Family Red Apple Boycott

The Family Red Apple boycott, also known as the "Red Apple boycott", "Church Avenue boycott" or "Flatbush boycott", was an eight-month-long boycott against a Korean-American-owned shop, Family Red Apple, on Church Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn in 1990-1991.

The boycott was sparked by an alleged assault of a Haitian woman by a Korean-American shopkeeper. The woman alleged that she had been struck by three of the shop's employees. The shopkeeper said that the woman had refused to pay for store items and that she had not been attacked. The boycott was led by Robert (Sonny) Carson, a local activist and black nationalist. The incident led to public criticism of New York City's Mayor David Dinkins for failing to end the protest.

Carson threatened the storeowners that the boycott would escalate, stating "in the future, there will be funerals not boycotts". Police discovered 18 Molotov cocktails on nearby rooftops. In one instance the boycott turned violent, when a black protester attacked a Vietnamese man with a claw hammer while other blacks shouted "Koreans go home". Race relations were less dire than people feared, but at the time the prospect of racial unraveling seemed real.

A New York City judge, Gerald S. Held, issued an order barring the demonstrators from picketing within 50 feet of the Korean stores. However, the NYPD refrained from enforcing the order, saying it involved a civil dispute. The mayor's office attempted to mediate between the two sides. Eight months into the boycott, with the picketers continuing to refuse to cooperate, Dinkins made a personal effort at reconciliation by shopping at the grocery shop. Dinkins's effort was received well by the Korean storeowner but was met with curses from the black picketers. Dinkins's symbolic gesture did not end the boycott.

A second boycott occurred later that year, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville, this time eliciting a stronger response by the Dinkins administration.

The boycott ended after the owner of Family Red Apple sold out his lease to another Korean-American. The store reopened three days later and had a steady stream of customers.

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Wikipedia