Terms of Use

Oral histories are intimate conversations between and among people who have generously agreed to share these recordings with BHS’s archives and researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. BHS abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.

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.

The audio recording should be considered the primary source for each interview. Where provided, transcripts created prior to 2008 or commissioned by a third party other than BHS, serve as a guide to the interview and are not considered verbatim. More recent transcripts commissioned by BHS are nearly verbatim copies of the recorded interview, and as such may contain the natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, and repetitions that are common in conversation. The decision for their inclusion was made because BHS gives primacy to the audible voice and also because some researchers do find useful information in these verbal patterns. 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.

All citations must be attributed to Brooklyn Historical Society:

[Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer’s First name Last name], [Month DD, YYYY], [Title of Collection], [Call #]; Brooklyn Historical Society.

These interviews are made available for research purposes only. For more information about other kinds of usage and permissions, see BHS’s rights and reproductions policy.

Agree to terms of use

Johanna Brown

Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel

March 16, 2014

Call number: 2015.011.03

Search This Index
Search Clear

0:00 - Introduction

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

0:49 - Moving to a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood and subsequent White flight

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

3:14 - Homeownership and strong community ties in Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

4:47 - Drugs and the decline of the community

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

8:27 - Schools, students, and parent-teacher relationships

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

12:42 - Local businesses and a close-knit community

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

16:31 - Mixed race couples and resistance to White flight

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

18:43 - Moving to Linden Houses and integrated community Part 1

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

20:52 - Aspiring to improve and disinterest among some in the community

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

23:02 - Education and child rearing

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

30:12 - Decline in services, community activism, and corruption

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

35:14 - Overcrowded schools, the value of education, and integration

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

39:53 - Father’s childhood and service in World War II

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

43:30 - Childhood home on Ashford Street

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

43:44 - Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School for Girls

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

44:40 - Integration and resistance at PS 108 Part 1

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

46:08 - Attending Catholic school and interracial friendships

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

50:37 - Integration and resistance at PS 108 Part 2

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

54:46 - Neighborhood decline and middle class flight

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

60:00 - Crime, heroin epidemic, and lack of police

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

66:40 - Adapting to neighborhood crime

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

69:45 - Relationship between West Indians and African Americans

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

71:45 - The neighborhood’s effect on her character

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

72:30 - Shooting of childhood friend and living with community violence

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

81:15 - Moving to Linden Houses and integrated community Part 2

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

86:38 - Education, Thomas Jefferson High School, and race relations

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

93:27 - Middle class community at Linden Houses and drugs

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

96:17 - United Community Centers, her mother, and Morris L. Eisenstein

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

103:23 - Decline of Linden Houses and the 1977 blackout

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

111:14 - Crack cocaine epidemic and destruction of families

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

117:12 - Crime in the projects and snitching

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

122:10 - Gentrification and leaving East New York after retirement

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

128:27 - Hope for the future

Play segment

Partial Transcript:

Segment Synopsis:

Keywords:

Subjects:

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Johanna Brown
Johanna Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1954. Her father was an African American who was born in Georgia, raised in Philadelphia, and moved to New York after serving in World War II. Her mother was the daughter of African immigrants from Cape Verde. In 1960, her family moved from the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn to Ashford Street in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. The family later moved to the Linden Houses, and finally to the Starrett City (Spring Creek) section of the neighborhood, where she continues to live with her son (as of 2015). She attended PS 108, Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School for Girls, and Thomas Jefferson High School, and now works for the New York City Transit Authority.

In the interview, Johanna Brown discusses moving to a predominantly Jewish section of the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, White flight and the decline of services in the area, racism and resistance to integrating public schools, interracial friendships, life at the Linden Houses and Starrett City, United Community Centers, the devastating effect of drugs on the community, the rise of crime and violence (including the murder of a school friend), and the effect of gentrification on the future of the neighborhood. The interview was conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel at Brown's home in East New York.

Approximately twelve minutes of the interview has been removed for privacy reasons.

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

Brown, Johanna, Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel, March 16, 2014, Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories, 2015.011.03; Brooklyn Historical Society.

People

  • Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School for Girls (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • Brown, Johanna
  • Linden Houses (Housing complex)
  • P.S. 108 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • P.S. 158 (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • Starrett City (Housing complex)
  • Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • United Community Centers, Inc.

Topics

  • African Americans
  • Crime
  • Drug abuse
  • Gentrification
  • Housing
  • Public housing
  • Public schools
  • Race relations
  • School integration

Places

  • Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
  • East New York (New York, N.Y.)

Finding Aid

Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories