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"Blamed for Riot, Harlem Girl Fired. Disorders Fatal to Three Laid to Her Screaming in Store Where Boy Stole Knife," New York Times, March 24, 1935, 19.
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2021-08-29T22:00:15+00:00
Drug store windows broken (339 Lenox Ave)
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2021-12-07T16:48:28+00:00
Sometime during the disorder windows were smashed in the white-owned drug store at 339 Lenox Avenue, on the northwest corner of West 127th Street. A single large hole is visible in the center of the window facing West 127th Street, and another in the adjacent window facing Lenox Avenue, in a photograph taken the next day published in the Afro-American. (The photograph caption for the Getty Images version of the photograph locates the store "at 127th Street and Lenox Avenue," and the Tax Department photograph confirms the store was on the northwest corner so 339 Lenox Avenue). The store may have been looted. There is no merchandise in the store windows in the photograph. However, the image appears to have been taken after the clean-up had begun, so the merchandise might have been removed as part of the removing debris from the windows not taken during the disorder. Frank De Thomas' candy store next to the drug store on West 127th Street was looted, as was Sol Weit and Isaac Popiel's grocery store two buildings north on Lenox Avenue. Many other stores in the surrounding blocks of Lenox Avenue had windows broken and goods taken. Few arrests were made as a result of those attacks, as police lacked the numbers to control the many crowds on the streets, but police did make two arrests for breaking windows in 339 Lenox Avenue, as well as arrests for looting the two nearby stores, suggesting that officers were stationed at the intersection. There are no details of the circumstances of the arrests for breaking the drug store windows, but the same detective is recorded as the arresting officer, making it likely the arrests occurred at the same time.
A story in the Home News is the only evidence connecting two of the men arrested for allegedly breaking windows to the drug store. Arthur Bennett and James Bright, both Black men twenty-eight years of age, appear in lists of those charged with disorderly conduct published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the New York Evening Journal. Inexplicably, the 28th Precinct police blotter records "Annoyed pedestrians" as the charge against the men; no one else arrested during the disorder was charged with that offense. Bennett and Bright appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20 charged with disorderly conduct, with Detective Perretti of the 6th Division recorded in the docket book as having arrested both men. They had allegedly thrown "stores through the window of the store at 339 Lenox Ave.," according to the Home News story on those proceedings. Neither man lived close to the store, with Bennett giving his address as 48 West 119th Street, eight blocks south, and Bright's address recorded as 43 West 133rd Street, five blocks north. Magistrate Renaud convicted both men. They returned to the court for sentencing on March 23, receiving a term of one month in the workhouse "for breaking windows" from Magistrate Renaud in proceedings reported in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News, and New York Times. None of those stories gave an address for the store whose windows the men had allegedly broken.
A white owned drug store is recorded at 339 Lenox Avenue in the MCCH business survey taken in the second half of 1935. The Tax Department photograph from sometime between 1939 and 1941 shows a drug store at the address; there is no information available to establish if it is the same business as operated in 1935. -
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2021-12-20T17:37:03+00:00
Leo Smith arrested
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2021-12-20T20:45:38+00:00
Sometime during the disorder, Officer Williams of the 6th Detective Division arrested Leo Smith, an eighteen-year-old white man, for allegedly "throwing a stone through a Seventh Avenue window," according to a story in the New York Herald Tribune. The specific location of the damaged store is not given. However, Smith was one of three men arrested during the disorder arraigned in the Night Court, during the disorder on March 19, the New York Herald Tribune reported, so was likely arrested near 125th Street, where the initial events were concentrated. In reporting that Smith was "accused of smashing a store window," a story in the Home News gave the address as 3180 7th Avenue, a non-existent address. He lived well to the east of Harlem, at 305 East 118th Street, between Second and First Avenues, an area with only white residents.
Smith is included in lists of those arrested in the disorder charged with disorderly conduct published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, in the New York Evening Journal, and in the New York American, and without a charge in a list published in the New York Daily News. He is not included, however, in the 28th Precinct Police blotter, likely because he was arrested and sent to the Night Court on March 19. There Magistrate Capshaw held him for the Magistrates Court, on bail of $500. On March 20, Smith appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court, charged with disorderly conduct. Magistrate Renaud tried and convicted him that day, holding him for sentence, according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book and a story in the Home News. When Smith returned to court on March 23, it was for sentencing, stories in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News and New York Times reported. Magistrate Renaud sent him to the Workhouse for one month.
Smith is recorded as white in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, and in stories about his sentencing in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News and New York Times. Only the lists published in the New York Evening Journal and New York Daily News did likewise. Neither story about his first appearance in court, in the New York Herald Tribune and the Home News, mentioned his race. His address, well east of the areas of Black residences in Harlem, fitted with his recorded race (although the New York Evening Journal, New York Herald Tribune and New York Daily News mistakenly recorded his address as West 118th Street). None of the newspaper reporting offered any comment regarding Smith's race. -
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2020-02-25T18:07:14+00:00
Andrew Lyons killed
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2020-10-13T19:23:52+00:00
Andrew Lyons, a thirty-seven-year-old Black man, died as a result of internal injuries "sustained during the thick of a melee at 125th street and Seventh Avenue." There is no information on when he was injured.
Although that intersection is in the heart of Harlem and the disorder, only stories in the Amsterdam News and Times Union reported the location of Lyons' injury, and he did not appear in any hospital records. (The two sources disagree on the location, with the Times Union put the killing at 125th and Lenox not 125th and 7th Avenue, but as that story also gave a different home address and injury than other newspapers, the killing has been mapped at the address given in the Amsterdam News). Lyons also is not included in any lists of the injured published in newspapers on March 20 and March 21. The first reports of Lyons are those of his death in the New York Post and New York Daily News on March 23, New York Times and an AP story on March 24, and the Atlanta World on March 27. Lyons also appears in lists of those killed in the weekly Black newspapers, the New York Age, Pittsburgh Courier, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Gazette on March 30. The only source that provides any details of the circumstances of Lyons' fatal injury is the Times Union, which described him as having been beaten over the head with a blunt instrument, but is the only source to describe his injury as a fractured skull, casting doubt on that account.
Lyons lived at 147 West 117th Street, a mixed Black and Puerto Rican area south of where he was injured, on a block between Lenox and 7th Avenues. The noise and crowds on 7th Avenue could have drawn him to the disorder.
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2020-10-01T19:25:21+00:00
Rivers Wright arrested
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2021-10-02T22:34:43+00:00
Police arrested Rivers Wright, a twenty-one-year-old Black man for allegedly being part of a group of black men who attacked an unnamed white man at 125th St and Lenox Avenue at some point in the disorder. Wright lived at 2137 7th Avenue, a block west and two blocks north of the site of the alleged assault, and in the heart of the disorder.
Only one story provides any details of the circumstances of his arrest. The Home News reported on March 21 that Wright was arrested "after he and a number of others are said to have attacked a white man at 125th St and Lenox Ave." Wright appears in lists of those arrested during the disorder in the Afro-American, Atlanta World, Norfolk Journal and Gazette, New York American, New York Evening Journal, and New York Daily News. His sentencing several days later is also reported in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News, and New York Times.
Among the first arraigned in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, Wright was charged with disorderly conduct, not assault, as was the case with half of those arrested for assault. That offense did not involve any violence; instead it focused creating a disturbance of some sort, suggesting being part of a crowd rather than an assault. Disorderly conduct was also a charge that could be adjudicated in the Magistrates Court, where Magistrate Renaud convicted Wright and remanded him for sentence on March 23. On that date, Magistrate Renaud sent him to the Workhouse for 10 days. -
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2022-01-07T19:57:38+00:00
John Hawkins arrested
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2022-01-07T21:43:52+00:00
Detective George Booker of the 28th Precinct arrested John Hawkins, a thirty-year-old Black man, for allegedly inciting a riot. There are no details of his alleged offenses or where or when Hawkins was arrested. Booker also arrested Horace Fowler during the disorder, for allegedly looting Nicholas Peet's tailor's shop at 2063 7th Avenue. Booker made no mention of a crowd or anyone else being involved in that alleged looting, so he likely arrested Hawkins at some other time and place. Hawkins lived at 2357 8th Avenue, between West 126th and West 127th Streets. He could have been part of the crowds around that block of 8th Avenue, where Theodore Hughes was arrested for allegedly looting the store directly opposite the building where Hawkins lived, Emmet Williams for breaking the window of that store, and Rose Murrell for breaking a window in the store at 2366 8th Avenue.
In the 28th Precinct Police blotter, the charge against Hawkins is recorded as inciting riot, which is also the charge against in the list of those arrested during the disorder published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide. When he appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, that was also the charge recorded in the docket book. Magistrate Renaud held him for the case to be investigated. Hawkins returned to court on March 23, when the charged against him was reduced to disorderly conduct: the charge is crossed out in the docket "DISORDERLY CONDUCT" stamped in its place. That offense could be dealt with in the Magistrates Court; Magistrate Renaud convicted Hawkins and sentenced him to thirty days in the Workhouse. Stories in the New York Daily News, New York Times, New York Age and Afro-American reported the sentencing. Three other men sentenced at the same time had broken windows; the three newspapers other than the New York Times reported that Hawkins had also committed that offense, while that newspaper merely reported his sentence. -
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2021-12-02T19:10:37+00:00
Truss shop windows broken
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2021-12-02T21:28:59+00:00
Windows were broken in Fred Noble's Truss Shop at 2136 7th Avenue sometime during the disorder. Just south of the intersection with West 127th Street, the store was in the midst of the three-block section of 7th Avenue north of West 125th Street that saw multiple reported broken windows and looting, and three assaults on whites, including both James Wrigley and a Fifth Avenue Coach Company bus being hit by objects. Officer Platt's arrest of Arthur Killen for allegedly breaking windows in the Truss Shop was the only arrest that can be identified as having occurred in this area during the disorder. When police searched Killen they found an "open knife" in his possession, according to a Home News story.
A forty-three-year-old Black man, Killen appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 20, charged with both malicious mischief and possession of a knife. Magistrate Renaud transferred Killen to the Court of Special Sessions, and held on bail of $500. The outcome of his prosecution is unknown.
A story in the Home News about his appearance in the Magistrates Court is the only evidence connecting Killen to the Truss shop. A forty-three-year-old Black man, Killen appeared in lists of those charged with inciting a riot published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the list in New York Evening Journal as charged with disorderly conduct and possession of a weapon. Inexplicably, the 28th Precinct police blotter records "Annoyed pedestrians" as the charge against the men; no one else arrested during the disorder was charged with that offense. Bennett and Bright appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20 charged with disorderly conduct, with Detective Perretti of the 6th Division recorded in the docket book as having arrested both men. They had allegedly thrown "stores through the window of the store at 339 Lenox Ave.," according to the Home News story on those proceedings. Neither man lived close to the store, with Bennett giving his address as 48 West 119th Street, eight blocks south, and Bright's address recorded as 43 West 133rd Street, five blocks north. Magistrate Renaud convicted both men. They returned to the court for sentencing on March 23, receiving a term of one month in the workhouse "for breaking windows" from Magistrate Renaud in proceedings reported in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News, and New York Times. None of those stories gave an address for the store whose windows the men had allegedly broken.
A white-owned Truss Shop is recorded at 2316 7th Avenue, with the owner identified as Noble, in the MCCH business survey taken in the second half of 1935. In the Tax Department photograph from sometime between 1939 and 1941 the name of the business at that address is not visible. -
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2021-12-02T17:24:56+00:00
Arthur Bennett arrested
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2021-12-02T18:32:44+00:00
Sometime during the disorder Detective Perretti of the 6th Division arrested Arthur Bennett, a twenty-eight-year-old Black man, for allegedly breaking windows in the drug store at 339 Lenox Avenue, on the northwest corner of 127th Street. Perretti likely arrested a second man, James Bright, also a twenty-eight-year-old Black man, at the same time, also for breaking the store's windows. There is no information on the circumstances of the arrests. While other stores in the surrounding blocks of Lenox Avenue had windows broken and goods taken, police made few arrests were made as they lacked the numbers to control the many crowds on the streets. However, other officers made arrests for alleged looting at Frank De Thomas' candy store next to the drug store on West 127th Street and at Sol Weit and Isaac Popiel's grocery store two buildings north on Lenox Avenue, suggesting that officers were stationed at this intersection.
A story in the Home News is the only evidence that connects Bennett, and James Bright, to 339 Lenox Avenue. Bennett appeared in lists of those charged with disorderly conduct published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the New York Evening Journal. Inexplicably, the 28th Precinct Police blotter records "Annoyed pedestrians" as the charge against him; no one else arrested during the disorder other than Bright was charged with that offense. Bennett appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20 charged with disorderly conduct, with Detective Perretti recorded in the docket book as the arresting officer. He had allegedly thrown "stores through the window of the store at 339 Lenox Ave.," according to the Home News story on those proceedings. He did not live close to the store, but eight blocks south, at 48 West 119th Street. Magistrate Renaud convicted Bennett of disorderly conduct. He returned to the court for sentencing on March 23, and received a term of one month in the workhouse "for breaking windows" from Magistrate Renaud in proceedings reported in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News, and New York Times. None of those stories gave an address for the store whose windows Bennett had allegedly broken. -
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2021-12-02T17:25:14+00:00
James Bright arrested
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2021-12-02T18:31:18+00:00
Sometime during the disorder Detective Perretti of the 6th Division arrested James Bright, a twenty-eight-year-old Black man, for allegedly breaking windows in the drug store at 339 Lenox Avenue, on the northwest corner of 127th Street. Perretti likely arrested a second man, Arthur Bennett, also a twenty-eight-year-old Black man, at the same time, also for breaking the store's windows. There is no information on the circumstances of the arrests. While other stores in the surrounding blocks of Lenox Avenue had windows broken and goods taken, police made few arrests were made as they lacked the numbers to control the many crowds on the streets. However, other officers made arrests for alleged looting at Frank De Thomas' candy store next to the drug store on West 127th Street and at Sol Weit and Isaac Popiel's grocery store two buildings north on Lenox Avenue, suggesting that officers were stationed at this intersection.
A story in the Home News is the only evidence that connects Bright, and Arthur Bennett, to 339 Lenox Avenue. Bright appeared in lists of those charged with disorderly conduct published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the New York Evening Journal. Inexplicably, the 28th Precinct Police blotter records "Annoyed pedestrians" as the charge against him; no one else arrested during the disorder other than Bennett was charged with that offense. Bright appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20 charged with disorderly conduct, with Detective Perretti recorded in the docket book as the arresting officer. He had allegedly thrown "stores through the window of the store at 339 Lenox Ave.," according to the Home News story on those proceedings. He did not live close to the store, but five blocks north, at 43 West 133rd Street. Magistrate Renaud convicted Bright of disorderly conduct. He returned to the court for sentencing on March 23, and received a term of one month in the workhouse "for breaking windows" from Magistrate Renaud in proceedings reported in the Afro-American, New York Age, New York Daily News, and New York Times. None of those stories gave an address for the store whose windows Bright had allegedly broken.