Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Liberal Studies

Advisor

Karen Miller

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Brownsville, Brooklyn, public memory

Abstract

Brownsville is a small neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn, New York, with a rich activist past. Community leaders and organizers have used the tenets of urban education, Black history, grassroots organizing, and community planning as the bases of their struggles for the expansion of justice and equality for Brownsville residents. This thesis discusses Brownsville’s rich history of activism. I use autoethnography, archival materials, and the theoretical framework of public memory to explore this rich history. The recovered stories about Brownsville that I recount here are designed to dispel misrepresentations of the community that have shaped the public memory of Brownsville. In fact, many Brownsville residents, themselves, embrace these negative ideas. In examining Brownsville’s public memory, this thesis will build off the conceptual model of “public memory” based on Houdek & Phillips study (2017). Houdek & Phillips are interested in how public memory is a process–memories, they explain, can be collective. This thesis begins with a discussion of Brownsville and explains my connection to the neighborhood—it was my home when I was 13 years old, and I believe it has made me who I am today.

Few scholars of Brownsville, like me, are Black women who come from the neighborhood. Brownsville’s Heritage House, the community control project, and the 1968 New York City Teachers’ strike are three topics in this paper that will address how misrepresentations of the Brownsville community contributed to its public memory. This thesis stands as a testament v to the lessons drawn from Brownsville—a place shaped by perseverance, vibrant community, and the complexities that mold its people. Through personal narratives, archival research, and community voices, I have sought to illuminate the many ways Brownsville shapes the lives of its residents. Overall, “Brownsville Taught Me” is my love letter to this neighborhood’s resilience to maintain the cultural history in the public memory of the community.

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