Shot by white youths in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in late August, 1989, while searching for a used car he'd seen in the paper was advertised for sale. Hawkins's death was an important factor in the election of David Dinkins as the first African-American mayor of New York City in 1989.
Yusuf Hawkins was a 16-year-old African American youth who was shot to death on August 23, 1989 in Bensonhurst, a heavily Italian American working-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Hawkins and three friends were attacked by a crowd of 10 to 30 white youths, with at least seven of them wielding baseball bats. One, armed with a handgun, shot Hawkins twice in the chest, killing him.
Contributor: Heather Deschaine-Sifton (50142396)
Shot by white youths in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in late August, 1989, while searching for a used car he'd seen in the paper was advertised for sale. Hawkins's death was an important factor in the election of David Dinkins as the first African-American mayor of New York City in 1989.
Yusuf Hawkins was a 16-year-old African American youth who was shot to death on August 23, 1989 in Bensonhurst, a heavily Italian American working-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Hawkins and three friends were attacked by a crowd of 10 to 30 white youths, with at least seven of them wielding baseball bats. One, armed with a handgun, shot Hawkins twice in the chest, killing him.
Contributor: Heather Deschaine-Sifton (50142396)
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