"You Can Only Take So Much"

At 72, James Hawkins fights back against street toughs

He is only 5 ft. 4 in. and 140 Ibs., a 72-year-old man looking like a victim waiting to be taken. Instead James Hawkins is becoming the hero of Watts, Los Angeles, a crusader in a war with street toughs who have vowed to run him out of the neighborhood where he has lived and worked for 42 years and raised 14 children. In the past six weeks, he has been shot at and his home has been riddled by bullets and scarred by bombs. Hawkins' response: "The only way they are going to get me to leave is in a pine box." Last week police officials and local politicians took note of the battle and descended on the Hawkins home to pledge their support. Declared Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley: "We don't intend to turn one inch of this city over to hoodlums. You are not alone. We are with you."

Hawkins' ordeal began last January when a man and woman entered his tiny grocery store in the crime-ridden heart of Watts. The two pulled out guns, took $140 in cash and $50 in food stamps, and fled. Hawkins, who had been robbed half a dozen times in the past, followed them outside and, in an exchange of gunfire, dropped the woman with a bullet in the head. She survived and, with her companion, went to jail.

Soon after, Hawkins and his family found their cars were being vandalized. The family began keeping watch for hooligans outside the store. Last Sept. 11, Hawkins ran off eight youths who were trying to steal a radio and bicycles from a woman and three children. Minutes later, one of the youths, Anttwon Thomas, reputedly a member of a local street gang called the Bounty Hunters, entered Hawkins' store and was ordered to leave by Hawkins' son James Jr. During the ensuing fight, a sawed-off shotgun went off, shattering Thomas' chest. Mortally wounded, the youth fled, but reportedly told his girlfriend: "James Hawkins shot me for no reason. If I die, tell the brothers to take the Hawkins out."

The next night, more than a dozen youths carrying Molotov cocktails appeared outside the Hawkins home but were dispersed by warning shots fired by family members. Twice more that night the youths returned, firing barrages at the house and once even pinning down police called by the family. Says Hawkins' son Elton: "It was like a war zone." His family and at times the police have urged Hawkins to move out. But he is adamant, and his family understands. Says Felecia McGlover, one of 72 grandchildren: "The thing about my grandfather is that he has a very strong will. You don't see that type of courage these days."

Hawkins has been displaying true grit all his life. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1939 with a seventh-grade education and $14 in his pocket and soon had a job as a guard at an Alcoa Aluminum plant. Saving carefully, he managed to amass $400 to purchase a small plot of land in south-central Los Angeles, then a poor but peaceful community. With his own hands, he built a three-room wooden shack and soon sent home to Gould, Ark., for wife Elsie, four daughters and his father, a minister in the Holiness Church.

Hawkins began his own businesses, among them a motorcycle escort service for weddings and funerals, and several mortuaries. Today the Hawkins family runs a loose conglomeration of 18 firms that includes nursing homes and construction companies and a 35-acre farm. Family members drive a BMW, Lincoln Continental, Mercedes and Rolls-Royce, and live in such affluent suburbs as Sherman Oaks, Altadena and Palos Verdes Estates. But Hawkins continues to inhabit the tidy three-bedroom home, American flag fluttering over the garage, that long ago replaced the wooden shack. Dressed in shirt and tie and black cowboy boots, he works daily at the grocery store. He gives birthday parties for neighborhood children and often pays for their shoes and haircuts. He has set up a nonprofit foundation to send Watts-area children on field trips and away to camp. Says Hawkins: "You can only take so much before you have to try and do something. I want people to be able to live in peace here like they used to."

Police patrols have increased in Hawkins' neighborhood, and there is a 24-hour watch on his property. But even if the police go, Hawkins intends to stay. "I'm not leaving," he insists. "I'm relying on my God and my guns." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.