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"The ones who fell on top of me saved my life"
A man who miraculously survived a Serbian massacre tells his terrible story.
By Peter Landesman
[07/09/99]

Heroes of horror
Risking snipers, facing sights so dreadful that they weep along with the victims' families, forensics teams from around the world -- including a team from the FBI -- are performing the heartbreaking but essential task of recording Serbian atrocities in Kosovo.
By Peter Landesman
[07/09/99]

The not-so-good war
Just like President Clinton, eight of 10 Vietnam-era GOP presidential candidates managed to avoid going to Vietnam -- and the wealthiest wound up in the National Guard. Does it still matter?
By Jake Tapper
[07/08/99]

On her own
Hillary takes one giant step and one baby step out of her husband's political shadow.
By Anthony York
[07/08/99]

"My fiancé wants me to be a racist!"
Before Benjamin Nathaniel Smith's killing spree got him on CNN, Rev. Matt Hale was consigned to the Jerry Springer show, where he sparred with black and Jewish viewers and defended hate as a religion.
By Anthony York
[07/07/99]

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Sharpton has been onstage, or on the fringes of the stage, virtually all his life. Mentored by soul singer James Brown and boxing promoter Don King, he combines elements of Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Martin Luther King Jr. He is part political leader, part street hustler and part entertainer. He learned politics watching Harlem Rep. Adam Clayton Powell battle with the white establishment, and he founded the National Youth Movement in 1980. But he gained national notoriety in 1987, with the Tawana Brawley case.

Brawley, an African-American teenager, claimed she had been abducted and raped by six white men. The story shocked New York and the nation, but a grand jury later determined that the entire story was contrived. Last year Sharpton lost a defamation suit in connection with the case and was dinged for a $65,000 judgment.

He has also been blamed for fanning racial tensions that led to a riot in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in 1991 after a black child was killed by a car driven by an Orthodox Jew. Soon after, a young rabbinical student was murdered, allegedly in retaliation, and the neighborhood erupted into riots pitting Jews against blacks.

Sharpton was also instrumental in focusing the media spotlight on two racially motivated incidents involving blacks in the 1980s that almost tore New York City apart. In 1986, Sharpton intervened in the case of three black men who were attacked by a mob of whites after their car broke down in Howard Beach, Queens. One of the men, Michael Griffith, was severely beaten. Three years later, in 1989, Sharpton was in the forefront of demonstrations in Bensonhurst after the racially motivated murder of Yusuf Hawkins. Hawkins had gone into the neighborhood to purchase a used car when he was beaten by a white mob. During a demonstration in Bensonhurst, Sharpton himself was stabbed, and he later said that a near-death experience led to a personal transformation.

Next page | A kinder, gentler Sharpton