Bensonhurst in 1989 was a town dominated by white Italians. Yusuf Hawkins was 16 years old and was new to the neighborhood. One night in August, after checking out an used car, Hawkins got off the subway and exited the station, walking down twentieth street. Hawkins was surrounded by a white gang with baseball bats. One of the boys had a gun and fired four shots, two hit Yusef’s chest, killing him. (The Daily News recaps, 2014)
The ringleader of the gang, Keith Mondello, provided a first hand account to The Daily News, giving insight into the tragedy nearly a quarter of a century after the event. Mondello was responsible for assembling the gang of white teens holding baseball bats and ready for a fight. They were told by a girl (also drug addict) from their town, Gina Feliciano, that a group of Black or Hispanic boys were coming to “settle a score with Mondello”.
Then 16 year old Yusuf came out of the subway station with his three friends, as one of Mondello’s guys said, “They’re here. The black guys are here.” They began fighting first with racial slurs and followed the group until they surrounded them. Mondello says that four shots were fired and two hit Yusuf in the chest, but he regrets that he to this day does not know who had a gun that night.
Mondello asks himself to this day why it happened:
“That kid was shot for no reason at all. It was completely senseless…. Did I know that then? Yes. I know it even more now….[And] for what? Because you’re gonna protect your block, or protect your schoolyard? This macho bravado thing. That’s really what the night was about.”
“I don’t know who shot Yusuf Hawkins,
but the system loaded the gun.”
– Rev. Al Sharpton, speaking at Yusuf’s funeral service
This killing resulted in months of protests where crowds took to the streets, marching and calling Yusuf’s name and letting everyone know of the injustice that took place. The youth let their voice be heard and things began to get violent.
A year after Yusuf’s death, only one of the boys from the mob was charged with murder, although eight went to trial. National media attention focused intensely on the alleged ringleader, Joe Mondello, and the alleged gunman, Joey Fama. Mondello was acquitted of murder and manslaughter but was found guilty of rioting and 11 other lesser counts, sentenced to 5 1/3 to 16 years behind bars. He was paroled from prison in 1998 after serving eight years. Fama, on the other hand, was charged and convicted of second degree murder, and serve a 32-year-to-life sentence.
(See where Modello and Fama are today, one filled with regret and the other claiming innocence, respectively)
At the same time, Reverend Al Sharpton coordinated months of protest to raise awareness to the slaying and fact that only one of the gang was convicted. He was able to organize a rally which hundreds attended. However, one January morning when Sharpton was in a park preparing for the event, a 30-year old white man in a Yankees cap walked up to him and plunged a 5inch kitchen knife into Sharpton’s chest. He was wounded but recovered at the hospital in Coney Island. Nevertheless, Sharpton was able to rally the black community and make the whites out to be the enemy who needed to be restrained for their murderous actions. (48 Hours report seen below)
The Demographics of Bensonhurst Today
“Today, black Bensonhurstians say racial tensions in the neighborhood have eased somewhat, and new waves of Chinese, Russian, and Latino immigrants have arrived, chasing the same dream the Italians once did—a suburb of their own. But the Italian influence still permeates the streets of this brick-hewn residential area” – The Village Voice (2004)
Village Voice writer Felicia Mello describes how today Bensonhurst still struggles with tension and tolerance as a result of ethnicity shifts. In particular, for their Asian population, Mello reports how since 2001 there have been cases of discrimination in the local schools. Tensions have been exasperated to the point that the Asian population has filed complaints with the city’s human rights commission. Mello does note that some in the community feel that they are welcomed despite the previous notion.
Stephen Farrell, a NYT Reporter, illustrates the “dramatic demographic changes” that southern Brooklyn has seen, as represented in Census data from 1970 through 2010. We focus on the drastic changes for Bensonhurt’s demographics.
“RUNNING, AWAY FROM THE CIRCUS” (See 1:40-1:55)
WHITE POPULATION: 1980 VS 2010
ITALIAN POPULATION: 1980 VS 2010
FOReign-BORN POPULATION: 1980 VS 2010
(from the CUNY Graduate Center for Urban Research)
Reflecting on the Tensions
Now they say the community is relatively peaceful. There is even released footage of Yusuf Hawkins’ father, Al Sharpton and the man from the gang having an intimate, one hour long historical meeting, nearly 25 years after the incident. However, decades later and it is still a sensitive issue. Some tend to ignore that it happened while fewer embraced it and said they have moved past.
A THE PRIVATE MEETING YEARS LATER BETWEEN YUSUF HAWKIN’S DAD & KEITH MONTELLO, REFLECTING ON THE EVENT THAT CHANGED BOTH OF THEIR LIVES. A HANDSHAKE AND 1 HOUR MEETING, NY1 REPORTS.
It seems hard for residents to imagine that their home was a battleground of rioting between whites and blacks just over twenty years ago. It is arguable that the community has yet to come in terms with its history and has not fully healed from the unrest created. Memorialized in this graffiti mural, the permanence of Hawkins’ impact is clear. He will not be forgotten. Furthermore, compared to the other locations with contested turf, Bensonhurst has not recovered from its past. The community is not tense with conflict on the levels it saw in 1989, but the present is not pleasant either.
The Daily News in 2014 interviewed Hawkins’ parents, reflecting on their son’s death 25 years later. We learn that the memories still haunt them, and that it has been a long journey, one that has yet to deliver forgiveness and real closure. The pain still remains after all these years, as unfortunately expected.
“I can’t forgive anybody, I can’t do it… I ask myself, ‘Why? Why did this guy [Joey Fama, the suspected shooter] have to do this? For what?’ My son didn’t bother anyone… I feel like there’s an empty space in my heart.“
– Diane Hawkins, mother of Yusuf Hawkins
Want to learn more? Take a listen to this 2014 published podcast by WNYC NEWS. (click the invisible play button left of 00:00 stamp) MEMORIES STILL BURN IN BENSONHURST OVER THE DEATH OF YUSUF HAWKINS
On the 25th anniversary, WNYC’s Mark Garber’s report “Memories still burn in Bensonhurst over the death of Yusuf Hawkins” gives a brief description of the event and overview of the protests and reaction. Garber interviews current residents of Bensonhurst which demonstrate that tensions over the community’s past remains to haunt them.
A group of women were sitting on a Bensonhurst stoop this past Wednesday afternoon, taking the sun. They were around the corner from the spot on 20th Avenue where, 25 years ago, a white mob cornered and beat 16 year-old Yusuf Hawkins, before somebody pulled out a gun and shot him dead. The women were also sitting near the schoolyard where, in 1991, a young man approached Rev. Al Sharpton while he was preparing to lead a protest march and stabbed Sharpton in the chest with a five-inch steak knife.
When the women were asked about those days, they complained that Sharpton brought a bunch of outsiders into their neighborhood and stirred up trouble. “He had a whole crew and they started a whole riot here,” said a 93-year-old woman who’d only identify herself as Maryellen. “It was terrible.”
As Bensonhurst changes — more than a third of the area’s population is now Asian — old animosities still simmer. And one thing hasn’t changed in the traditionally Italian-American neighborhood: its population is still only 1 percent African-American — essentially the same as it was in 1989. ©
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