HBO's 'Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn' is a devastating account of a racist tragedy

Yusuf Hawkins is a name everyone should know. On August 23, 1989, 16-year-old Hawkins and three of his friends traveled from East New York to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The boys had plans to look at a car, a 1982 Pontiac for sale by the owner. When the four Black teenagers emerged from the subway into the largely white Italian-American neighborhood to meet the car's seller, they were attacked by a mob of white kids, several armed with baseball bats. All four Black boys were injured; Hawkins was fatally shot.  In the aftermath, some would say it was a case of mistaken identity. Others would argue it was the wrong time or the wrong place. The brawl that ensued was eventually tied to a love triangle involving a white neighborhood girl whom neither Hawkins nor his friends knew — proof, some claimed, that the murder wasn't racially motivated at all.  Read more...More about Hbo, Movie Review, Yusuf Hawkins, Entertainment, and Streaming Services