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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. 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. On placards and directly on windows with whitewash or soap were written “Colored,” "Black" and “This Store Owned by Colored,” the Afro-American reported. Three of the identified businesses fitted those generalizations, with a reporter for La Prensa describing signs that read "Colored" on a billiard hall and the Castle Inn on Lenox Avenue, and a sign reading "This is a Store Owned By Colored" in the Monterey Luncheonette reported by the Afro-American. Three other stores reportedly used a variation on those signs. 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. Embed from Getty Images
The sign on the Williams's drug store used the same phrase, "Colored Store" with the additional phrase "Nix Jack," repeating the combination twice on its side windows. The Cozy Shoppe customized the phrase to fit its name, rendering it as "Colored Shoppe."

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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