It’s just past midnight on December 20, 1986. Most of Queens is tucked away, but on a lonely stretch of Cross Bay Boulevard, a 1976 Buick has finally given up the ghost. Four guys—Michael Griffith, Cedric Sandiford, Timothy Grimes, and Curtis Sylvester—are stuck. Sylvester stays with the car, while the other three start the long walk toward Howard Beach to find a phone.
They weren't looking for trouble. They were looking for a tow truck.
Basically, what followed would become the Howard Beach racial incident, a moment that didn't just shake New York City—it basically defined the racial friction of the 1980s. If you’ve ever seen Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, this is one of the real-life tragedies that fueled that fire.
The Pizzeria Confrontation
The three men eventually made it to New Park Pizza. They were hungry and tired. They sat down for a slice, but the vibe was off from the jump. Howard Beach at the time was an insular, predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood, and three Black men walking around at 12:30 a.m. was enough to trigger a localized, violent paranoia.
A group of white teenagers was at a nearby party. One of them, Jon Lester, reportedly told the group there were "niggers in the pizza parlor" and rallied a mob.
They didn't just yell. They came back with baseball bats, tire irons, and tree limbs.
When Griffith, Sandiford, and Grimes walked out of that pizzeria, they weren't met with a conversation. They were met with a hunt. Grimes managed to pull a knife and scare off some of the attackers long enough to sprint away, but Griffith and Sandiford weren't as lucky. They were chased and beaten.
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Sandiford was hit so hard he was eventually knocked unconscious. Griffith, only 23 years old, was desperate. He ran toward the Belt Parkway, hoping to lose the mob. He didn't see the car coming.
He was struck and killed instantly by a motorist named Dominick Blum. Blum, a 24-year-old court officer, wasn't charged; he later testified he thought he’d hit a piece of debris or an animal.
The Cops and the Aftermath
Honestly, the way the police handled the immediate aftermath was almost as bad as the attack itself. When they found Cedric Sandiford walking dazed on the highway, they didn't offer him a hospital bed. They searched him. They treated him like a suspect. They even took him back to the scene where Michael Griffith’s body lay on the asphalt before interrogating him for hours.
It took a while for the city to explode, but when it did, it was loud.
Mayor Ed Koch called it the "No. 1 case in the city" and compared it to a lynching. Al Sharpton, who was still a rising figure back then, organized marches through the heart of Howard Beach. You had 1,200 protesters walking through the neighborhood while local residents stood on their lawns holding signs that said "White Power" and "Niggers Go Home."
It was ugly.
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Who Was Actually Convicted?
People often forget how messy the legal battle was. The first round of charges actually got dropped because the victims and their lawyers, including C. Vernon Mason and Alton H. Maddox Jr., refused to cooperate with the Queens District Attorney, John Santucci. They thought he was too soft.
Governor Mario Cuomo finally stepped in and appointed Charles Hynes as a special prosecutor. That changed everything.
In the end, three of the main attackers were hit with the big charges:
- Jon Lester: The ringleader. He got 10 to 30 years for second-degree manslaughter and assault.
- Scott Kern: Sentenced to 6 to 18 years.
- Jason Ladone: Sentenced to 5 to 15 years.
A fourth guy, Michael Pirone, was acquitted. Altogether, nine people were eventually convicted of something related to that night, but for many in the Black community, the fact that no one was convicted of "murder" felt like a slap in the face.
Why This Still Matters
The Howard Beach racial incident wasn't a fluke. It was the middle child of a trio of horrors in New York. You had Willie Turks killed in 1982 in Gravesend, and then Yusef Hawkins killed in 1989 in Bensonhurst.
It proved that "sundown towns" weren't just a Southern thing. They existed in the five boroughs.
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The incident also led to a massive push for hate crime legislation. Before this, the legal system didn't always have a clear way to add extra weight to crimes motivated specifically by bias. This case helped change the playbook for how New York—and eventually the rest of the country—prosecuted racial violence.
Misconceptions People Still Have
Some folks try to paint this as a "gang fight" or a "dispute that went wrong." It wasn't. The victims' car legitimately broke down. They were three miles from home in a neighborhood where they didn't know anyone.
Another weird myth is that the driver who hit Griffith was part of the mob. He wasn't. Dominick Blum was just a guy driving home who happened to be in the wrong place at the most tragic time possible.
The reality is that Michael Griffith died because a group of teenagers decided that his skin color meant he didn't have the right to walk through their neighborhood.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights
If we want to actually learn something from the Howard Beach racial incident rather than just treat it like a museum piece, there are things to look for in our own communities.
- Support Special Prosecutors: In cases where local DAs have cozy relationships with the community they are investigating, special prosecutors (like Charles Hynes) are often the only way to get an objective trial.
- Watch the Language: Notice how the media describes victims versus perpetrators. In 1986, the attackers were called "teenagers" and "students," while Griffith was often just "the Black man." Humanizing the victim is the first step toward justice.
- Know the History: Understanding that these incidents were often about "defending" neighborhood boundaries helps us recognize modern forms of housing discrimination and gatekeeping.
- Hate Crime Reporting: If you see something that looks like bias-motivated harassment, report it to the NYC Commission on Human Rights or your local equivalents. Silence in the face of "minor" harassment is usually what emboldens mobs to take things further.
The streets of Howard Beach look a lot different today, and the New Park Pizzeria is still there serving slices. But the ghost of 1986 still hangs over the Belt Parkway. It’s a reminder that safety shouldn't depend on which exit your car breaks down at.