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

Business that did not survive

Both the New York Sun and the New York Evening Journal reported that businesses in Harlem might close as a result of the disorder. The New York Sun implied that racial conflict motivated such decisions: "It is reported that many white merchants of the Harlem district have signified their intention of leaving the neighborhood just as soon as they can arrange for the disposition of their stocks." The statement in the New York Evening Journal was speculation linked to the losses suffered: "The looting of stores reached such proportions that small merchants feared they would be thrown into bankruptcy."

There is little direct evidence that businesses actually closed as a result of the disorder. That 106 businesses owners sued the city for damages indicated the extent of losses from attacks and looting; there is less information on the scale of those losses. The claims in only twenty-six of those suits are reported in the press; they range from $14,215 by Harry Piskin and $14,000 by George Chronis to $146.75 by Michael D'Agostino and $47.40 by Joseph Cohen, with a median claim of $733.13. The city lost the test cases of those suits, so those litigants likely received some damages that would have helped them stay in businesses. The losses of twenty-six other businesses reported in legal records and the press (some of which may have been among the seventy-nine unidentified business owners who sued the city) were less than those of the businesses reported as suing the city, ranging from $10-12 to $1000 (and one with losses of $10,000), with a median loss of only $100.

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