Racial Tension in Grays Ferry (Philadelphia)
Harris
Excerpts from Philadelphia Daily News articles
(http://www.phillynews.com)
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Grays Ferry tension
Officials try to calm heightened resentments after teen's death
The Philadelphia Daily News, Monday, March 17, 1997
Police cars outnumbered pedestrians last night in Grays Ferry as city and
civic leaders tried to quell brewing tension in the South Philadelphia
neighborhood after the murder Friday of a white teen-ager by two black
robbers and the attack last month of a black family by a group of 20 to 50
white men.
Racial conflicts, from epithets to assaults, have plagued this working
class community for generations, but the simmering tension is percolating
after the shooting death of Christopher Brinkman, a 16-year-old junior at
St. John Neumann High School for Boys, who was killed at his after-school
job at Squire Drugs at 28th and Moore.
Despite the visible police presence, the publicity, and the meetings with
top city leaders, most residents -- white and black -- said they believe
that Christopher's murder was a robbery gone awry, and was not racially
motivated.....
But the notion that race had nothing to do with Christopher's death is not
the unanimous opinion.
And until the two robbers -- an 18- to 22-year-old gunman and his 14- to
17-year-old accomplice -- are caught and questioned, there is an
uneasiness about the gunman's motives.
As the uncertainty continues, the invisible border along 30th Street,
between Reed Street and Snyder Avenue, is being observed more carefully,
residents said.
Fewer whites than usual went this weekend to Boykin's variety store at
Dickinson Street above 31st.
And blacks, like a 21-year-old named Ralik, said they walked around the
perimeter of the white neighborhood, to Wharton Street, for fear of
retaliation.
Fueling the white residents' suspicion that race may have played a role in
Christopher's murder is the fact that he was shot after the robbers had
taken between $60 and $100 from the drug store's cash register......
His death came on the heels of an attack on Annette Williams, 34, when she
came to the rescue of her son and nephew, both 17, at the hands of a group
of 20 to 50 white men who were attending a party on Feb. 23 at St.
Gabriel's Hall, at 30th and Dickinson streets.
Two white men were arrested in the assault, but blacks felt police who
arrived on the scene did not do enough to detain the participants.
They are also dissatisfied that only two men were arrested.
Representatives of the Nation of Islam called a press conference after the
assault, and a demonstration with them included is set for April 14, when
black residents plan to march through the white section of Grays Ferry....
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Clergy want a `cooling off' in Grays Ferry, but they're divided on a march
An appeal for healing
The Philadelphia Daily News,Thursday, March 20, 1997
.....The group (of black Protestant pastors and white Catholic priests)
asked for "a 30-day cooling off and planning period,'' set an ecumenical
prayer service for April 2 at side-by-side Catholic and Baptist churches,
designated April 6 as ``Reconciliation Sunday,'' and sought a ``Grays
Ferry Plan of Action.''
But the clergy seemed divided on how to respond to plans by the Nation of
Islam to sponsor a march for justice by 5,000 African-American men through
Grays Ferry on April 14........
On Feb. 23, a group of 20 to 50 white men spilled out of the same social
hall, yelled racial slurs, punched and kicked Annette Williams, her son
and her nephew, who are black. The two 17-year-olds were on their way home
from a nearby grocery store as the whites left the hall.
Two whites have been arrested, police response is under fire, and the FBI
is investigating.
With racial tensions already high, St. Gabriel parishioner Christopher
Brinkman, a white youth, was shot to death Friday night during a robbery
at a neighborhood drugstore where he worked. Two black men were
arrested.....
....