Yusuf Kirriem Hawkins Way (Brooklyn)
Present name:Verona Place
Location:Between Fulton Street and Macon Street
Honoree: On the evening of Wednesday August 23rd, 1989, Yusuf Kirriem Hawkins, a 16-year-old from East New York was shot in the chest and killed in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, marking the third killing of a black male by white mobs in New York City during the 1980’s. Yusuf was a smart young man who was accepted to a technical school and had the brightest of futures ahead of him. On that night, Yusuf and his friends were visiting Bensonhurst to look at a used car. The group's attackers had been lying in wait for black youths that were expected to attend a party at the home of a teenage girl in the neighborhood. Some say the girl had previously dated one of the killers and/or she had invited black youths to her neighborhood to taunt the neighborhood boys. Hawkins and his friends walked onto the ambushers' block unaware that local residents were waiting to attack any group of black youths they saw. After the murder of Hawkins, police said that he had not in any way been involved with the neighborhood girl whom the killers believed Hawkins was dating. Yusuf’s death led to demands of greater racial justice within New York City. A few days after his murder, 300 demonstrators marched through Bensonhurst in his name, facing opposition from local residents in their demand for justice. (Cornegy)
LL:2021/14