This page was created by Anonymous. 

Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935

Albert Bass arrested

Some time during the disorder, Officer Ferry of the 28th Precinct arrested Albert Bass, a twenty-seven-year-old Black man. He likely made the arrest in the vicinity of Lafayette Market at 2044 7th Avenue. Salvatore Marrone, with his address recorded as 2044 7th Avenue, was the complainant against Bass in the Harlem Magistrate's Court docket book. The windows of the market were smashed during the disorder and merchandise taken. Channing Tobias, who lived in an apartment above the market, reported hearing both smashing glass and gunshots between midnight and 1:00 AM, sounds that indicated both attacks on the business and the presence of police. It was likely that Bass was arrested during that period, perhaps around 12:30 AM when Fred Campbell also saw stores being attacked and police trying to disperse crowds in this area.

Just what Bass allegedly did was uncertain. Both the list published in the New York Evening Journal and the 28th Precinct Police blotter recorded the charge against him as burglary, with the blotter noting that he allegedly "In concert with others burglarized stores." However when Bass was arraigned in the Magistrate's Court he was charged with disorderly conduct. That charge suggested that police did not have evidence that he had broken windows, which would have seen him charged with malicious mischief, or that he had taken merchandise, which would have been the basis for the charge of burglary. Instead, the charge of disorderly conduct indicated that police had encountered Bass been on the street in the area of the looted store. That was not surprising as he lived only half a block west of the market, at 238 West 122nd Street. He likely had come to7th Avenue to investigate the noise and disorder.



Magistrate Renaud held Bass in custody until March 26. When he returned the magistrated convicted him and fined him $25 or, if he did not pay the fine, sentenced him to five days in the Workhouse, according to the docket book. The docket book and the 28th Precinct Police blotter recorded that he paid the fine of $25.

Bass was one of a small number of those listed as arrested in the New York Evening Journal not also present in the list published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide. The 28th Precinct Police blotter misspelled his name as Boss; both the New York Evening Journal and the Harlem Magistrate's Court docket book recorded his name as Bass.

This page has tags:

This page references: