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

Crowd at 7th Avenue & West 125th Street

Around 10:30 PM, a crowd of twenty-five to thirty people gathered at 7th Avenue and West 125th Street. Police were stationed in the area, as part of the perimeter around the block of 125th Street from 7th to 8th Avenues on which Kress' store was located, which was set up around 9:00 PM. Detective Peter Naton of the 28th Precinct, who would have been in plainclothes, not in uniform, "announced himself as a police officer" and told the group to "move on," he stated in his affidavit in the Harlem Magistrates Court. John King, a twenty-eight-year-old Black fish and ice dealer, allegedly responded by yelling "I won't move for you this is my Harlem, and we will put that Kress store out of business and punish that man that injured the child." He then allegedly grabbed hold of the billy club in Naton's hand and broke its strap.



After Naton arrested King, the police officer alleged people in the area attacked individuals and property and obstructed police officers. While there were attacks just west on 125th Street, on Blumstein's department store and on a white man named Thomas Wijstem, around this time, there are no reported events at the intersection at the time. It was the site of attacks on businesses and individuals at other times during the disorder. Businesses on all four corners of West 125th Street and 7th Avenue suffered damage at some time during the disorder: Regal Shoes on the southeast corner was reported looted, with John Vivien arrested an hour after King for allegedly being one of those who took merchandise, while Herbert's Blue Diamond Jewelry store on the northeast corner, the United Cigar Store on the northwest corner, and the branch of the Chock Full O'Nuts restaurant chain on the southwest corner all had windows broken. There were eight assaults reported at the intersection, with five occurring at unspecified times that might have been in the aftermath of King's arrest (the assault on Morris Werner was an hour prior to King's arrest, and two other assaults occurred several hours later, on Emma Brockson around 12:35 AM and Clarence London at 1 AM). Three of those assaults involved members of the white press, a reporter, Harry Johnson, and photographer, Everett Bruer and his assistant, Joseph Martin. Andrew Lyons, a thirty-seven-year-old Black man, was shot at the intersection, likely by police, dying several days later. The final assault, on Betty Willcox as she waited in a parked car, seems likely to have been later in the disorder, as she described the intersection as empty and the streets full of debris from damaged stores. No one arrested during the disorder was charged with those assaults.

The only source of details of the events allegedly leading to King's arrest is the district attorney's case file. No information is provided in the lists of those arrested in which he appears or in the 28th Precinct police blotter.

 

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