*Rev. Al Sharpton is set to receive an honorary doctorate from Medgar Evers College, and the move comes 28 years after many believe he inflamed racial tensions during the 1991 Crown Heights riots — which resulted in four days of rioting and assaults in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
Here’s what happened: Back in August 1991, a 7-year-old Black boy named Gavin Cato was struck and killed by the motorcade of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, New York Post reports. Within hours, an angry mob of Black residents fatally stabbed 29-year-old Hasidic scholar Yankel Rosenbaum while shouting, “Kill the Jew!”
