1989

Yusef Hawkins, a 16-year-old Black teenager from Brownsville, is shot twice in the chest and killed by a mob of approximately 30 white youths in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn after going to look at a used car. Mob leader Keith Mondello had assembled the group believing a Black youth was dating a local white girl. Joseph Fama is convicted of second-degree murder in 1990 and sentenced to 32 years to life.

Spike Lee writes, directs, and stars in Do the Right Thing, set on a single hot day on a Bedford-Stuyvesant block in Brooklyn. The film climaxes with police choking Radio Raheem, a young Black man, to death — directly evoking Michael Stewart and anticipating later killings. The film is nominated for two Academy Awards and is debated by critics for its portrayal of riots as understandable responses to oppression.

David Dinkins defeats Republican Rudy Giuliani to become New York City's first Black mayor. Running on a message of the city as a gorgeous mosaic of diversity, Dinkins wins 51% of the vote. His campaign is energized partly by outrage over the Howard Beach and Bensonhurst murders. He takes office January 1, 1990.

Al Sharpton leads repeated protest marches through Bensonhurst following the murder of Yusef Hawkins. White residents line the streets jeering and holding watermelons in open defiance. The marches draw national media attention and intensify the debate over racial violence in New York City, ultimately becoming a factor in David Dinkins's election as New York's first Black mayor in November 1989.

The Urban Institute releases an audit study showing Black homebuyers are denied mortgage loans at twice the rate of equally qualified white applicants in major American cities. The study uses matched pairs of applicants and documents discrimination by major banks and savings institutions. The findings intensify pressure for enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act.