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District Attorney's Closed Case Files, 204008 (1935) (New York City Municipal Archives).
1 2022-01-05T22:43:09+00:00 Anonymous 1 3 plain 2022-10-02T15:46:42+00:00 AnonymousThis page is referenced by:
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2022-01-05T22:26:52+00:00
Crowd at 7th Avenue & West 125th Street
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2022-06-23T18:33:22+00:00
Around 10:30 PM, a crowd of twenty-five to thirty people gathered at the 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's store was located 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. It was the site of attacks on businesses and individuals at other times during the disorder. Businesses on all four corners of the 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 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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2022-01-05T21:44:26+00:00
John King arrested
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2023-08-26T22:37:39+00:00
Around 10:30 PM, Detective Peter Naton of the 28th Precinct allegedly saw a crowd of twenty-five to thirty people gathered at the 7th Avenue and West 125th Street, he stated in an affidavit in the Harlem Magistrates Court. Crowds had been gathering at the intersection for several hours, and police had been stationed there to control and disperse them since around 9:00 PM as part of the perimeter around the block of 125th Street from 7th to 8th Avenues on which Kress's store. In response to this group, Naton "announced himself as a police officer," necessary as he would have been in plainclothes not in uniform, and told the group to "move on." 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. As well as arresting King, Naton made two other arrests around this time, of John Vivien thirty minutes later at the same intersection, and James Pringle another fifteen minutes later, two blocks south at West 123rd Street and 7th Avenue.
The affidavit was the only source that includes details of King's arrest. The 28th Precinct Police blotter recorded the charge against King as inciting riot. He appeared in the list of those arrested published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, among those charged with riot, and in a story in the Home News that only mentioned the charge against him. Riot was the charge recorded in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book when King appeared in court on March 20. Magistrate Renaud sent him to the grand jury, on bail of $1000. A handwritten note on the affidavit listed an additional charge not recorded in the docket book, "simple assault," likely in response to Detective Naton's allegation that King had grabbed his billy club. That charge may have been added by the grand jury after they heard the evidence against King on March 27, when they transferred him to the Court of Special Sessions, reducing the riot charge against him from a felony to a misdemeanor. King did not appear before the judges in that court for almost two months; there is no information on the reason for that delay. The judges convicted King and suspended his sentence, according to the 28th Precinct Police blotter.
King's address was recorded in his examination in the Harlem Magistrates Court as 2905 8th Avenue, on the northern boundary of Harlem just south of West 154th Street. Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, he had lived at that address for five years, likely since he arrived in New York City sometime after April in 1930. At the time of the 1930 Census, King lived in Philadelphia, where he worked as a porter for a theater company, and lived with his wife Inez and their four-month-old son. He was still at the same address, 2905 8th Avenue, when the census enumerator called on April 2, 1940, by then working as the superintendent of the building, while Inez owned a candy store. The couple had two more children by that date, an eight-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son. King listed the same address and occupation when he registered for the draft two years later.