Race relations in the 1980s-90s: A Wikipedia montage

A partial compendium of race-related issues in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Text cobbled together from various Wikipedia entries. Comments, corrections, and additions welcome!

1987: Tawana Brawley, a 15-year old African American girl from Wappinger New York, received national media attention when she accused six white men, some of whom were police officers, of having raped her. The accusations soon earned her notoriety, which was inflamed by Brawley's advisors (including the Reverend Al Sharpton and attorneys Alton Maddox and C. Vernon Mason), the statements of various public officials, and intense media attention. After hearing evidence, a grand jury concluded in October 1988 that Brawley had not been the victim of a forcible sexual assault and that she herself may have created the appearance of an attack. The New York prosecutor whom Brawley accused as one of her alleged assailants successfully sued Brawley and her three advisers for defamation.

1988: In the 1988 presidential race, Republican George H.W. Bush made an issue of Democrat Michael Dukakis' decision while governor of Massachusetts to grant a furlough to a black murderer named Willie Horton. While on furlough Horton raped a white woman and brutally assaulted her fiance. The Bush campaign used the Willie Horton episode to portray Dukakis as "soft on crime." Bush's campaign manager, Lee Atwater, vowed that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name." The campaign produced an inflammatory television ad showing prisoners entering and leaving a prison through a revolving door. The Bush campaign was accused of using the Willie Horton incident to stoke racial tension in order to secure the white vote. In 1991, dying of brain cancer, Lee Atwater wrote an article for Life magazine expressing regret for the hard-knuckle style of politics he had used in a number of campaigns in the 1980s. He expressly apologized to Michael Dukakis for the "naked cruelty" of the 1988 presidential campaign.

1989: A white woman, Trisha Meili, was raped and brutally assaulted while jogging in Central Park in an incident that became known as the Central Park Jogger case. It was alleged that a large group of young black men were engaged in what was called "wilding," rampaging through Central Park robbing and assaulting passers by. The incident aggravated racial tensions in New York and complicated the mayoral race that pitted Rudi Giuliani, who was white, against a black candidate, David Dinkins. Five black teenagers were arrested and convicted of the crime. Lawyers and family members of the convicted teenagers charged that their incriminating statements had been coerced by the police officers who interrogated them. The convictions were vacated years later when another man was found to have committed the crime alone.

1989: The hip hop group Public Enemy released "Fight the Power," one of the most influential songs in hip hop history. The song was the theme for Spike Lee's movie, "Do the Right Thing." Hip hop and the related style of "gangsta rap" were widely criticized in the white community for exhalting inner-city violence and opposition to the police. Public Enemy's logo was a figure that looks like a police officer in crosshairs.

1991: David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and avowed "white nationalist," ran as a Republican for Louisiana governor against Edwin Edwards, a Democratic former governor who had a reputation for corruption. The Louisiana Republican party repudiated Duke but his candidacy attracted support from racist groups around the country. Opponents of Duke responded with bumper stickers appealing to voters to reject Duke in favor of Edwards: "Vote for the Crook: It's Important," and "Vote for the Lizard, Not the Wizard." Duke won 55 percent of the white vote but Edwards won the election. Duke ran for the Republican nomination in the 1992 presidential primaries but failed to attract significant national support.

1992: In an effort to bolster his "anti-crime" credentials, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton took a break from his primary campaign to fly back to Arkansas to witness the execution of a black man, Rickey Ray Rector, who had been convicted of killing a police officer in 1981. Death penalty opponents had pleaded with Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, to spare Rector's life because he had suffered brain damage in a suicide attempt during his surrender to police that left him unable to understand the charges against him. But Clinton had vowed not to repeat the mistakes made by previous Democratic candidates like Michael Dukakis whose opposition to the death penalty had allowed opponents to paint them as "soft on crime." At his last meal before his execution, Rector was careful to save his dessert to eat later.

1992: Rodney King was stopped by police officers in Los Angeles for a traffic violation. He was taken out of his car and beaten severely. The beating was videotaped and broadcast around the country. Four LAPD police officers were charged with the crime but a jury of ten whites, an Asian and a Latino found them not guilty. The news of acquittal triggered riots in Los Angeles. By the time the police, the US Army, the Marines and the National Guard restored order, the casualties included 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses.

During the riots, a white truck driver named Reginald Denny who stopped at a traffic light was dragged from his vehicle and severely beten by a mob of local black residents as news helicopters hovered above, recording every blow, including a concrete fragment connecting with Denny's temple and a cinder block thrown at his head as he lay unconscious in the street. The police never appeared, having been ordered to withdraw for their own safety. Denny was rescued by an unarmed African American civilian named Bobby Green Jr. who, seeing the assault live on television, rushed to the scene and drove Denny to the hospital in the victim's own truck.

On May 1, 1992, the third day of the riots, Rodney King appeared in public before television cameras to appeal for peace, asking "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?"

1992: Democratic candidate for president Bill Clinton, seeking to distance himself from former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and civil rights advocates in the Democratic party, criticized African American hip hop artist Sister Souljah in a speech to Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. Following the LA riots, Sister Souljah had been quoted in the Washington Post interview saying "If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" In one of her music videos she said "If there are any good white people, I haven't met them." Clinton spoke out against these statements to Jackson's group, noting that Americans would be outraged if Sister Souljah was white and referring to blacks in that way. Clinton's remarks caused a riff between him and Jackson and sparked criticism from many blacks - precisely what Clinton intended as he courted the white vote.

1994: Former football star and actor O.J. Simpson allegedly murdered his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend, Ron Goldman. As Simpson's lawyers encouraged him to turn himself in, Simpson led police on a "low speed chase" through Los Angeles that was covered live by over 20 helicopter news teams. Simpson eventually gave himself up to police. His trial turned into a circus ("if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit!") and Simpson was acquitted. The incident sparked a national "conversation" about race, since Simpson was black and the two victims were white. One of the defense's main arguments was that one of the key witnesses against Simpson, police officer Mark Fuhrman, was motivated by racial hatred. Fuhrman confessed to numerous cases of police brutality. During the trial a tape was played in which Fuhrman used the "N word" 41 times. Simpson's acquittal was met with disbelief by white America (87 percent of whom thought he was guilty according to an NBC poll) and celebration in parts of the African American community (only 27 percent of whom thought he was guilty).