Crown Heights History Project collection
1993-1994 (1994.006)

ABOUT THIS COLLECTION

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.

The oral histories were processed and described with funding from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and as part of the projects, ‘Voices of Generations: Investigating Brooklyn’s Cultural Identity,’ funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and ‘Voices of Crown Heights,’ funded by New York Community Trust.

Crown Heights History Project collection