Oral History collection includes forty-three interviews conducted in 2010 (2010.020)

- Eastern Parkway Coalition records, 1952-2007 (2007.016)

- 959 Park Place Tenants' Association records (1978.009)

For more information on these collections please visit our online finding aid portal at Brooklyn Historical Society.

Historical note bibliography

Conaway, Carol B. "Crown Heights: Politics and Press Coverage of the Race War That Wasn't," Polity 32 (Autumn 1991): 93-118.
Girgenti, Richard H. A Report to the Governor on the Disturbances in Crown Heights: An Assessment of the City's Preparedness and Response to Civil Disorder 2 vols. Albany: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, 1993.
Glaberson, William. "Judge Accepts a Guilty Plea in '91 Crown Heights unrest." New York Times (New York, NY), April 13, 2002.
Goldschmidt, Henry. Race and Religion Among the Chosen Peoples of Crown Heights New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006.
Gregor, Alison. "Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Where Stoop Life Still Thrives." New York Times. (New York, NY), June 17, 2015.
McCarthy, Sheryl. "Crown Heights Question: What About Charles Price?" Newsday. (Melville, NY), January 9, 2002.
McFarland, Stephen & Nelson, Katie "Timeline: How Crown Heights Riots Unfolded." New York Daily News. (New York, NY), August 14, 2011.
Shapiro, Edward S. Crown Heights: Blacks, Jews, and the 1991 Brooklyn Riot Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2006.
Waldrep, Christopher. Racial Violence on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws and Documents Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001.

Oral History note

Oral history interviews are intimate conversations between two people, both of whom have generously agreed to share these recordings with the Brooklyn Historical Society archives and with researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. Researchers will understand that: 1. The Brooklyn Historical Society abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association (2009) and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics. 2. Every oral history relies on the memories, views and opinions of the narrator. Because of the personal nature of oral history, listeners may find some viewpoints or language of the recorded participants to be objectionable. In keeping with its mission of preservation and unfettered access whenever possible, BHS presents these views as recorded. 3. Transcripts created prior to 2008 serve as a guide to the interview and are not considered verbatim. The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. It may contain natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, repetitions that are common in conversation, and other passages and phrases omitted from the transcript. This decision was made because BHS gives primacy to the audible voice and also because some researchers do find useful information in these verbal patterns. 4. Unless these verbal patterns are germane to your scholarly work, when quoting from this material researchers are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications maintaining the flavor of the narrator's speech while editing the material for the standards of print.

Oral history interviews are intimate conversations between two people, both of whom have generously agreed to share these recordings with the Brooklyn Historical Society archives and with researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. Researchers will understand that:

1. The Brooklyn Historical Society abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association (2009) and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.

2. Every oral history relies on the memories, views and opinions of the narrator. Because of the personal nature of oral history, listeners may find some viewpoints or language of the recorded participants to be objectionable. In keeping with its mission of preservation and unfettered access whenever possible, BHS presents these views as recorded.

3. Transcripts created prior to 2008 serve as a guide to the interview and are not considered verbatim. The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. It may contain natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, repetitions that are common in conversation, and other passages and phrases omitted from the transcript. This decision was made because BHS gives primacy to the audible voice and also because some researchers do find useful information in these verbal patterns.

4. Unless these verbal patterns are germane to your scholarly work, when quoting from this material researchers are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications maintaining the flavor of the narrator's speech while editing the material for the standards of print.

Collection processed by

Brett Dion

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 11:16:05 +0000.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

Recordings and transcripts were digitized by BHS in 2015. Bulk of Series 1: Oral histories was processed to the item level. Due to privacy concerns, the specific dates of birth of all narrators or other named individuals were redacted from the digitized transcripts and audio recordings. Series 2: Exhibition files is unprocessed. The Crown Heights History Project oral histories were processed by Brett Dion, Nilaja Troy, Joe Teutonico, and Harunobu Coryne.

Repository

Brooklyn Historical Society

Container

Box: 3 of 5 (Material Type: Audio)
Box: 4 of 5 (Material Type: Audio)
Box: 5 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: 1994.006 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: Unprocessed 1 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: Unprocessed 2 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: Unprocessed 3 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: Unprocessed 4 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: Unprocessed 5 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: 1 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Box: 2 of 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)
Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201