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Clarence London shot
The location of the shooting was recorded in hospital admission records as West 122nd Street and 7th Avenue. That record was a more reliable source than the stories in the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune that located the shooting three blocks north, at 125th Street and 7th Avenue. An ambulance from Harlem Hospital also attended a white man, John Eigler, who reported being hit by an object thrown by a Black assailant at 122nd Street and 7th Avenue around the time London was shot. Fred Campbell's car was hit by a brick at the same intersection a few minutes earlier. He saw police officers with riot guns and heard shots being fired as he drove by. 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. 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 during the disorder.
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 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.
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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This page references:
- "Injured," Daily News, March 20, 1935, 3.
- "Hospital Admissions, 19-20 March 1935," Subject Files, Box 167, Folder 5 (Roll 76), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- "1 Dead, 7 Shot, 100 Hurt as Harlem Crowds Riot over Boy, 16, and Hearse," New York Herald Tribune, March 20, 1935, 1.
- "5 Dying and Scores Wounded as Race Riots in Harlem Subside," Home News, March 20, 1935 [clipping].
- “List of Victims," New York Evening Journal, March 20, 1935, 1, 3.
- "Snipers Fire on Police from Harlem Rooftop," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 20, 1935, 1, 2.
- “List of Casualties in Riots,” New York Post, March 20, 1935, 6.
- “Riot’s Casualties," New York American, March 21, 1935, 2.
- "Police Shoot Into Rioters; Kill Negro in Harlem Mob. 3,000 Storm Store After Boy Knife Thief, 16, Is Reported Lynched-Several Shot - Many Felled by Stones," New York Times, March 20, 1935, 1.