<p>Al Sharpton leading the first of dozens of <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/02/24/diallo/index1.html">protest marches</a> after 40 white teenagers <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Yusef_Hawkins" class="extiw" title="w:en:Yusef Hawkins">murdered</a> Yusuf Hawkins, a 16 year old black youth in the (then) white neighborhood of <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/race_class/cops_benson/bensonhurst.htm">Bensonhurst</a> in Brooklyn.  
</p><p>Al Sharpton bravely led marchers through the Bensonhurst every week for over a year, despite shouts and catcalls and threats to his life.  He was stabbed in 1991 during another march in Bensonhurst.
</p><p>I happened to be home from college during the murder and the first protest march. I stumbled upon Rev. Sharpton and his group assembling in my grammar school's playground and then followed them through the neighborhood.  I saw one white guy charge at Reverend Sharpton, only to be quickly knocked to the ground by the police.  I saw another guy come out of his house weilding a kitchen knife who the cops also cuffed and led away.
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Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever is dedicated in memory of Yusuf Hawkins, and his photograph appears at the beginning of the film.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/65459962@N00">christian razukas</a> from Honolulu, Hawaii
CC BY 3.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/65459962@N00/422811133/">Al Sharpton, 1989 Protest March, Brooklyn NY</a>