Racial tension also arose in the boycott of a Korean grocer in Flatbush. A Haitian woman, Giselaine Felissaint, reportedly entered the Family Red Apple produce store on Church Avenue and was accused of stealing. When asked to open her bag she refused and her lawyers claimed that at this point she was beaten, while the storeowners claimed that she fell to the floor and was told to await the arrival of police. Some local residents sided with the customer, and refused to shop at the Korean-owned store.
The incident marked tensions between a new immigrant group, Korean-Americans who were rapidly opening small businesses, and the Caribbean-American community. According to an NBC news report, this wasn’t the first time these tensions led to a boycott.
NBC noted that two Korean grocers in Bedford-Stuyvesant were shut down by black boycotters in 1988, and that similar boycotts had occurred in in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and
In Flatbush, the tensions between Korean merchants and black customers sparked a 15-week boycott with 500 picketers stationed outside local Korean-owned shops. The Koreans were dismayed. Bong Jae Jung, owner of the Family Red Apple store at Church Avenue and St. Paul’s Place, stated, “This is not the way of the land of hope that America is supposed to represent.” Along Church Avenue and its surrounding streets, multiple vigils were held to support all the different people who were affected by these [1]
During the years from 1965 to 2000, West Indians opened many stores in Flatbush and nearby neighborhoods, helping to revitalize once-dormant commercial areas. This 35-year period was a time when immigrants from many nations settled in Flatbush and get accustomed to it.
[1] Calvin Sims, “Black Customers, Korean Grocers: Need and Mistrust; Shoppers Complain Of Hostile Treatment, But Choices Are Few,” The New York Times, May 16, 1990.
