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District Attorney's Closed Case Files, 203999 (1935) (New York City Municipal Archives)
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2020-03-30T21:33:36+00:00
Morris Sankin's tailor's store looted
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2022-07-12T17:35:33+00:00
Around 9 PM, Morris Sankin closed his tailor's store at 200 West 128th Street, presumably returning to his home at 1770 Walton Avenue in the Bronx, shortly before the crowds gathered around West 125th Street and 7th Avenue began moving north. When he returned at 8 AM the next morning he found a window broken and around $800 of clothing missing, the property of the store's customers.
Going to the police, he would have found out that Officer Irwin Young had reported that around 10.10 PM, he "saw the window of the [Sankin's] store being broken" and then saw a forty-six-year-old unemployed Black man named Leroy Gillard go into the store through the broken window and emerge with two suits of clothing, each values at $25. The phrasing of the affidavit implies that Gillard did not break the window, suggesting there may have been others there at the time who escaped arrest. Certainly more clothing was stolen than Gillard allegedly had in his possession. The affidavit left those possibilities open by including the stock phrasing that Gillard's alleged crime was committed "while acting in concert with a number of others not yet arrested."
Sankin's store was set back from 7th Avenue and the crowds that moved up it around 9 PM, in a single story structure located between the rear of the five story building on the corner of West 128th Street and 7th Avenue and the first of a block of eight three story brownstone apartment buildings that stretched for roughly a quarter of the block. Gillard may not have come to the store from 7th Avenue as he lived at 208 West 128th Street, just four buildings west of the store. It is likely Officer Young was on the corner of 7th Avenue and West 128th Street, as police tended to take up positions on intersections.
As Sankin did not return to his store until 8 AM, the window remained broken and the clothing inside accessible throughout the disorder. At 5.40 AM, in one of the final events of the disorder, Officer Dimao arrested a twenty-eight-year-old white chauffeur named Jean Jacquelin at the corner of West 128th Street and 8th Avenue, the opposite end of the block from Sankin's store. Jacquelin allegedly was carrying two ladies coats, values at $20 each, and two pairs of trousers, valued at $5 each. That clothing was likely bulky enough that it attracted the officer's attention; Sankin later identified it as coming from his store.
Jacquelin was one of nine men known to have been arrested away from the stores they allegedly looted, one third (9/27) of the arrests for which that information is known (27/60).
One of only ten white men arrested in the disorder, Jacquelin, like Gillard, had not traveled far to Sankin's store. He lived at 222 West 128th Street, a four story apartment building seven buildings west of Gillard. He had only lived there for a month, an unusual address for a white man by 1935. Whites resided nearby, on West 126th Street and several blocks south of West 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, but this block was home to Black residents.
Gillard and Jacquelin appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court one after the other on March 20, with both sent to the grand jury. On April 5, the grand jury determined that both men should only be charged with a misdemeanor not felony burglary, sending them to the Court of Special Sessions. (As both men had been charged with taking property worth more than $25, so could have been charged with grand larceny, a felony, if not burglary). According to the 28th Precinct Police Blotter, on April 11, the judges dismissed the charges against Jacquelin. It took almost two more weeks before Gillard was tried, on April 23, when the judges convicted him and sentenced him to the workhouse for three months.
Sankin may not have continued in business after the disorder. A tailor's store at his address does appear in the MCCH Business survey, French Dry Cleaners and Tailor, but is recorded as a Black-owned business. The Tax Department photographs taken between 1939 and 1941 do not provide a clear view of the business.
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2020-12-05T17:58:29+00:00
Jean Jacquelin arrested
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2022-07-12T15:35:25+00:00
At 5.40 AM, in one of the final events of the disorder, Officer Di Maio arrested a twenty-eight-year-old white chauffeur named Jean Jacquelin at the corner of West 128th Street and 8th Avenue. Jacquelin allegedly was carrying two ladies coats, values at $20 each, and two pairs of trousers, valued at $5 each. There is no mention of what caused Dimao to arrest him, but the clothing was likely bulky enough that it attracted the officer's attention; Morris Sankin later identified it as coming from his tailor's store at 200 West 128th Street, the opposite end of the block from where Dimao arrested Jacquelin.
Jacquelin was one of nine men known to have been arrested away from the stores they allegedly looted, one third (9/27) of the arrests for which that information is known (27/60).
Jacquelin would not have had to travel far to Sankin's store. He lived at 222 West 128th Street, a four story apartment building ten buildings west of the store. He had only lived there for a month. That block was home to Black residents, making it an unusual address for Jacquelin, one of only ten white men arrested in the disorder. There were areas occupied by white residents nearby, on West 126th Street and several blocks south of West 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.
The evidence that Jacquelin was white comes from the Harlem Magistrate's Court docket book. It is the only legal record that collected information on an individual's race. The Magistrate's Court examination recorded only birthplace. So too did the Police Blotter. Jacquelin may have been Canadian. His birthplace is recorded as Nova Scotia in the Magistrate's Court examination, but as the United States in both the docket book and the 28th Precinct Police Blotter (although the blotter also mistakenly identifies Jacquelin as a woman). He had been in New York City since at least 1932, when his criminal record shows he was arrested for assault with a knife, an incident that does not seem to have involved significant violence as the charge was reduced to disorderly conduct, for which the Magistrate convicted him but gave him a suspended sentence. No newspapers reported Jacquelin's race. He appears in the list of those arrested published by the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide and the list published by the New York Evening Journal (both of which misspelled his first name as Kean). He also appears in the Home News story on hearings in the Magistrate Court, his first name reported as Gene, with Leroy Gillard, a forty-six-year old Black man also charged with burglary of Sankin's store, but arrested earlier, at 10.10PM, at the store. The story reported that they stole all $800 of clothes taken from Sankin's store, rather than the clothing allegedly found on them.
Jacquelin appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 20, immediately after Gillard. The Magistrate sent Jacquelin to the grand jury, along with Gillard. On April 5, the grand jury determined that both men should only be charged with a misdemeanor not felony burglary, likely petit larceny in Jacquelin's case as the clothing he had allegedly taken had a value of less than $100, so too little for a charge of grand larceny. Sent to the Court of Special Sessions, he appeared before the judges on April 11, according to the 28th Precinct Police Blotter, when they dismissed the charges against him.
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2021-04-16T19:59:19+00:00
Leroy Gillard arrested
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2021-04-18T21:42:53+00:00
Officer Irwin Young had reported that around 10.10 PM, he "saw the window of the [Morris Sankin's tailor's] store being broken" and then saw a forty-six-year-old unemployed Black man named Leroy Gillard go into the store through the broken window and emerge with two suits of clothing, each values at $25. The phrasing of the affidavit implies that Gillard did not break the window, suggesting there may have been others there at the time who escaped arrest. Certainly more clothing was stolen, to the value of $800, than Gillard allegedly had in his possession. The affidavit left those possibilities open by including the stock phrasing that Gillard's alleged crime was committed "while acting in concert with a number of others not yet arrested."
Sankin's store was set back from 7th Avenue and the crowds that moved up it around 9 PM, in a single story structure located between the rear of the five story building on the corner of West 128th Street and 7th Avenue and the first of a block of eight three story brownstone apartment buildings that stretched for roughly a quarter of the block. Gillard may not have come to the store from 7th Avenue as he lived at 208 West 128th Street, just four buildings west of the store. It is likely Officer Young was on the corner of 7th Avenue and West 128th Street, as police tended to take up positions on intersections. Young had been involved in the arrest of the protesters in front of Kress' store around four hours earlier, allegedly assaulted by Harry Gordon.
As Sankin did not return to his store until 8 AM, the window remained broken and the clothing inside accessible throughout the disorder. At 5.40 AM, in one of the final events of the disorder, Officer Dimao arrested a twenty-eight-year-old white chauffeur named Jean Jacquelin at the corner of West 128th Street and 8th Avenue, the opposite end of the block from Sankin's store. Jacquelin allegedly was carrying two ladies coats, values at $20 each, and two pairs of trousers, valued at $5 each. That clothing was likely bulky enough that it attracted the officer's attention; Sankin later identified it as coming from his store. Jacquelin was one of nine men known to have been arrested away from the stores they allegedly looted, one third (9/27) of the arrests for which that information is known (27/60). One of only ten white men arrested in the disorder, Jacquelin, like Gillard, had not traveled far to Sankin's store. He lived at 222 West 128th Street, a four story apartment building seven buildings west of Gillard. He had only lived there for a month, an unusual address for a white man by 1935. Whites resided nearby, on West 126th Street and several blocks south of West 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, but this block was home to Black residents.
Gillard and Jacquelin appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court one after the other on March 20, with both sent to the grand jury. On April 5, the grand jury determined that both men should only be charged with a misdemeanor not felony burglary, sending them to the Court of Special Sessions. (As both men had been charged with taking property worth more than $25, so could have been charged with grand larceny, a felony, if not burglary). According to the 28th Precinct Police Blotter, on April 11, the judges dismissed the charges against Jacquelin. It took almost two more weeks before Gillard was tried, on April 23, when the judges convicted him and sentenced him to the workhouse for three months.