city for the failure of police to protect him; New York
City settled for $200,000 in 2003.
Sharpton was also involved in the aftermath of
the 1991 Crown Heights riot, which ignited after a
Guyanese boy and his cousin were struck by a vehicle
in a motorcade for a prominent Jewish rabbi. Al-
though rumor and misunderstanding led to the
original violence, many people blamed Sharpton for
inciting anti-Semitism with a threatening comment,
“If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their
yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” In four
days of rioting, a Jewish graduate student from Aus-
tralia was killed. Mayor David Dinkins had at-
tempted to prevent Sharpton’s protest march, fear-
ing clashes between residents.
As if to prove Sharpton’s observation on barely
concealed northern racism, New York City saw sev-
eral more shocking incidents during the decade. In
1995, a Jewish merchant in Harlem asked his subten-
ant, a black record-shop owner, to move. Sharpton
declared that the community would not stand for
“some white interloper” closing a black business. A
homeless man subsequently set fire to the store, kill-
ing seven employees and fatally shooting himself.
Even Sharpton conceded that his comment was re-
grettable, though he stopped short of accepting re-
sponsibility for the ill will and violence. Sharpton
jumped in to lead protests following the torture of
Haitian immigrant Abner Louima while in police
custody in 1997 and the 1999 shooting of Guinean
immigrant Amadou Diallo by New York police offi-
cers.
Impact Al Sharpton was widely viewed as a grand-
standing loudmouth who incited violence; others
saw him as an incorruptible champion of civil rights.
Sharpton ran for mayor of New York in 1997 and for
the U.S. Senate in 1992 and 1994, signaling a wish
to be taken seriously on a political level. Although
he received respectable shares of the vote, he was
unlikely to succeed as a politician, given his divisive
image.
Further Reading
McFadden, Robert D. “Sharpton Is Stabbed at
Bensonhurst Protest.”The New York Times, January
13, 1991, p. A1.
Sharpton, Al, with Anthony Walton.Go and Tell Pha-
raoh: The Autobiography of the Reverend Al Sharpton.
New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Jan HallSee also African Americans; Crown Heights riot;
Diallo shooting; Dinkins, David; Farrakhan, Louis;
Giuliani, Rudolph; Louima torture case; Police bru-
tality; Race relations. Shaw v. Reno
Identification U.S. Supreme Court decision
Date Decided on June 28, 1993
The Court declared that voting districts based on race
should be held to the legal standard of “strict scrutiny.”
This case dealt with a black majority North Carolina
congressional district. The district stretched over a
150-mile-long area, and the design’s only purpose
seemed to be to connect heavily black areas. A law-
suit ensued. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 deci-The Nineties in America Shaw v. Reno 767
Al Sharpton in 1994.(AP/Wide World Photos)