Roslyn Williams Interview 08/09/2025
Roslyn Williams Interview Transcript:
ROSLYN: But I'm an educator and so I'm being reeducated about our history.
NATASHA: Hello, I am Natasha Fearon and I'm here with Roslyn Williams at the Park Slope Old Timers Reunion at 4th Street and 6th Avenue on Saturday, August 9th, 2025. Can you please spell your name for me?
ROSLYN: R-O-S-L-Y-N and last name Williams with an S, Sam at the end, Williams.
NATASHA: What is your relationship to Park Slope or to Brooklyn?
ROSLYN: Well alright, first of all, I was born and raised in Brooklyn, born and bred. At the Brooklyn Jewish hospital. Now as we speak now that was called, today it's called Prospect Heights. Okay? So that means I was born in the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, which was on Prospect Place. Okay, yes. And born and bred. And yes, I was born and raised in Brooklyn. And my grandparents, from Virginia, as most African Americans, migrated from the South to North. They were, you know, sharecroppers in Virginia, they wanted to get away. So they bought my house on Prospect Place between Grand and Classon. So that's how, that's why I'm here in Brooklyn. Because my father came here when he was four years old. And so my grandparents, oh no, matter of fact, let me back up. My father, when my grandparents came here, he lived in what was called Fort Greene. He lived on Navy Street, and what we called those tenements. He lived in a tenement for many years, which is currently Fort Greene Projects. So he lived in that community for many years. And then, of course, my grandparents saved some money and they moved to Prospect Place. That was many years back in 1953.
NATASHA: Do you have a particularly powerful or important memory of Park Slope or Brooklyn you'd like to share?
ROSLYN: Well, one of the memories I can remember is that living on 3rd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenue, 490. We live in a community with mixed people of all, not only of all ethnicities, but income. This was a working class, what they called blue-collar working-class community. My father and my mother were working– what we called blue collar. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a seamstress. They both graduated from, at that time, vocational schools. My mother graduated from Maxwell and my father graduated from Cooper Union. So my memories of Park Slope is that I lived on a block, not a gentrified Park Slope, but a working class, blue collar working community. Until latter part of the early 80s is when the community started to change.
NATASHA: Why did you decide to come to Park Slope Old Timers Reunion today?
ROSLYN: Good question. Well, to be honest, two of my friends told me about it. They themselves were raised in Park Slope along with me. Both of them. One lived in, his parents owned a house on Berkeley, that was between 7th and 8th Avenue– Artie– lived in a house with me on 3rd Street. So they told me about it, and I said, let me come, see what’s happening. And I'm very pleased with this gathering. It brought about many memories.
NATASHA: What are some things you think more people should know about Park Slope or Brooklyn based on your experiences?
ROSLYN: Alright, well I'm glad, that's a good question. First of all, when I was a little girl, Brooklyn didn't exist. We were called Bridge and Tunnel. You know, no one had no respect for us living here. We were residents, we wasn’t Manhattan. So most of our entertainment, you had to go outside of Brooklyn. And we were more residential, we were kind of like a residential community as opposed to having plays and cultural activities. Even though we did have the Brooklyn Museum, we did have the Botanical Garden, and we did have the large Brooklyn Library, but still our focus was in Manhattan. And so, now, I want to say that I kind of accept the change, but the change in Brooklyn is for the wrong reason. It's not interested in keeping the people of different incomes together, what we call working class people living with those that might have a higher income. I got some issues with that. Anyway, I left, my father left Park Slope and we sold our house and we went to Bedford-Stuyvesant, even now today it’s being gentrified. So people are being pushed out. People that have lived their lives, grew up, are being pushed out because of high income. So I just remember growing up in Park Slope where we were working class people of all race, all ethnicity.
NATASHA: What are your hopes for the future of the neighborhood and Brooklyn?
ROSLYN: My hope for Park Slope? Haha. I don't mean to be jaded. Park Slope is gone. To me, it's very commercialized. And, you know, it doesn't support working class people. It's all about those that have money. So, all I know is, I'm a Brooklynite born and raised. So, Williamsburg, Bushwick, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, these are all communities that are now, as we speak, have been gentrified. Pushed out poor people, people that have lived here. So what, do I have hope for Brooklyn? Ha. Pushing out poor people. People that got money. Well, I just read something about the median, uh average income. We're talking $80,000 and better. What's that about? What's happening with Brooklyn? It used to be a residential area for all people of all income and all race.
NATASHA: Thank you.