Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories: Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids

Call Number

2015.011

Date

2014-2015, inclusive

Creator

Daftary-Steel, Sarita

Extent

41.3 Gigabytes in 147 files, total running time: 32 hours, 22 minutes, 4 seconds

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The collection consists of twenty oral history interviews (with nineteen narrators) conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel with residents (past and present) of the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. The interviews were conducted between January 2014 and February 2015. The project was designed to capture the experiences of East New York residents who lived in the neighborhood during the period when families of color (African American, West Indian, and Puerto Rican) moved in and White families moved out, and the resulting decline of services and quality of life that followed. This process began as early as the 1950s and continued through the rest of the twentieth century. Sarita Daftary-Steel is a community organizer who worked for United Community Centers from 2003 to 2013, most of those years as the East New York Farms! Project Director.

Biographical note

Sarita Daftary-Steel is a community organizer who worked for United Community Centers from 2003 to 2013, most of those years as the East New York Farms! Project Director. As of 2016, she is the Program Director for the El Puente Green Light District and Williamsburg Leadership Center. She attended Georgetown University, where she received a degree in sociology and government, and is also a graduate of the Leadership New York Fellowship, organized by Coro New York and the Leadership Caucus of the Community Resource Exchange.

Source: "Program Directors," El Puente, accessed November 28, 2016, http://elpuente.us/content/program-directors.

Historical note

The East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn was established as part of the Town of Flatbush in 1835 by John Pitkin. It became the independent Town of New Lots in 1852 and was then annexed by the City of Brooklyn in 1886. By the mid-twentieth century, the neighborhood was predominantly Jewish, with some Italian and Irish residents. Starting in the 1950s, African Americans from the Southern United States, as well as Puerto Ricans, began migrating to the neighborhood in search of employment in New York City. As a result of city government policies and real estate interests influencing residents to sell their homes, the neighborhood experienced a rapid demographic change, and most White residents had left by the 1970s. The area then experienced rapid decline in city services, a rise in crime, and an increase of gang and drug activity. Concerned residents formed a number of community organizations to combat the neighborhood's decline. As of 2016, the neighborhood is once again facing the possibility of major demographic changes as the result of gentrification and a lack of affordable housing.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of twenty oral history interviews (with nineteen narrators) conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel with residents (past and present) of the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. The interviews were conducted between January 2014 and February 2015. The project was designed to capture the experiences of East New York residents who lived in the neighborhood during the period when families of color (African American, West Indian, and Puerto Rican) moved in and White families moved out, and the resulting decline of services and quality of life that followed. This process began as early as the 1950s and continued through the rest of the twentieth century. In particular, the narrators discuss race relations, school integration, housing, community organizing, the rise of crime and drug activity, and neighborhood renewal efforts. Public housing, such as the Linden Houses and Starrett City, is frequently discussed. Local schools, especially Thomas Jefferson High School and George Gershwin Junior High School, are referred to throughout the interviews. Several of the narrators (as well as Daftary-Steel) were involved with United Community Centers, a local community activist and integrationist organization, whose activities are also discussed at length. In addition to the interviews, the collection contains digital photographs of some of the narrators.

Subjects

Organizations

Fairfield Towers (Housing complex); Linden Houses (Housing complex); Nehemiah Housing; New York City Housing Authority; Starrett City (Housing complex); United Community Centers, Inc

Genres

Digital Photographs; Oral histories (document genres)

Topics

Places

East New York (New York, N.Y.) |x Social conditions

Conditions Governing Access

Oral histories can be accessed onsite at Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and online on the Oral History Portal.

Conditions Governing Use

Rights to the interviews is held by Sarita Daftary-Steel. 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, please consult library staff at library@brooklynhistory.org.

Preferred Citation

[Narrator Last Name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer First name Last name], Interview Date [Month day, YYYY], Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories, [Object ID]; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Sarita Daftary-Steel, 2015.

Related Materials

The following collections also document the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn in the mid-to-late 20th century:

N. Jay Jaffee photographs (2014.002)

Harry Kalmus papers and photographs (ARC.046)

Bernard Gotfryd color slides and photographs (V1987.003)

Related Oral Histories note

Brooklyn Historical Society holds the following related oral history collections:

Puerto Rican Oral History Project records (1976.001)

Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations oral history collection (2011.019)

Hispanic Communities Documentation Project records and oral histories (ARC.032)

Oral History note

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

1. 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

John Zarrillo

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 11:16:58 +0000.

Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

All oral histories processed by John Zarrillo, except for the Carmen Yeancades interview, which was processed by Shakeya Huggins.

Repository

Brooklyn Historical Society