“It was the city’s worst racial violence since the outbreak that followed Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968.”
HOT AUGUST NIGHT(S)
New York City in the summer of 1991 saw heightened racial tensions which were most powerfully felt in the Brooklyn borough. The Crown Heights Riots was a racially charged incident which took place from August 19th, 1991, through August 21st, 1991, which truly shed light on the neighborhood’s contention between its black and Jewish populations.
This three day riot was ignited in response to a tragic accident. The synopsis as follows:
- A station wagon driven by Lubavitcher Yosef Lifsh, from the Hasidic Jewish community, hopped the curb and crushed the two black children, Gavin and Angela Cato, who were innocent bystanders.
- Gavin Cato succumbed to his wounds later at nearby Kings County hospital.
- It was falsely reported, however, that the Jewish-run Hatzalah ambulance service opted to treat Yosef first, rather than the children.
- This became a racial lightning rod for community uproar.
At the same time, the anger and frustrations of the community quickly translated into violent altercations. A few hours after the accident, need for retaliation based on the false reports on the accident, a mob of at least a dozen black teenagers attacked a 29-year-old Jew, Yankel Rosenbaum. The young Hasidic scholar was fatally stabbed by Lemrick Nelson, a 16-year-old black. Reports say that the black teens shouted “Kill the Jew!” just before the stabbing.
The message of the neighborhood’s blatant racial conflicts was sent across loud and clear through these acts of violence. The next few days saw intense street violence and confrontations between blacks and Hasidim.
The rioting continued to the point that it became necessary for over 1,800 police officers, including mounted and motorcycle units, had to be deployed to quell the chaos.
“As with any cataclysmic event, the underlying causes of the riots were far more complicated than a single moment.” – Time Magazine
CHECK OUT THESE NEWS REPORTS FROM 1991 TELEVISION ARCHIVES
Minute-by-minute police statement report of the accident
ABC7 Coverage of Crown Heights
Amidst the chaos, where’s the Mayor?
Mayor of New York City at the time, David Dinkins, was highly criticized for his response to the riots, oftentimes being accused of a slow response to the tensions. Many argued that he could have diffused if he had reacted appropriately and swiftly. He reportedly encouraged the police officers to allow black teenagers to vent their rage in an effort to diffuse the tension, which in turn resulted in the escalation of the riots.
While personally maintaining that he was not given sufficient information about the level of unrest, it is generally agreed upon that the police deployment rate determined by Dinkins and his Chief of Police was insufficient to quell the rioting.
MAYOR DINKIN’S CRY FOR CALM – HIS PUBLIC STATEMENT
But even the mayor wasn’t safe at this time. Dinkins personally went to the riot streets – a warm welcome was the last thing he received. here’s his response with abc7.
Tensions with the African Americans?
Expect Al Sharpton.
Especially in times of racial conflict with the black community in NYC, one will find outspoken and oftentimes controversial community leader Al Sharpton rallying against injustice towards blacks. Time and time again, Sharpton it at center of the political debates and community clashes. It is not surprising then that Sharpton was an actor in the Crown Heights Riots, leading marches and speaking out to hundreds, shouting “No justice, no peace!”
See sharpton’s remarks amidst the riots
Perspectives from Hasidic community leaders
“Crown Heights is a model community of integration where whites and blacks live in peace together.”
– Yehuda Krinsky, Lubavitcher Rabbi
Some the Hasidic leaders felt little problems with their Black neighbors, but the Crown Heights riots tell a different story. The truth of the neighborhood: two opposing ethnic groups which harbored resentments towards each other. This Daily News front page report says it all:
Crown Heights: Where are you now?
Flash-forward 20 years since that violent three summer days in Crown Heights, and it is 2011. We reflect on these powerful events that played out. Hindsight is 20/20, they say…
“The riots and the damage they created became a referendum on race relations. And they were perceived as a defining moment in black-Jewish relations in New York and elsewhere in the nation.”
– David A. Love, for The Grio
DEMOGRAPHICS OF CROWN HEIGHTS NOW
According to US census data, as The New York Times, the black population of Crown Heights had shrank from 79% to 70% between 2000 to 2010 years. Not so surprisingly, neighborhood’s the white population doubled to roughly 16%. So too did the number of Hispanic and Asian populations. As reported in Simon Dein’s Lubavitcher Messianism, the year 2007 specifically saw about 9% of the population were of Hasidic Jews (pg. 87)
The current state of racial affairs within Crown Heights today has been best described by The New Yorker writer Alexis Okeowo, who described in 2011 that, “The Crown Heights that I know is one that remembers its past, but doesn’t dwell on it.” The area has managed to move on, while not forgetting the racial conflicts it has encountered, so that Jewish residents feel that while not coexisting harmoniously with their African American neighbors, they manage to exist on equal footing. Okeowo’s article further depicts the evolution of the racial environment felt since the Crown Heights riots, explaining:
When The New Yorker ran a cover of a black woman kissing a Hasidic Jewish man two years later, the resulting controversy illustrated that the upheaval, and what it showed about ethnic tensions, had yet to fade in the country’s memory.
NEARLY TWO DECADES LATER, KEY FIGURES AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY TAKE A MOMENT TO REFLECT ON THE CONFLICTS
Watch Gavin Cato’s father’s emotional retelling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93x_SR9hdIg
See this reflective piece on the neighborhood in 2013
in 2013, former Mayor DInkins reflects on Crown Heights. His view is a very important perspective to consider as well – Remember, Hindsight 20/20 and a touch of regret.
And What about the al Sharpton of today?
In a 2011 op-ed for The Daily News, 20 years after the Crown Heights riots, Sharpton reflects and recognizes the tensions equally exacerbated by both Jewish and black “extremists” at the time. He acknowledges: “Our language and tone sometimes exacerbated tensions and played to the extremists.”
“Twenty years after the Crown Heights riots, the city has grown, and I believe I have grown. I’d like to share a few of my reflections about the choices I made, including the mistakes, with an eye toward advancing racial understanding and harmony… Crown Heights showed how some of us, in our smallness, can divide.” – Al Sharpton
Want to learn more?
Take a listen to this 2014 published podcast by The Brian Lehrer Show.
(click the invisible play button left of 00:00 stamp)
25 YEARS IN 25 DAYS (1991): A REPORT FROM THE CROWN HEIGHTS RIOTS
Created by WNYC, the podcast contains news reporting on the riots in Crown Heights, while also including various interviews and commentaries how the area has changed since the conflicts.
“We remember perhaps the most tumultuous local event of 1991, the Crown Heights riots, which pitted members of the black community against the ultra-orthodox community in one of central Brooklyn’s most diverse neighborhoods. The riots began on August 19, 1991, after Gavin Cato, a child of Guyanese immigrants, was struck and killed by an automobile in the motorcade of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of a Jewish religious sect. The incident pushed the long-simmering tension to the breaking point, and the next few nights saw protests, bottle throwing, looting and attacks. And Mayor David Dinkins, stuck in the middle, was never able to recover his reputation among either community.
To remember this moment, we went back into the WNYC archives and found some of the original reports that aired that summer of 1991. As it happens, the reporter on the scene was Maria Hinojosa, who you may know now as the host of Latino USA. We found her reports to be so emotional, and nuanced, and rich in sound, that we thought we’d present about three minutes of the original reporting.”
