Crown Heights History Project collection
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
This collection consists of materials collected and created for an oral history project and subsequent exhibitions documenting the different ethnic and religious communities within Crown Heights, particularly the neighborhood's Jewish, Black, and Caribbean residents, and the racial tensions existing between them in the wake of the 1991 riots.
Historical Note
The materials in this collection encompass an oral history project and exhibitions that were part of a joint effort between the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn's Children Museum, and the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History (now Weeksville Heritage Center) to document the different ethnic and religious communities within Crown Heights. The project focused on the neighborhood's Jewish, Black, and Caribbean residents, and the racial tensions existing between them in the wake of the August 1991 riots that erupted after seven-year-old Guyanese American Gavin Cato was struck and killed by a car in Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson's motorcade and resulted in the murder of Jewish scholar Yankel Rosenbaum and Italian-American Anthony Graziosi. The three organizations collaborated to capture perspectives on the racial unrest and discrimination before and after the riots, and how ethnic and religious communities attempted reconciliation during the years following the violence.
The project, first named "Bridging Eastern Parkway" but renamed "The Crown Heights History Project" (CHHP) in 1993, had two directors: cultural anthropologist Jill Vexler and historian Craig Wilder. The pair, aided by CHHP research assistant and Crown Heights resident Aviva Segall, conducted the majority of the interviews for the oral history portion of the project. The interviewers collected thirty-three oral histories with residents of varying religious and ethnic backgrounds, including members of Chabad Lubavitch, Orthodox and secular Jews, Black Americans, and Caribbean Americans, not only to examine the lead-up to and aftermath of the riots but also to document the lives, religious and cultural practices, and everyday experiences of the neighborhood's diverse population.
After completing the oral history portion of the project, Vexler, Wilder, and CHHP staff began collecting materials and compiling donations for exhibition display. Crown Heights residents donated materials and objects that reflected their unique cultural, religious, and personal experiences, and CHHP collected materials related to the neighborhood, its history, and the recent unrest. CHHP also contracted photographers Rodney Hurley, Miriam Rubinoff, and Chris Maynard to take photos for the exhibitions, and collected photographs from Myrtle Whitmore's collection for display.
The project culminated in three exhibitions, one hosted by each organization: BHS's Crown Heights: Perceptions and Realities, Brooklyn Children's Museum's Crown Heights: The Inside Scoop, and the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant's Crown Heights: The African Diaspora, all of which opened in spring of 1994.
Sources: Rule, Sheila. "The Voices and Faces of Crown Heights." New York Times (New York, NY), April 15, 1994.
Arrangement
This collection is organized into four series:
Series 1: Oral histories, 1993–1994
Series 2: Donated materials, 1950-1994
Series 3: Collected materials, 1973-1998
Series 4: Photographs, 1970-1994
Further arrangement details are noted at the series and sub-series level.
Scope and Contents
This collection contains oral histories, print materials, and photographs collected and donated for exhibitions documenting the ethnic and religious communities of Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in the years following the Crown Heights Riots in August 1991.
Project staff conducted thirty-three oral history interviews, originally recorded on portable cassette tapes, to document the experiences of Jewish, Black, and Caribbean residents of Crown Heights. These oral histories contain descriptions of 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 community activism.
Materials donated to and collected by CHHP staff include flyers, brochures, and posters for cultural, religious, and community organizations; West Indian American Day Carnival ephemera; religious literature; personal letters; invitations; business cards; advertisements; and a substantial number of newspaper clippings and magazines.
The CHHP hired photographers to document the cultural and religious lives of Crown Heights residents. The collection's photographic materials include 252 prints, 324 photographic negatives, 80 35mm slides, and 66 photographic contact sheets. Subjects include church and synagogue services, storefronts and homes in Crown Heights, Chabad Lubavitch gatherings, religious holidays, familial gatherings, and neighborhood residents.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
Topics
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers with varied restrictions according to narrator agreement. Oral histories can be accessed onsite at the Center for Brooklyn History's Othmer Library and online on CBH's Oral History Portal. Administrative materials are open to researchers upon request and are accessible onsite at the Othmer Library. Original transcripts and analog interview A/V materials are not available for research.
Other collection materials are open to users without restriction 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 the Center for Brooklyn History. For assistance, please consult library staff at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
While many items at the Center for Brooklyn History are unrestricted, we do not own reproduction rights to all materials. Be aware of the several kinds of rights that might apply: copyright, licensing, and trademarks. The researcher assumes all responsibility for copyright questions.
Preferred Citation
Collection citation:
Identification of item, date (if known); Crown Heights History Project collection, 1994.006, [Box and Folder number]; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Oral history citation:
[Narrator Last Name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer First name Last name], Interview Date [Month day, YYYY], Crown Heights History Project collection, 1994.006 [Object ID]; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Recordings and transcripts were collected through the Crown Heights History Project, a collaboration among the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and the Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford Stuyvesant History (now Weeksville Heritage Center). The curator and one of the project's directors, Jill Vexler, retained the project records. Brooklyn Historical Society acquired the collection from Vexler in 2012.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Recordings and transcripts were digitized by the Brooklyn Historical Society in 2015. Due to privacy concerns, the processing archivists redacted specific dates of birth of all narrators or other named individuals from the digitized transcripts and audio recordings. The Crown Heights History Project oral histories were processed by Brett Dion, Nilaja Troy, Joe Teutonico, and Harunobu Coryne. Olivia Mastrosimone, Project Archivist, processed the remaining collection materials and reprocessed the oral histories in 2026.
Folder titles in brackets were provided by Olivia Mastrosimone. The archivist moved administrative materials and photo duplicates from this collection to Brooklyn Historical Society institutional records (ARC.288), and discarded additional digital copies of oral history interviews and transcripts.
