CROWN HEIGHTS — This weekend marks 25 years since the Crown Heights riots, the three-day unrest that shook the neighborhood in August of 1991.
This week, there have been many reflections and remembrances published about that uncertain and dark time in the neighborhood, the basic facts of which are still debated by some.
For many who lived through it, emotions about the riots are still raw, a quarter-century later. And for those who came to the area well after 1991, those strong feelings about the events beginning on Aug. 19 — and its repercussions — can be difficult to parse.
To help those who want to learn more, we’ve compiled a list of reporting, research and meditations published for the anniversary that are worth listening to, reading and watching as a start to understanding a complicated time in the neighborhood. Take a look:
► Crown Heights Oral History
Gothamist
In a remarkable five-part series, Gothamist shares interviews with politicians, reporters and Crown Heights residents about their memories of the riots and how the neighborhood has changed in 25 years. Particularly illuminating are thoughts from Mayor David Dinkins, then-Police Commissioner Lee Brown and then-first Deputy Commissioner (and later Police Commissioner) Ray Kelly.
Key quote:
“Word went out that the ambulances had come and taken away the whites and left the blacks to die. That was not true, not at all true.” – Mayor David Dinkins
► Crown Heights 25 Years Later
NY1 News
For the anniversary, NY1 broadcast several stories asking how the neighborhood has changed since 1991. Particularly interesting was a panel on Inside City Hall bringing together four neighborhood leaders to hash out how the violence is and should be remembered.
Key quote:
“It was a community of good people who were living apart … our children should know each other. And they did not know each other back then.” – Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams
► "How Crown Heights Healed Itself"
Errol Louis for the New York Daily News
In a personal column, NY1 anchor and Crown Heights resident Errol Louis reflects on how he and many neighbors, friends and area leaders deliberately — and successfully — worked to avoid repeating what happened in 1991 in the past 25 years.
Key quote:
“After the riots, I remember carefully storing the phone numbers of a few of my Jewish neighbors, and giving them mine, with a plea and promise to talk as soon as we heard rumors of serious intergroup friction.”
► "Riot Anniversary Finds Jews and Blacks of Crown Heights Facing Common Threat: Displacement"
City Limits Magazine
A quarter-century after the riots, City Limits investigates the threat now common to the racial groups on opposing sides in 1991: gentrification and rising housing costs. The magazine lays out the startling statistics facing both the black and Hasidic communities, who are both feeling squeezed out.
Key quote:
"Five years ago I could walk out the house and I would know everyone on the avenue. Now I walk out the house and I'm a stranger. I'm a stranger on that avenue.” – Kevin Phillips, Crown Heights homeowner
► “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Crown Heights"
Mordechai Lightstone for the Forward
During and after the riots, Mordechai Lightstone, a Lubavitcher rabbi and Crown Heights resident, argues there was a “failure to understand” Jewish Crown Heights, which continues today in the erasure of Jews from conversations about gentrification and the constant use of “the trope of the Hasidic landlord.”
Key quote:
“Today, depicting the entire community as active in the displacement of others, and not as victims of the same displacement, is dangerous.”
► Voices of Crown Heights
Brooklyn Historical Society
In a many-months-long oral history project, the Brooklyn Historical Society is collecting stories from Crown Heights residents reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the riots, building on work done in 1993 to record interviews with residents directly after the violence. Though the current work has not yet been released, some of the 1993 interviews are available on the BHS website, offering rare glimpses into the psyche of those who had recently experienced the unrest.
Key quote:
“Somehow it seems like the negative always overrides the positive, you know? Which is really bad. It’s really bad because there’s much more good in the community than there is bad.” – Dellon Wilson, Crown Heights resident in 1994
