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Mary Barksdale

Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel

March 28, 2014

Call number: 2015.011.01

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0:00 - Introduction and moving to East New York

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Keywords: Jerome Street

Subjects: East New York (New York, N.Y.)

2:28 - PS 158 and community activism

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4:21 - White families begin to leave East New York

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Keywords: Council for Better East New York; Redlining; White flight

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7:07 - Community activism and improving the schools

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8:49 - Services start to decline in the neighborhood

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9:39 - Neighbors and community involvement

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Keywords: Cub scouts; Jerome Street

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12:23 - Neighborhood segregation and school integration

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Keywords: Busing; Cypress Hills; Redlining; White flight

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16:02 - Conflict at the school board district meetings

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Keywords: Busing; Cypress Hills; Fairfield

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19:24 - Poor quality of schools and lobbying for improvements

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Keywords: United Community Centers

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23:11 - Community activism and the effect on her children

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Keywords: Camp Hurley; United Community Centers

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24:34 - Move to Fairfield Towers and children’s schools

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26:38 - Internal conflict at United Community Centers

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27:22 - Conflict at the school board district meetings due to integration of races and classes

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Keywords: Busing; Cypress Hills; Fairfield

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32:31 - Disparity in quality of public schools and busing

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Keywords: PS 260

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36:02 - Bullying and school conflicts

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Keywords: Busing

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38:09 - Sons’ involvement with United Community Centers

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39:22 - White flight from East New York

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Keywords: Council for Better East New York; Redlining

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41:22 - Growing up in East Harlem and the Bronx

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43:09 - Working at a zipper factory and the telephone company

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44:20 - Visiting Virginia and segregation in the South compared to New York

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48:44 - Parents and siblings

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Keywords: Bronx; Poverty

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50:56 - Community struggles won and lost

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Keywords: Transit Tech High School

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55:34 - United Community Centers and school integration

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58:43 - Internal conflict at United Community Centers and opening of day care center

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63:34 - Children’s memories of United Community Centers

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Keywords: Folk dancing

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66:32 - Redlining, racial tensions, and community activism

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Keywords: NYPD; Police

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70:57 - Hopes and fears for the future

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76:56 - Occupy Wall Street and activism today

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79:23 - Integration in Starrett City/Spring Creek and hope for the future

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81:53 - What prevents integration today

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Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Mary Barksdale
Mary (Griggs) Barksdale was born in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York, in 1931. Her parents were African Americans who had migrated from the southern United States to New York. She lived in the Bronx until the 1960s, when she and her husband bought a house in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. She continues to live in the Starrett City (Spring Creek) section of the neighborhood as of 2014. She was very active in community organizations, such as the United Community Centers and the Council for a Better East New York. She was also a local school board representative and president of the parent-teachers association at her son's school.

In the interview Mary Barksdale discusses her deep involvement in the issues of education and interracial collaboration in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. She relates how she arrived in East New York in the 1960s, as African American and Hispanic families moved in and White families left. Barksdale speaks in depth on her community activism, especially with United Community Centers. She was heavily involved with improving and integrating the neighborhood's schools. She also discusses her childhood and family, internal conflict at United Community Centers, her hopes for the future, and the worrying trends she sees in our current political climate. The interview was conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel at United Community Centers in East New York.

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.

Citation

Barksdale, Mary, Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel, March 28, 2014, Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories, 2015.011.01; Brooklyn Historical Society.

People

  • Barksdale, Mary
  • Council for Better East New York
  • P.S. 158 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • P.S. 260 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • Transit Tech High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • United Community Centers, Inc.

Topics

  • African Americans
  • Busing for school integration
  • Community organization
  • Discrimination in housing
  • Discrimination in mortgage loans
  • Education
  • Public schools
  • Race relations
  • School integration
  • Urban policy

Places

  • Bronx (New York, N.Y.)
  • Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
  • Cypress Hills (New York, N.Y.)
  • East New York (New York, N.Y.)

Finding Aid

Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories