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

Clarence London shot

Sometime shortly before 1 AM, Clarence London, a thirty-four-year-old Black man was shot in the leg while walking on the street near 7th Avenue. London lived in north Harlem, at 676 St Nicholas Avenue, so was far from home when shot, likely drawn to the disorder around 125th Street at some point in the evening. Dr Payne attended London at Harlem Hospital at 1.00 AM.

The location of the shooting is recorded in hospital admission records as West 122nd Street and 7th Avenue, while reports in the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune put it three blocks north, at 125th Street and 7th Avenue. Both locations saw multiple acts of violence during the disorder, including an assault on a white man, John Eigler, at 122nd Street around the time London was shot also attended by an ambulance from Harlem Hospital. The assault is mapped at 125th Street as that is where the weight of the evidence puts it.

The New York American reported London had been “shot by an unidentified man” but offered no other details. Other newspapers simply listed him as “shot.” The hospital records further obscured the circumstances by describing London as “wounded.” His wound was consistently reported as in the right leg, although the Home News did report it was in the left leg.

The New York American, New York Post, Home News, New York Herald Tribune, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and New York Times all identified London as a Black man; only the New York Daily News and New York Evening Journal did not specify his race. Four of the six other individuals shot and wounded in the disorder were Black men; the others were one man of unknown race, and one white police officer. Given the evidence of both looting and the police response to it at the time, and the lack of any evidence that Black individuals on the streets during the disorder used guns, London was likely hit by shots fired by police – as were the other men reported as shot and wounded.

No one was arrested for shooting London, as was the case with all of those shot and wounded (Detective Campo’s alleged assailant was shot and killed).
 

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