Thursday, December 11, 2014

Colorless December ... Faces of hate, Brooklyn 1989

I really hope that the rest of the negatives from this day turn up as I go through the pile. There were pics of the ReverandAl Sharpton in his running suit next to Herbert Daughtry in his immaculate suit and some Nation of Islam guys. But, alas, this is the one I have, and only as a print.

The background. In August, 1989 a young man named Yusef Hawkins was killed by a white man in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. This was from the first march, and was the first time "No Justice, No Peace" was chanted by a crowd. 

The residents of Bensonhurst were not amused by this invasion of thousands of black folk in their streets, and there was heavy police protection along the whole route. When I took this, I was about 3 feet from Reverend Sharpton, near the front of the march. 

The police protection that day worked. A year later, Rev. Sharpton was stabbed at a similar march in the same neighborhood. 

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