Oral history interview with Dera Tompkins about Operation Caribbean Cruise
Object Details
- General
- Associated documentation for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
- Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
- Names
- District of Columbia. Police Department
- Tompkins, Dera
- Collection Creator
- Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Washington (D.C.)
- Topic
- African Americans
- African American women
- Caribbeans
- Rastafarians
- Rastafari movement
- Police
- Drug control
- Gun control
- Racism
- Interviews
- Culture
- Jamaicans
- See more items in
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
- Sponsor
- Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
- Extent
- 2 Digital files
- 1 Sound cassette
- Date
- circa 1992-1993
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Digital files
- Sound cassettes
- Citation
- Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Note
- The total playing time of interview recording is approximately 50 minutes.
- Scope and Contents
- Dera Tompkins explained in detail Operation Caribbean Cruise, the 16-month operation set up by the 4th district police department in Washington, DC and executed on February 22, 1986 at 5am. She stated Operation Caribbean Cruise was the largest drug raid executed in Washington, DC at the time, and the police target was Caribbean community, Rastafarians, and Rastafarianism. Tompkins also explained her role in the response to the police raid, including learning the raid was against Black people, fighting against the police, and organizing the community. Tompkins discussed flyers, buttons, slides, press releases, and her other materials about the Caribbean and Rastafarian communities' response to Operation Caribbean Cruise. She stated the community's motto was "Stand Firm". Tompkins read portions of the Washington, DC police department's handbook on Operation Caribbean Cruise, and explained how she obtained a copy of the handbook. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include white noise and static, and music in the background. Interviewee's voice can be heard clearly.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1712088000981-1712088003353-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0