Micheal J. Cason Interview 08/10/2024

Micheal J. Cason Interview Transcription

Hello. I'm Natasha Ferron, and I'm here with Michael Cason at the Procter Hall Full Time Inclusion Unit at Ford Street, Essex Avenue on Saturday, August 10, 2020 4. Can you please spell your name first, please? Michael, m I c h a e l. Middle initial, j. Last name is c a s o n. Mhmm. What is your relationship to Park Slope or to Brooklyn? Well, I live right up the block from here.

When we moved to Park Slope, we came out of Bed Stuy off of Green Avenue, and then we moved over here to, 4th Street, 342, actually. 342 4th Street. But originally, we migrated from Augusta, Georgia. My father, we came from Augusta, came up here, moving to Queens. He moved from Queens to Bed Stuy.

And from Bed Stuy, we purchased a home here in Park Slope. Approximately 19, I don't know, 67, 68, something like that. Do you have a particular powerful or important memory of Park Slope or Brooklyn that you'd like to share? Okay. Well, when we moved into Park Slope, you have to understand that it was mostly Italians, everything except black.

And, and we was not accepted in the neighborhood. I used to come down to this park right here, right over there where the swings are. We used to go around and swing and me and the fellas from the block. And and and next thing you know, we find the white boys. That's what we call them white boys down here, the the South Brooklyn boys.

They lived on Third Street between, 4th and 4th and 5th Avenue. And and that was white ghetto. Those houses right over there that on that opposite side of the street was all ghetto. It was all worn out, you know, but Italians and everybody else lived over there. And so so when we came into the neighborhood, come down to the park to, enjoy the park, just be swinging, basically.

And, no. We wouldn't accept it. They had the bocce ball courts over there. I was introduced to bocce ball. You have the Italian immigrants over there playing with those, balls rolling in in the dirt, and and, you know, we got a chance to, got a chance to to see the cultural changes that was within the neighborhood.

It was nice. How did you decide to come to a park so the whole time if you wanted to? Well, my my my my boy, John Lee, he's there right next door to me at 3:40. I was at 3:42. This is his his baby, you know.

Now let me tell you about John. John was the guy in the neighborhood. He was the, documentary sort of guy. You know what I'm saying? He always had a camera out.

He thinking about taking pictures and things like that, you know, remembering stuff. And he was talking that that way back then. So he always had a VA camera taking pictures and stuff like that. And, and and and and and what was the person again? Somebody decided to come to the University of State.

Oh, okay. Well, just just to hook up with the people. Okay. You know? You know?

What are some things you think more people should know about Park Slope or Brooklake based on your own experiences? Alright. About Park Slope, what what you need to know? Now, when I was coming up in Park Slope, Malcolm X was assassinated. I think around about 1968 or something like that.

I had to be around about I was I was around about 10 something like that. And I remember I was coming out of the night gym from right here. And I was walking up the block, somehow or another, I heard that Malcolm X was was shot. But, you know, I ain't know too much about Islam or Malcolm. Just what I hear on the television, the news, and my brothers.

And, you know, at one time, the Black Panther Party was in this neighborhood. Oh, yeah. I'm a give you some history, sister. Back in the day, right, Celeste? Don't wait because I was like I wanna tell him.

Yeah. We took him to the beat party with us one night. We Alright. Got well, listen. Alright.

Let me get back to the let me but like I would say, the Panther party now when Malcolm was assassinated, the Panther party was going on within the neighborhood. P s 321 was the was the hub where all the Black Panthers will meet during the evening. So they will congregate up there and, fetch all these guys. They, who was running the Panther party. They would get up there and and map out their strategy, what they're gonna do, how they was gonna participate within the neighborhood.

And so they will be up there. And so the Panther Party was there. And, during that during that time, there's a lot of turmoil within the neighborhood. No. And, a lot of riots.

Like I said, we didn't accept we wouldn't accept it in the neighborhood. My brother, one summer night, we send him his stoop and my mother gave my brother a letter to go mail it. Go put the the letter in the mailbox. And at the time, the mailbox is right on the corner, right over there on corner of 4th Street and 5th Avenue. So, you know, the summertime we out hanging out on the stoop sitting down, And next thing you know, my brother come up the block holding his side saying that he had been stabbed.

Yes. So what happened? What you doing these days? They jumped my brother I got it. Down at the mailbox.

They stabbed him, the South Brooklyn boys. They stabbed them. So anyway so so it happened that night, my, my uncle was there, and he's a butcher. And, but all of this just didn't just take place that night. This have been simmering for quite some time because my uncle was prepared.

He had, like I said, he was a butcher and I remember we sitting on stool, but I I thought he was young. But I'm hearing the conversation. He said, yeah. I got some knives. Don't worry about it.

I'm a bring some knives tomorrow, and we gonna do this and that. So but either way, when they stabbed my brother that night, oh, it was on. We going down on the block, right on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street. White boys and black boys, we was throwing down. I mean, right out stabbing, fighting, kicking butt.

I mean, the whole 9 yards. We that was that was a that was a day. And, so funny how, I remember my cousin telling me that once they went to Methodist Hospital to get treated and so forth, the same people that they stabbed, they saw them in the emergency room. But it wouldn't have a problem then because one thing we noticed about them is they're more brave when they end up a cluster. You know what I'm saying?

But if you wanna run no. No. No. It's it's no contest. They don't even wanna have a conversation because they know they're not gonna win.

But when they're in a cluster, that's when they're brave. But we they they know our name from that night. We had no more problems, but we was throwing down. Park Slope was very racist. And during that same time, when King got assassinated and that that whole period, when they get out of school here in junior high school 50 ones, my school was let out.

The buses, the public buses, the city buses were lined up across the street and everybody would load onto the buses, the ones who was going out of the neighborhood. They had to load onto the bus and the bus would make an express stop from 4th Street all the way down to say Union Street. The bus will not stop in between 4th Street and Union Street because going down from 4th Street, like, Garth, First Street, Garfield, Carroll, President Street, that's where all the white boys was at. I'm I'm I'm saying I like the way we was talking then. And so the bus wouldn't wouldn't stop because when the buses drove through there and all the black kids on the bus, they would bottle the bus, the bricks at the bus.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was bad.

And and and and and and another thing, on the precinct, the 72nd the 77, I think. The 77 of the 72nd precinct up there. 77 precinct. It didn't protect us. They was down with the white boys.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So with all that abuse and everything and that's going on now. What's going on back then?

Yeah. Park Slope? Have some well, it was a time in Park Slope. Call you really? What are some of your hopes for the neighborhood and or Brooklyn?

Well, hopes for the neighborhood. If you're black and you're not in here now, you're not getting in. So everyone who's left out of here, that's history. You're not coming back except just for this reunion. And, I'm not someone who like to live in the past.

So I was a little on the fence about attending. You know what I'm saying? You know, I like that. I like to keep moving forward. This is here during the past, but, you know, it's a new day.

And and and during them times when the sixties when we was fighting Vietnam War, brothers and sisters over here, fighting. I mean, just to come to the park. I couldn't come to the park unless they wanna fight. I was fighting all the time. Oh, they would come get me.

Hey, Mike. Yo, man. They all they don't want us in the park. I used to come down the block. Oh, we used to come down the block.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's the time? Fighting all the time.

But, you know, but what I have hopes for, then now we just gotta keep it moving. You know, the thing is all about the color and and the black and the white. You have to realize God ain't there's no color. He's a spirit. There's no color.

As soon as somebody recognize and stop discriminating because of someone's color, the better off we'll be. Better off we'll be, and then you can move on. But until then, that day, things ain't gonna change. Mhmm. So far it's slow, it's far it's slow.

Like I said, I just gotta keep it moving. I don't need something. So I'll ask a question to you. What does history mean to you? Coming from Georgia, And I just just did my African ancestry, find out what part of the continent I'm I'm from.

And, it's all about the history. I have to go back to Ethiopia. That's where my DNA is. On my father's side, the Omo people. Talking about power, psychologically.

That's that's that gives me such a boost. Just knowing that on my mother's side, her DNA goes into Cameroon with the Marseille tribe, m a s a. You know, so so now I know where I came from, and I know where I can go. So it's all about the history, all about what's what's what we're experiencing here. Pogslope.

In Pogslope, it's all about the history. We're just connecting to brothers and sisters. What John, we was talking one day we was at a funeral. And he said, Mike, man, we got to, you know, we got to have, you know, get together some other than at a funeral, man. We need to we need to do something, man, just to have everybody come together.

And that's what you did. This how this came about. So instead of, we mean at the funeral, we mean at the old timers, reunion. I don't know that the old old timers, you know, that that that got to set in. You know what I'm saying?

Because in your mind, you don't see yourself as a old timer. What you see it within is what you recognize. But people looking at you from the outside see you, They see you as an old timer because of the gray face and all this stuff. Matter of fact, at church the other day, they set me up with the elders in front of the church. You know what I'm saying?

That's all. The brother say, yo, man. Oh, you you can sit up with the elders. I said I said, okay. Alright, man.

So it's it's it's not what you feel inside. It's what the people see you on the outside and what they recognize you from the outside, but you don't have to identify what they recognize you with. You know what I'm saying? So yeah. So I'm I'm the elders.

I'm I'm going to the movies now. I'm using all the discounts, my double a I mean, APPR card, whatever, you know, I get all the discounts. I'm a elder. That's how I made it. But I don't feel I feel like I'm like maybe, 34, 35.

You know what I'm saying? I was looking for the double dutch smokes out here. Because last time he was down, he was jumping double dutch. And I got my roller skates in a car, you know, moving. Moving.

Moving. But it's only by the grace of God. That's what we got to bring into the picture. It's the grace of God recognizing the one God. There's no other God is but one God.

That's like, aren't we all have the same father? So we got to get over this color thing. You know, get over this color because God is the spirit. He didn't know color. Stop looking at people black and white and brown and all of this nonsense and all these different religions and bringing in all of this negative stuff.

I know you ain't wanna hear all of this here, you know. Merchandise of Satan. All the negative stuff. I can go into that, but I'm gonna leave that alone. You know?

So but yeah. You know, I'm not it's gonna be a a a beat for parts up because, you know, they don't made that change. That gentrification change. So but the change gotta take with place within us so that we can move on from here. Everybody just come here, the old folks, and then now we're going back out, gonna be doing what we normally do.

Trying to live, make ends meet. Thank you so much. That concludes our interview for today, and I thank you so much for your time. Alright. Well, thank you for for having me here.

And I'm gonna send a a a word out to impotep Gary Byrd. You know what I'm saying? Gary Byrd coming out of, w w r l and w l I b going back into the days when Percy Sutton was the Manhattan Borough president. But not only the Manhattan Borough president, but the attorney for Malcolm x. You know what I'm saying?

That brother was an attorney for Malcolm x. So shout out to m hotel Gary Byrd for all he's done. And I I owe a lot for that brother just from going to see him at the Apollo Theater and, and his words of wisdom. Thank you.