Al Sharpton leading the first of dozens of protest marches after 40 white teenagers murdered Yusuf Hawkins, a 16 year old black youth in the (then) white neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.

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.

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.