Lest We Forget, White Hate Crimes: Howard Beach and Other Racial Atrocities

This work offers a timely examination of the barely discussed, but widely practised phenomenon of white-on-Black Crime. Although the Civil Rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s suggested a movement toward racial harmony, the rise of conservatism during the Ronald Reagan Administration helped to create a climate that not only reversed civil rights gains, but lead to a resurgence of hatred and violence toward people of colour and the poor. Dr. Alphonso Pinkney presents a riveting, historical account of white racially motivated individual and mob attacks on Blacks during the 1980s. Documenting the striking parallels of these attacks as a return to Reconstruction Era and early 1900s race riot styled lynchings, Pinkney provides engaging profiles of the victims and their attackers, reviews the legal proceedings, analyses the affects on the families and communities involved, and demonstrates the legal system’s complicity in disrupting justice.