32 years ago, a young Black man was killed by a white mob in Brooklyn.
Here’s why the murder of Yusuf Hawkins continues to raise questions about racism and justice …
Here’s why the murder of Yusuf Hawkins continues to raise questions about racism and justice …
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00My son has been tried and executed only because of the color of his skin.
00:16The neighborhood, its culture, its attitudes were blamed by many for Hawkins death.
00:30Many people are shocked to know that New York could have been a city where that took place.
00:44And then when you see the reaction in that community where Yusuf was killed,
00:48its community members showing how racist they really are.
00:52You're like, hey, what's going on here?
01:00Yusuf didn't know anyone out there in Bensonhurst.
01:13Where they were intercepted by that mob, if you look at it on a map,
01:17it was directly in between the train station where they got off and the location of the used car that they were going to look at.
01:24They had just turned left instead of right.
01:26They got lost because they didn't know the neighborhood.
01:28As he stopped, a bunch of white guys came around the corner and surrounded us.
01:33Next thing I know, I hear gunshots.
01:37He had two bullet holes directly through his heart.
01:40And because of that, he died.
01:42Later that night, the police tried to tell Yusuf's family that we should keep this quiet.
01:47But by the following morning, the newspapers had it out there that this black kid was killed in Bensonhurst.
01:55And from that moment on, I guess a spark was set.
02:10It was not right, but it wasn't necessarily racial.
02:13There were other elements involved.
02:15We have black people in the neighborhood all of the time.
02:17You heard that Yusuf was dating a white girl out there named Gina Feliciano.
02:21You heard that they were part of a gang.
02:24You heard a lot of that, like the neighborhood was defending itself from some danger.
02:29When, in fact, none of that was true.
02:31The accusations in the paper, though, really fueled the fire behind this idea that there was some interracial dating going on.
02:40And I think that that was enticing, maybe, to readers.
02:54Martin Luther King used to say, make the comfortable uncomfortable and make the uncomfortable comfortable.
02:59So I said we should march in the neighborhood.
03:03Reverend Sharpton and the black community then put pressure on the Bensonhurst community right where Yusuf was killed.
03:09And they did it for over a year's time, consistently marching out through there.
03:13The community didn't like it, but it made them uncomfortable.
03:15That Sharpton thing is causing all the trouble.
03:17As soon as he sees a little trouble, he puts wood into the fire.
03:20Wherever there's trouble, he's always in there.
03:24People in Bensonhurst, largely Italian, they really showed a macrocosm of what Yusuf and his friends dealt with that night.
03:39So instead of having 30 young men chase them and call them names, you had thousands of people out there.
03:51It's, like, unbelievable how people acted out.
03:55You're out there in this community full of what we call counter-protesters, but I think it's a little bit of terrorism.
04:03You're out there speaking your voice, executing your rights as an American, and you have hundreds of people lined up throwing things at you, hoisting up watermelons, yelling s***, telling them to get out of there, stop using crack.
04:18It was a lot of violence.
04:33The community hid him and hid his whereabouts for some time and kept him protected.
04:39He had assistants fleeing town, and the community, as I was told, turned him over simply because they couldn't take the pressure of all of these black people marching month after month and over a year through their town.
04:54I got to ask you to find out who killed Yusuf Hawkins.
05:09It wasn't my friends, and it wasn't me.
05:24The person who is in jail right now in relation to that is not in jail for murder.
05:29He's in jail for depraved indifference murder, which is different.
05:33It's the crime that Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd, was initially charged with, which is not murder.
05:41And I think the family was content with that verdict, but you have to think about it.
05:48You're not doing a good job when it comes to bringing a family justice when two out of 30 go to jail when a murder took place of an innocent, unarmed person, you understand?
05:58So I think it was mixed feelings.
06:02It was tough, and people need to be applauded because they marched for a long time.
06:07They marched through the snow.
06:09I'm sure that exists somewhere, but I've never seen or heard people march through the snow.
06:27Bensonhurst, as a larger community, when it came to our outreach, we got a lot of doors closed in our face.
06:35And I think I've met a few people who honestly are still to this day afraid to speak about what happened.
06:42Bensonhurst made people say New York is like that.
06:45I did meet some people who deeply regret what happened, but no one who was willing to get on camera.
06:55And I think that speaks to, I don't know what it speaks to really, but whatever they're afraid of, maybe one day they won't be.
07:08We were told that New York is a melting pot and that we are a gorgeous mosaic of races and cultures.
07:14And at times it feels that way, but the truth comes out.
07:19And sometimes it's a deadly truth, the fact that we have some unfinished business when it comes to race.