Street Protests in Aftermath

The Crown Heights Riot started on August 19, 1991, ignited by the deaths of Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum. Clashes between the Jewish, and the African- and Caribbean-American residents of Crown Heights occurred throughout the neighborhood. They would last three days. By the end of the first night, the police had made fourteen arrests.

The following day, 1,550 police were dispatched to the neighborhood; two-hundred of them to site of Gavin Cato’s death. Bricks and bottles were hurled at each other and at the police. Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance Party and Al Sharpton addressed the hundreds that had assembled for a protest. Rather than seeking to calm tensions, Fulani and Sharpton sought to inflame them further, referring to Jews as "diamond merchants" and encouraging them to "pin down their yarmulkes" and fight him. Some Black attendees carried signs with anti-Semitic and hateful phrases, including "Kill the Jews!" Black protestors slashed the tires of news vans. This second day, another twelve arrests were made, and at least a dozen officers and three journalists were injured.

On the third day of the riot, some of rioters pelted the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch at 770 Eastern Avenue with rocks and bottles, while chanting Nazi slogans. Rocks and bottles were hurled back by some Lubavitchers. Rioters also smashed in a door with a baseball bat. The riot ultimately ended on Thursday, August 22. By that time, the occupying police force had swelled to 1,800 officers, outnumbering civilians two to one. Sixty-four were taken into custody by the NYPD on day three.

During and after the riots, Mayor David Dinkins faced criticism from many in the Jewish community, as well as many non-Jews, who said he was slow to act in containing antisemitic violence perpetrated by Blacks. Dinkins responded by repeatedly publicly denouncing African-American violence—including to Black audiences—and by taking responsibility for a police department that to many in seemed slow to respond. He vehemently denied that he ever directed the police department to pursue a hands-off approach, and no compelling evidence has ever been provided to the contrary. Further, he contended, “There are some people in the town who believe that when a chief executive is elected, in addition to whatever title you may hod, you are ex officio the head of the ethnic group to which you happen to belong. Well, I have news for them. It’s not true and it’s demeaning.” He called the killing of Yenkel Rosenbaum a “lynching.”

The Crown Heights Riot started on August 19, 1991, ignited by the deaths of Gavin Cato and Yankel Rosenbaum. Clashes between the Jewish, and the African- and Caribbean-American residents of Crown Heights occurred throughout the neighborhood. They would last three days. By the end of the first night, the police had made fourteen arrests.

The following day, 1,550 police were dispatched to the neighborhood; two-hundred of them to site of Gavin Cato’s death. Bricks and bottles were hurled at each other and at the police. Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance Party and Al Sharpton addressed the hundreds that had assembled for a protest. Rather than seeking to calm tensions, Fulani and Sharpton sought to inflame them further, referring to Jews as "diamond merchants" and encouraging them to "pin down their yarmulkes" and fight him. Some Black attendees carried signs with anti-Semitic and hateful phrases, including "Kill the Jews!" Black protestors slashed the tires of news vans. This second day, another twelve arrests were made, and at least a dozen officers and three journalists were injured.

On the third day of the riot, some of rioters pelted the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch at 770 Eastern Avenue with rocks and bottles, while chanting Nazi slogans. Rocks and bottles were hurled back by some Lubavitchers. Rioters also smashed in a door with a baseball bat. The riot ultimately ended on Thursday, August 22. By that time, the occupying police force had swelled to 1,800 officers, outnumbering civilians two to one. Sixty-four were taken into custody by the NYPD on day three.

During and after the riots, Mayor David Dinkins faced criticism from many in the Jewish community, as well as many non-Jews, who said he was slow to act in containing antisemitic violence perpetrated by Blacks. Dinkins responded by repeatedly publicly denouncing African-American violence—including to Black audiences—and by taking responsibility for a police department that to many in seemed slow to respond. He vehemently denied that he ever directed the police department to pursue a hands-off approach, and no compelling evidence has ever been provided to the contrary. Further, he contended, “There are some people in the town who believe that when a chief executive is elected, in addition to whatever title you may hod, you are ex officio the head of the ethnic group to which you happen to belong. Well, I have news for them. It’s not true and it’s demeaning.” He called the killing of Yenkel Rosenbaum a “lynching.”

Dawkins, Wayne. City Son: Andrew W. Cooper's Impact on Modern-Day Brooklyn. University Press of Mississippi, 2012.

Esparza, Jesse J. "Crown Heights Riot." The Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Ortner, William G. "Jews, African-Americans, and the Crown Heights Riots: Applying Matsuda's Proposal to Restrict Racist Speech." Boston University Law Review (November 1993): 897-918.