by William Douglas
Nelson Wayne (Chill) Ennis stood motionless backstage of the John Dewey High School auditorium, watching an important part of his life being acted out on stage. "It was a great experience," Ennis said after the performance earlier this month. "It brought back a lot of memories of how ignorant I used to be."
Ennis, and six other Dewey graduates got to see current Dewey students in "A Lifting of Hands," a play based on a racial incident 11 years ago that school officials said almost made the Bensonhurst community a battle zone.
The play written by Robert J. DeSena, an English teacher, tells of how the youths involved in the skirmish managed to set aside their prejudices, talk about the incident, and form Council for Unity, a group that still exists at the school. "At first we didn't like each other," Ennis said. "We had to learn to respect each other. Now we're friends. Good friends."
The events that led up to the September 1976 incident began in a n luncheonette on Stillwell Avenue near the school, at 50 Avenue near the school, at 50 Avenue X. The store's new owner, hoping to dissuade youths from coming inside placed sign saying, "No music during school hours" on the jukebox, DeSena said.
A group of black youths who were told that the sign was meant for them, went to the store and played the jukebox, he said. A fight with some white teens ensued in which a black youth pulled a switchable and slashed at a white teenager. The teen managed to elude the knife, but fell and broke his collar bone, DeSena said.
In the play, the whites vowed revenge, the blacks called for reinforcements from Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant and the Hispanics prepared to be dragged into the confrontation. "It was tense, very tense," said Ralph Bijou, now a 25-year-old Brooklyn College senior who was involved in the real incident. "The groups did not get along at all.
DeSena, who portrayed himself in the play, said the blacks, whites and Hispanics fought every fall over territorial rights in the neighborhood, but the battling had not spilled into the school. With the flick of a switchable, that calm became jeopardized, and all were ready for a fight, some with guns, DeSena recalled.
DeSena arranged a meeting with the groups and a truce was worked out. The white youth with the broken collar bone pressed charges against his assailant while the black youth filed countercharges.
DeSena urged the youths to form an organization to continue to iron out their differences. The organization, the Council of Unity, still exists, and its founders have remained friends over the years. "The day I shook Nelson's hand I felt [friendship] was there." Said Nicky Chiappetta, who was the most reluctant white youth to join the group. "If we can just open the minds of other people and say 'Listen, we can all live together,' maybe we can work together."
