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Appointments to the MCCH
Black members:
- Hubert T. Delany
- "Tax Commissioner of the City of New York" in the Press statement
- "Negro, lawyer, graduate of the College of the City of New York and New York University Law School, Assistant United States Attorney under former United States Attorney Charles H. Tuttle, Republican candidate for House of Representatives from 21st Manhattan District in 1920. Commissioner of Board of Taxes and Assessments by appointment of Mayor LaGuardia in February 1934" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “lawyer and Republican leader" in the New York Post
- A. Philip Randolph
- "Natl. President, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters" in the Press statement
- "general organizer and president of National Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, attended College of City of New York, founder of a magazine, "The Messenger"" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “president of the National Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters” in the New York Post
- Charles Roberts
- "Dentist" in the Press statement
- "Negro, dentist, graduate of Lincoln University, Republican candidate for House of Representatives from 21st District in 1924, member of Board of Aldermen, 1931-1933" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “dentist, Republican leader and former Alderman” in the New York Post
- Charles Toney
- "Municipal Court" in the Press statement
- "Justice of Municipal Court; graduate of Syracuse University, Tammany Democrat" in the New York Herald Tribune
- "justice of the Municipal Court and Democratic political leader” in the New York Post
- Eunice Hunton Carter
- “social worker and lawyer" in the Press statement
- "Lawyer and social worker, holds degrees from Smith College and Columbia and Fordham Universities, Republican-Fusion candidate for Assembly from 19th Manhattan District in 1934" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “lawyer and social worker and Fusion political leader” in the New York Post
- Countee Cullen
- "Author" in the Press statement
- "poet, graduate of New York University; contributor to magazines and newspapers and winner of several poetry awards" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “the poet” in the New York Post
White members:
- Arthur Garfield Hays
- "Lawyer" in the Press statement
- "Lawyer, graduate of Columbia University, counsel to American Civil Liberties Union, appeared as defense counsel in many cases involving civil liberties - coal strike in Pennsylvania, 1922; Scopes evolution trial in Tennessee, 1925; Countess Cathcart immigration case; Sacco-Vanzetti case in 1927, and most recently in defense of John Strachey, English lecturer threatened with deportation" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “of the Civil Liberties Union,” and grouped with Ernst in the New York Post
- William J. Schieffelin
- "Trustee of the Tuskegee Institute” in the Press statement
- "Chemist, graduate of Columbia School of Mines and University of Munich, chairman of Citizens Union, trustee of Hampton Institute and Tuskegee Institute, schools for the education of Negroes" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “chairman of the Citizen's Union and of Tuskegee Institute, the Negro university” in the New York Post
- Morris L. Ernst
- "Lawyer" in the Press statement; “writer and publisher” in the Daily Mirror and New York American
- "lawyer, graduate of Columbia University, member of American Civil Liberties Union, counsel in many liberal causes, represented Mrs. Margaret Sanger, birth-control advocate; mediator in recent taxicab strike by appointment of Mayor LaGuardia" in the New York Herald Tribune
- "of the Civil Liberties Union,” and grouped with Hays in the New York Post
- Oswald Garrison Villard
- "Publisher" in the Press statement
- "owner of "The Nation"; graduate of Harvard University, liberal crusader, grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, founder of "The Liberator," and apostle of abolition of slavery" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “editor of the Nation” in the New York Post
- John J. Grimley
- "Doctor" in the Press statement
- physician, lieutenant-colonel of 369th Infantry, National Guard of New York, crack Negro regiment" in the New York Herald Tribune
- “lieutenant-colonel of the Negro 369th Infantry, National Guard” in the New York Post
La Guardia subsequently added two additional members, a Black clergyman and a white clergyman. Only the New York Amsterdam News reported those appointments, suggesting that the Mayor's office did not announce them in press statements. The appointment of Rev. John W. Robinson, the retired pastor of St. Mark's, the city's largest AME church, was foreshadowed in newspaper stories about the mayor's visit to the Interdenominational Preachers Meeting of Greater New York and Vicinity on March 25. Robinson led that group. After their complainants about La Guardia's failure to appoint a minister, the mayor indicated he would consider appointing a nominee of the meeting. Stories in the Home News, New York Times and New York World-Telegram, and in the New York Amsterdam News and New York Age reported that the meeting chose Robinson. Evidence of an indirect political connection that may have made La Guardia receptive to that suggestion appeared in a New York Amsterdam News story on the couple's wedding: Robinson’s second wife, pharmacist Dr. Julia Coleman, was active in the Republican Party in Harlem.
That La Guardia told the Interdenominational Preachers Meeting that he would also appoint a second clergyman “chosen from a denomination not included in the Alliance” was reported only in the New York Age. It took until April 4, almost a week after Robinson's appointment, for the mayor to finalize that choice: Father McCann of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church on West 141st Street. The New York Amsterdam News made McCann's appointment the headline of the story it published on April 6 about the MCCH hearing. McCann had appeared in earlier stories in the Home News, New York American, NYJ, NYP and the AN (3/30) as a result of a pastoral letter he made public on March 23 blaming Communists for the disorder and calling for a movement to keep them out of Harlem. The priest's anti-communism offered La Guardia a way to address those who had criticized those he had appointed as all liberals. However, La Guardia had clearly also decided the second clergyman on the committee should be Catholic as he had sought the advice of Edmund B. Butler, a prominent Catholic lawyer who was secretary of the city’s Emergency Relief Bureau about who to appoint immediately after he met with the Black ministers. Butler wrote to him the next day, to give him McCann’s name, which he had been unable to think of at that time: “He has always been very much interested in Negroes and volunteered for the work….I think that the appointment of him would be excellent.” A note on the letter recorded, “Father McCann is white,” likely another criteria for his selection given that the committee had two more Black members than white members after Robinson’s appointment. Several days later, on April 1, Butler spoke to La Guardia about McCann, after which he told the clergyman that La Guardia was going to appoint him. On April 4, La Guardia wrote to notify Roberts that he had appointed Father McCann. Even after the Communist Party wrote to both the MCCH and the Mayor to complain about McCann's appointment on April 25, the Daily Worker did not report it.
In the historical literature, only Lindsey Lupo identified all thirteen the members of the MCCH, in a chart that described their occupations in two or three words. Cheryl Greenberg named Delaney, Randolph, and, inexplicably, Cullen as examples of the "impressive range of experts" that La Guardia had appointed, also mistakenly including Frazier as a member of the commission. Naison only identified the number of "representative citizens" appointed, which he stated was eleven, neglecting the later appointments of Robinson and McCann. Johnson also mistakenly identified the MCCH as an eleven-member commission, without identifying any of the members. Kessner mentioned only Roberts, the chair, as did Watson.
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- "Says Economic Conditions in Harlem Are Bad," Atlanta World, March 27, 1935, 1, 2.
- Edmond Butler to La Guardia, March 26, 1935, Mayor's Committee on Conditions in Harlem: General, Correspondence, Departmental Correspondence, Box 33, Folder 9 (Roll 170), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945.
- "Riot Deaths Mounting Daily as Fourth Victim Succumbs. Extra Police Still on Duty; Many Sentenced to Workhouse Terms," New York Age, March 30, 1935, 1
- "Mayor Places Radicals' Foe on Riot Body," New York Amsterdam News, April 6, 1935, 1.
- "Alien Squads Hunt Harlem Red Lairs," Daily Mirror, March 21, 1935 [clipping].
- James Ford to Eunice Carter, April 25, 1935, Subject Files, Box 167, Folder 8 (Roll 76), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- "New Fighting in Harlem," New York American, March 21, 1935, 1.
- "Mayor La Guardia announced the appointment of the Committee...," March 20, 1935, Mayor's Committee on Conditions in Harlem: Agendas, Box 32, Folder 6 (Roll 170), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- James Ford to La Guardia, April 25, 1935, Subject Files, Box 167, Folder 8 (Roll 76), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- La Guardia to Charles Roberts, April 4, 1935, Subject Files, Box 167, Folder 4 (Roll 76), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Edmund Butler to La Guardia, April 2, 1935, Subject Files, Box 179, Folder 10 (Roll 86), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Marilynn S. Johnson, Street Justice: A history of police violence in New York City (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004), 187.
- Urban League to Mayor La Guardia, March 26, 1935, Mayor's Committee on Conditions in Harlem: Misc. Correspondence M-Z, 1935-36, Departmental Correspondence, Box 34, Folder 4 (Roll 171), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945
- "Tinderbox," New York World-Telegram, March 22, 1935, 28.
- “Dr Charles H. Roberts Named Head of City’s Investigating Group," New York Age, March 30, 1935, 1.
- Thomas Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York (New York: McGraw Hill, 1989), 374.
- "Told Mayor Riot Was Brewing," New York Sun, March 21, 1935, 21.
- "Mayor's Committee Under Fire," New York Amsterdam News, March 30, 1935, 1.
- C. C. Nicolet, "Dodge on Trail of 'Red Menace' in Harlem Riot," New York Post, March 21, 1935, 1.
- "12 Indicted in Harlem Rioting," New York Evening Journal, March 21, 1935, 1.
- "Five Indicted as Result of Harlem Riots," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 21, 1935, 1.
- "Mayor Tells Why Preachers Are Not on Rioting Body,” Afro-American, March 30, 1935, 2.
- "Mayor Orders Bi-Racial Study Of Harlem Riot," New York Herald Tribune, March 21, 1935, 1.
- Stephen L. Carter, Invisible: The Forgetten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster (New York: Henry Holt, 2018), 105.
- "Dodge Declares War in Red Leaders; Harlem Girl, "Cause of Riot," is Fined," Home News, March 24, 1935, 3.
- "Probing N. Y. Riot Causes," Norfolk Journal and Guide, March 30, 1935, 1.
- Cheryl Greenberg, Or Does It Explode? Black Harlem in the Great Depression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 4.
- "Rev. J. W. Robinson and Dr Coleman Wed at Bride's Old Washington Home," New York Amsterdam News, August 13, 1930, 1.
- Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem During the Depression (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983), 142.
- Lindsey Lupo, Flak-Catchers: One Hundred Years of Riot Commission Politics in America (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010), 61-62.
- Nicole Watson, "The Harlem Riots, 1935, 1943, 1964," in Revolting New York: How 400 Years of Riot, Rebellion, Uprising, And Revolution Shaped a City, eds Neil Smith and Don Mitchell (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2018), 167.
- Thomas Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York (New York: McGraw Hill, 1989), 371.
- "Mayor Lays Riot To 'Vicious' Group," New York Times, March 21, 1935, 16.
- "Grand Jury Indicts Twelve; Dodge Threatens New Drive on Communists and Foreign Born," Daily Worker, March 22, 1935, 1.