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

Black women in the courts (6)

Five of the six Black women who appeared in court were convicted; only Viola Woods was released, in the Harlem Magistrates Court. Magistrate Renaud convicted three of those women of disorderly conduct in the Harlem Magistrates Court. All three had been arrested for other offenses for which police could not produce evidence. Margaret Mitchell had been arrested for riot for inciting the crowd in the Kress store, Louise Brown for breaking windows, and Elizabeth Tai for looting. The remaining two women were prosecuted for the offenses for which police arrested them, Rose Murrell for breaking windows and Elva Jacobs for looting, with magistrates sending them for trial in the Court of Special Sessions.

Both Woods and Mitchell were represented by lawyers, which was not typical of those arrested during the disorder. It is not clear if their presence contributed to the relatively lenient treatment the women received from Magistrate Renaud.

The five women received sentences that spanned the range given to those convicted after the disorder: Jacobs and Brown had their sentences suspended; Mitchell was given the option of a fine or three days in the Workhouse (she paid the fine); Tai was given a term of five days in the Workhouse; and Murrell a term of one month in the Workhouse.

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