N.Y. Rally Marred by Hecklers in Tense Standoff : 5,000 March to Protest Racial Attack

NEW YORK â€”  Black and white clergy and civil rights leaders linked arms Saturday and led thousands of marchers into the neighborhood where a week ago a black man was chased to his death by a gang of white teen-agers.

The estimated 5,000 marchers were heckled by counterdemonstrators as they marched through the predominantly white Howard Beach district.

Police officers lined the route, and police helicopters hovered overhead. The march remained peaceful even though it ended at a rally with a tense, 20-minute standoff between the marchers, mostly blacks, and about 200 white youths.

Scream at Each Other

The groups screamed at each other from different sides of four-lane Cross Bay Boulevard. The Rev. Hebert Daughtry, a march leader, appealed for calm.

The 250 police officers patrolling the march formed a line two deep to hold back the groups. No arrests or injuries were reported, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Fahey said.

Along the mile-long march route, the marchers waved banners and signs. Some said: “Howard Beach: South Africa, U.S.A. No More Lynching;� others read: “Say No to Racist Violence.�

Marchers also chanted: “Howard Beach, have you heard: This is not Johannesburg,� and sang “We Shall Overcome.� The march lasted about two hours.

Earlier, the marchers paused to pray in front of the New Park Pizzeria, where the racial incident began on Dec. 19.

‘Racism Is Alive and Well’

“Racial hatred is stupid, mindless, heedless,� Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said at a rally. “Racism is alive and well in America.�

Police said that Michael Griffith, 23, and two friends, all black, were chased and beaten by a gang of youths wielding bats and sticks. Griffith was hit by a car and killed as he tried to escape by running across the Belt Parkway. Three white teen-agers have been charged with murder in the case.

Three days later, a group of black youths beat a white teen-ager waiting for a bus in Jamaica, Queens. Police called that an apparent retaliation for the Howard Beach attack.

400 Pay Their Respects

Griffith’s funeral was held Friday night in a small Brooklyn church. His mother, Jean Griffith, wailed her grief as she and more than 400 mourners filed past her son’s coffin.

A few mourners fainted in the stifling air of Our Lady of Charity Church, still decorated with a Christmas tree and an African nativity creche.

The priest who led the funeral Mass likened the racial attack to the violence that has convulsed South Africa. He told mourners that such injustices teach important lessons.

“It makes no sense trying to hate,� the Rev. Robert Seay said. He urged the mourners to turn their anger and grief toward “changing the system� that encourages violence and prejudice.