Bensonhurst (New York) Incident (1989)

On August 23, 1989, sixteen-year-old Hawkins and a group of his friends traveled from his Brooklyn neighborhood to the Italian-American neighborhood of Bensonhurst to respond to an advertisement for a car for sale. While he was traveling to Bensonhurst, a woman of the neighborhood was arguing with Keith Modello, telling him that he was going to be beaten up by her black boyfriend and a group of his friends who were en route to the neighborhood. Modello gathered a group of his friends armed with sticks and a bat and waited for the black men to arrive.

When Hawkins and his friends arrived, they were met by the angry white men, but Hawkins explained why they were in the neighborhood. As Modello and his friends were about to let Hawkins and his friends proceed with their mission of seeing a car for sale, another teen came on the scene with a gun and began firing shots. Hawkins was hit and died before paramedics arrived on the scene. The alleged shooter was Joey Fama. Black leaders and community activists, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, marched through Bensonhurst to protest Hawkins’ death. The protesters were met by angry whites, who shouted death threats at the marchers. During the trial, both Keith Modello and Joey Fama were acquitted. Protesters marched from the courthouse to Hawkins’ house, looting some stores and throwing rocks at TV news vans. Citizens of New York, especially those of the black community, were outraged by the verdicts.

Tensions were already high over earlier incidents like the 1986 Howard Beach incident. Many of the black protestors felt justice was not served and that the outcome of the incident was another example of the inherent racism in a judicial system that provided unequal protection under the law for blacks. The incident later inspired Spike Lee’s film, Jungle Fever.