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

Black-owned business signs (6)

Six businesses were identified as having signs in their windows identifying them as Black owned. On placards and directly on windows with whitewash or soap were written “Colored,” “Black,” "Colored Store" and “This Store Owned by Colored,” the Afro-American reported. "Black" also appeared on signs reported by the Norfolk Journal and Guide. how was it written (on cardboard, with paint/chalk on windows) Stories in both white and Black newspapers presented such signs as a more widespread part of the disorder and as a key reason why Black-owned businesses were generally spared from damage and not looted. [Signs discussed in general terms in newspaper stories - , when was it written

staff and storeowners put up signs in their windows identifying their business as “Colored,” “Black,” and “This Store Owned by Colored,” according to the Afro-American. Seven signs identifying a store named “Winnette’s Dresses” as a “Colored Store” are visible in both a photograph of an arrest taken during the disorder published in the Daily News, and a photograph taken the morning after the disorder published in the Afro-American (the name can be seen in the uncropped version available in Getty Images; the store was at 340 Lenox Avenue, according to a column published in the New York Age in 1934). Embed from Getty Images
Also reported as having similar signs in their windows were Williams's drug store, the Monterey Luncheonette, the Cozy Tea Shoppe, the Castle Inn, and a billiard hall on Lenox Avenue. Such signs appear to have stopped attacks on stores and prevented looting. The extent to which that strategy spared business from damage tends to confirms claims made after the disorder that most of those on the street specifically white-owned businesses, at least when they were aware of the ownership.

Signs provided material evidence that attacks on businesses during the disorder were targeted at white-owned businesses rather than being indiscriminate. [described, photographed and filmed for newsreels - NB who does not mention signs - some Black newspapers as well as white]. Some stories cast Black-owned stores being spared damage as relying on signs - others as being helped by signs. NB significance of additional signs going up the morning after, as became aware of details of disorder?

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