Our First Interview

From Left: Monica, Treverlyn, Ms. Porter and Floyya

On Wednesday, March 3rd, we recorded our first interview! Evangeline Porter. We have talked to Ms. Porter before, but this time she gave us more facts and details about things we were curious about. Ms. Porter was born in North Carolina in 1937. She lived with her grandmother and her mother. In 1973 she moved to Crown Heights and got married. Ms Porter stated her earliest memories of this neighborhood. She said it was a different place and people were afraid to walk after dark.

Ms. Porter made a comparison for us, showing us what Crown Heights has now that it didn’t have then - things like drugs stores, medical offices and other health businesses, for example, are in abundance now. “The community had very little to survive on back then,” she said.


Many people who lived in the Crown Heights area didn’t care much unless crime directly affected them. But, Ms. Porter cared, because it affected her. She was mugged and robbed twice, but as the strong fighter she was she still wasn’t afraid and wasn’t going to give up. “I had a lot of faith in God,” Ms. Porter said.

A final word of wisdom from Ms. Porter: “Within the next 10-15 years from now, if people don’t get more involved in what is going on in this community, it is going to go back to the way it was.”