August 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.
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.
Events
- August 23, 1989Yusef Hawkins Murdered by White Mob in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
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.
- August 26, 1989Marches Through Bensonhurst Follow Yusef Hawkins Murder
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.