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.
Edwina Joseph
Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel
November 07, 2014
Call number: 2015.011.13
Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Edwina Joseph
Edwina (Greene) Joseph was born in 1940. She moved from the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn to the Linden Houses (in the East New York neighborhood) with her husband and children in 1962, and lived there until 2010. Joseph worked at the Wells Fargo bank international branch on Wall Street for many years. After her retirement, she was active in the East New York Farms! Project as a member of a Community Supported Agriculture program. In 2010 she moved to Acworth, Georgia.
In the interview, Edwina Joseph continues to discuss living in the Linden Houses from 1962 to 2010 and the changes she saw over the years, including a decline in police presence, draconian law enforcement when police were present in the area, the adversarial relationship between the Housing Authority and residents, and the general decline in quality of life. The interview was conducted remotely by Sarita Daftary-Steel in Brooklyn, New York and Joseph in Acworth, Georgia.
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
Joseph, Edwina, Oral history interview conducted by Sarita Daftary-Steel, November 07, 2014, Sarita Daftary-Steel collection of East New York oral histories, 2015.011.13; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- Joseph, Edwina
- Linden Houses (Housing complex)
- New York (N.Y.). Police Department
- New York City Housing Authority
Topics
- African Americans
- Crime
- Drug traffic
- Police-community relations
- Public housing
- Public schools
- Urban policy
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