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12:30 AM to 1:00 AM
By 12:30 AM, it was on the blocks of 7th Avenue immediately south of 125th Street that large amounts of police gunfire could be heard as significant numbers of police sought to disperse groups breaking windows and taking merchandise from stores. Captain Conrad Rothengast, who had been in Harlem since around 8:30 PM leading the police in front of Kress’ store, was one of the officers in the area by this time. His presence suggested both that he was no longer needed on 125th Street and that a large number of officers had been deployed on 7th Avenue. Fred Campbell first noticed large numbers of patrolmen and officers carrying riot guns when he stopped his car at the traffic light at West 121st Street. The thirty-one-year-old Black businessmen was on his way to pick up the day's receipts from the two barber’s shops he owned at 2213 7th Avenue and 2259 7th Avenue. As he drove toward West 122nd Street, the noise of shots being fired and glass smashing drew his attention to store windows shattering and police trying to disperse crowds. A brick then hit the rear window of his car, shattering it. Looking around as he continued north, he noticed other cars with damaged windows and realized that the cars with white drivers were being targeted. Another brick hit Campbell’s car as he passed 123rd Street but did not damage any of the windows. Neither brick injured Campbell himself. Two other men on the sidewalk rather than driving in the street near the intersection of 7th Avenue and 122nd Street were hurt.
John Eigler, a forty-five-year-old white man, was hit by an object only a few feet from his home at 163 West 122nd Street sometime after 12:30 AM. He had been targeted by a group of Black men who likely were also among those throwing bricks at the passing cars, continuing the attacks on white men and women on the streets, which had marked the disorder since groups left 125th Street. A second white man, B. Z. Kondoul, claimed he was attacked by a crowd of "40–50" Black men and women at the same corner. The thirty-five-year-old Kondoul fled down West 122nd Street, as William Burkhard had fled down West 118th Street when attacked earlier. However, Kondoul's assailants pursued him. When he reached Lenox Avenue, Kondoul saw a uniformed patrolman guarding a grocery store on the corner of West 123rd Street and sought his protection. Patrolman Clements fired his pistol to deter and disperse the group chasing the white man, first in the air, and when that did not have the desired effect, at the crowd purportedly without hitting anyone. That was not dramatic enough for the sensational white newspapers who reported the incident; their stories portrayed an extended clash between a crowd threatening death and the patrolman that ended only when a radio car arrived to rescue them. Later, shortly before 1:00 AM, Clarence London, a thirty-four-year-old Black man, was shot in the leg. London was further from his home than Eigler. A resident of 676 St Nicholas Avenue in Harlem’s north, he was likely among those who had come to 125th Street to investigate the rumors about events at the Kress store. The bullet was almost certainly fired by one of the armed patrolmen observed by Campbell as part of the increasingly violent police response that saw officers fire their guns more often and indiscriminately. Channing Tobias, in his apartment in the building on the corner of Lenox Avenue and West 123rd Street, reported that he heard the “firing of guns” from midnight until he went to sleep around 1:00 AM.
The gunshots Tobias heard were accompanied by the noise of glass shattering. Among the stores being looted at this time would have been the business on the street level of his building, the Lafayette Market at 2044 7th Avenue. While it suffered sustained attacks that left all its windows entirely destroyed, the windows of the Black-owned stationary store next door appeared to have been intact. Groups on the street in this area were evidently distinguishing between white-owned and Black-owned businesses even this late in the disorder. Police officers trying to stop the attacks on white business continued to show a contrasting lack of discrimination in making arrests. Officer Ferry of the 28th Precinct arrested Albert Bass, a twenty-seven-year-old Black man, for allegedly being one of those taking merchandise from the Lafayette Market. However, the charge against Bass was changed to disorderly conduct when he appeared in the Magistrates Court, making him another of those Harlem residents for whom police lacked evidence that they had participated in the violence of the disorder. Bass lived only a half block west of the market at 238 West 122nd Street, so had likely come to the corner of 7th Avenue nearest to his home to see what was happening as many of Harlem’s residents did.
A block further north across 7th Avenue another local resident, a thirty-six-year-old Black janitor named Hezekiah Wright, was arrested in front of Sarah Refkin’s delicatessen. He had encountered a crowd in front of the store when he was returning home to the building where he lived and worked having gone out to buy cigarettes. Gunshots drew Captain Conrad Rothengast’s attention to the group of men, shots likely fired by another officer trying to disperse them. As Rothengast, likely with other officers, approached the delicatessen, he allegedly saw Wright kick in the store window, reach in, and take out four lamps and two jars of food. While the other men ran when they saw police officers approaching, Wright dropped those items and raised his hands. Rothengast responded by hitting Wright with his baton, unnecessary violence that the senior officer treated as unremarkable. Wright claimed he had not run with the others as he was a passerby not involved in attacks on the store or taking merchandise from it. Unlike Bass, he was prosecuted and convicted for burglary. Given the assessment of both the probation officer and the psychiatrist from the Court clinic that Wright was a “quiet, inoffensive” and “cooperative” individual, and that he was one of the small number of residents with stable work and housing, it seems possible that he was a passerby, perhaps mistaken for the man who kicked in the store window as police tried to apprehend those attacking the delicatessen.
Even as violence intensified in the blocks of 7th Avenue south of 125th Street, the disorder apparently had yet to reach as far south as West 116th Street. Around 12:30 AM, Jack Garmise, a twenty-two-year-old white clerk, locked the cigar store his father Emmanuel owned at 1916 7th Avenue, in the Regent Theatre building, on the corner of West 116th Street and likely went across town to the family home at 1274 5th Avenue. Most businesses were already closed by that time; the cigar store may have remained open to cater to movie-goers leaving the theater. It had not yet suffered any damage. Theater shows ending would have added new groups to those on the street who were unaware of the violence of the last several hours, including white men and women.
On Lenox Avenue north of 125th Street, the other area where the disorder had was concentrated at this time, fewer details of the ongoing violence were reported. Businesses around West 126th continued to be targeted despite the presence of police officers around the intersection. A large group of people gathered in front of William Gindin’s shoe store just north of the intersection at 333 Lenox Avenue around 12:30 AM. The display windows had been smashed several times already and some merchandise taken from them. Gindin lived nearby at 346 Lenox, one of few white business owners with residences in Harlem, but there were no reports he came back to try to protect his store. As Patrolman James Lamattina watched, John Kennedy Jones, a twenty-four-year-old-Black laborer, motioned to others in the crowd, called “Come on," and threw a rock that smashed some of the remaining glass. More bricks and stones then struck the glass as others in the group followed Jones’ lead. Whether their goal was to do more damage to white-owned property or to gain access to merchandise in the window was left uncertain as Lamattina moved to arrest Kennedy. He must have come from the intersection as he did not arrive in time to prevent the attack or apprehend any other members of the group. Jones was not a local resident; he lived on West 119th Street midway between Lenox and 7th Avenues, and must have joined crowds moving through the streets earlier in the evening.
A similar scenario played out across Lenox Avenue from the shoe store. Detective Phillips must have seen a crowd in front of the grocery store on the corner of West 127th Street, some of whom were reaching through glass broken earlier in the disorder to take merchandise from the display. When he reached the store to stop the looting, he arrested Elizabeth Tai, a twenty-eight-year-old Black woman, Arthur Davis, a thirty-six-year-old Black man, and probably another Black man, eighteen-year-old Herbert Hunter. He must have had the help of other officers to make multiple arrests. However, evidently none of those he arrested had actually been among those taking merchandise as the charge they faced in court was disorderly conduct, not burglary. Again, police officers had arrested those they could apprehend, not those participating in the looting. The group highlighted the diverse origins of those on the streets during the disorder. While Davis and Hunter lived on West 126th Street, Tai's home was on the Upper East Side.
By this time, when more police officers would have been patrolling further north on Lenox Avenue, similar arrests were likely been made around West 135th Street. Patrolmen Archbold and Conn arrested three Black men in a branch of the A & P grocery store chain at 510 Lenox Avenue, perhaps after noticing a group in front of the store or hearing smashing glass while driving by in a radio car. Forty-two-year-old Preston White, they alleged, had smashed the store window and taken food; the other two men, twenty-eight-year-old Raymond Taylor and fifty-year-old Joseph Payne, had had taken advantage of already broken windows to take groceries. While the store had clearly been damaged and looted, police ultimately lacked evidence that the three men were among those responsible rather than part of the crowds on the street. They too would only be charged with disorderly conduct.
With the police presence increasing and violence intensifying, some of those on the street may have moved east to 5th Avenue. Around 12:40 AM, Patrolman Rock saw six men run out of Jacob Solomon’s grocery store at 2100 5th Avenue on the corner of West 129th Street. Solomon had closed the business at 9:00 PM. By the time Rock arrived, the windows had been smashed and the door broken. He chased the men and caught a thirty-five-year-old Black laborer named Lawrence Humphrey, perhaps because he was carrying a fifty-pound bag of rice. In all, $150 of groceries were missing when Solomon returned to the store just over six hours later. The six men Rock pursued could not have been carrying all that merchandise; the bag of rice had a value of only $2.50. Others in the area must also have taken food without interference from police. Humphrey lived only three blocks away on West 132nd Street in the overcrowded section between Lenox and 5th Avenues. The blocks around the grocery store contained very few businesses. Only the block north of 125th Street, and the blocks from 131st Street to 138th Street, were lined with stores. The stores targeted were businesses that contained food and clothing that residents of the area lacked.
Those stores on 5th Avenue would be attacked with little interference from police. An unclaimed laundry store on the corner of West 131st Street and another grocery store on the corner of West 137th Street already had broken windows and missing merchandise by the time patrolling police made arrests there at some time during the disorder. Patrolman Adamie found Elva Jacobs, an eighteen-year-old Black woman, in the grocery store. However, he had no evidence she was responsible for either the broken windows or the items missing from the store, so Jacobs was charged only with unlawful entry for being inside the damaged business. Patrolman Jackson found Lamter Jackson, a twenty-four-year-old Black man, taking a bag of laundry, evidence for a charge of larceny but not that he had broken the windows from which he was taking the bag. Both Jacobs and Jackson lived east of Lenox Avenue on streets several blocks north of where they were arrested A fire was lit on the roof of the building containing the unclaimed laundry store. Unlike those set in stores on Lenox Avenue, the purpose of the rooftop fire was not to destroy white-owned property. Instead, it was intended to produce a reaction from those on the street: “to stir up excitement” in those on the street, according to the Home News, and to draw police officers attacking people on the street away from Lenox Avenue, according to the probably better-informed Daily Worker.
The attacks on businesses on Lenox Avenue around West 116th Street that had begun after midnight likely continued. On the block between West 116th and West 117th Streets, Nathaniel Powell suffered injuries that suggested that glass was being shattered. The nineteen-year-old Black man, who lived nearby on West 118th Street, suffered cuts to his nose and left wrist in circumstances that he did not reveal to the hospital staff who treated him. While Powell could have been watching as others broke the windows, the severity of his wounds suggested he was closer than that and involved in smashing the glass. Julia Cureti’s restaurant on that block had windows broken sometime during the disorder. Two days later, Cureti would identify a homeless twenty-eight-year-old Black man named Jackie Ford as one of those responsible, indicating that she was still in her business when some of its windows were broken. Several businesses a block to the north also had windows broken. Some of the people who attacked the branch of the Wohlmuth Clothing store, a billiard hall, and a saloon around West 118th Street may have come along the street from 7th Avenue to avoid the increasing police violence on that street. The billiard hall and saloon both responded to being targeted by displaying signs identifying them as “colored” businesses.
In contrast to the continuing disorder on the avenues, West 125th Street had become relatively quiet by the time sixteen-year-old Lloyd Hobbs and his fifteen-year-old brother Russell came out of the Apollo Theater when the show ended at 12:30 AM. They had seen broken windows in some stores and unusually large numbers of people and police on 125th Street west of 8th Avenue on their way to the theater. Leaving four hours later, they and the other audience members encountered “general disorder and many broken windows.” A crowd on the corner of 7th Avenue drew the boys’ attention, and they went to find out what was happening [Russell testimony]. As they walked toward 7th Avenue, Fred Campbell drove through the intersection. Before the boys could see anything at the corner, police pushed the group up 7th Avenue, moving people away from 125th Street as they had been doing throughout the disorder. As the Hobbs brothers were carried along the sidewalk up 7th Avenue by the crowd and Campbell drove up the avenue in his car they saw businesses with broken windows as far north as 128th Street.
As Campbell collected the receipts from his barber’s shop at 131st street about 12:35 AM, he watched as a group of Black men and women broke the display windows of a butcher shop on the other side of 7th Avenue. They took hams from the window without interference before police arrived. What Campbell saw was likely a radio car containing Patrolman McInerney and Waterson. Around this time they encountered “quite a crowd breaking windows” around 130th Street. After the crowd scattered uptown, the patrolmen drove south on 7th Avenue. As they came to 128th Street around 12:45 AM, the patrolmen crossed paths with the Hobbs brothers at 2150 7th Avenue, Louis Eisenberg’s auto parts store. The boys had encountered a group of people milling about in front of the store talking. The patrolmen decided to disperse the crowd. Although they would later claim that the noise of breaking glass drew their attention to the store where they saw Lloyd Hobbs in the window display passing out merchandise, seven witnesses said the boy was among the group standing on the street when the radio car pulled up. Marshall Pfifer and Samuel Pitts were still on opposite sides of that intersection watching events on 7th Avenue. By this time other local residents had joined them. Howard Malloy and Arthur Moore were out on the street to get ice-cream for their wives, who were in the Moore's apartment in 213 West 128th Street, drawn into the disorder like Charles Saunders and Hezekiah Wright had been while getting cigarettes. As they arrived at the northwest corner of 128th and 7th Avenue, they saw a "commotion" on the block of 7th Avenue to the south. So too did John Bennett, who lived at 2154 7th Avenue, and was likely on the corner with Malloy, Moore and Pitts. Joseph Hughes was watching from his apartment in 201 West 128th Street. Warren Wright was standing in the entrance to the apartments above 2150 7th Avenue on the other side of the group in front of the auto parts store.
As the police radio car came to a stop, Patrolman John McInerney jumped out with his pistol in his hands. Fearing a beating from the police, the boys and the others in front of the store ran up 7th Avenue. McInerney chased after them; Waterson remained in the car, reversing it back up 7th Avenue behind his partner. When the fleeing group got to West 128th Street, Lloyd Hobbs turned left on to West 128th Street, breaking from the others including his brother Russell, who crossed the street and continued running up 7th Avenue. He may have decided to head back towards his family’s home on St. Nicholas Avenue. When McInerney reached the corner, he raised his pistol and shot the boy. He later claimed that he saw that Hobbs had items from the store in his hands and called out to him to stop. The Black men watching saw nothing in the boy’s hands and heard no call from the patrolman. They did see Hobbs fall to the ground after the bullet hit his right side, went through his abdomen, and lodged in his right wrist. The gunshot would not have been the only one echoing around Harlem at this time, noise that signaled that McInerney’s action was part of the intensifying violence of the police response.
Waterson reversed the radio car into 128th Street, grabbed a rifle, and went to McInerney’s aid. As the residents on the street looked on, the two patrolman loaded Lloyd Hobbs into their car and drove him to Harlem Hospital. Russell Hobbs had not seen the shooting. When he returned to 128th Street after the police car left, he learned from the crowd at the scene that it was his brother who had been shot. He immediately ran home to tell his parents, Lawyer and Mary Hobbs.
Around the same time that McInerney shot Lloyd Hobbs, John Wrigley was struck on the head by a stone thrown at him at 7th Avenue and 126th Street. The forty-nine-year-old white manager of a security guard service had come to Harlem when he heard of the disorder to supervise staff protecting stores in the area. He suffered a head injury and cuts about both eyes and may have been knocked unconscious. Police found Wrigley lying on the street. He, like Hobbs, was loaded into a radio car and transported to Harlem Hospital.