This tag was created by Anonymous.
Black-owned business signs (6)
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?
This page has tags:
Contents of this tag:
This page references:
- "Machine Guns Set Up in New York Streets. False Rumor Causes Death of One, Wounding of 50, and Looting of 300 Stores," Afro-American, March 23, 1935, 1.
- G. James Fleming, "700 Officers, 25 Radio Cars Quell Rioters," Norfolk Journal and Guide, March 23, 1935, 1, 2.
- Vere Jones, "Through My Spectacles: Negroes, Stay Out of Blumstein's," New York Age, June 2, 1934, 6.
- [Photograph] "Grim Work!" New York Daily News, March 20, 1935