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

Emma Brockson assaulted

Emma Brockson, a twenty-six-year-old woman of unknown race, was allegedly assaulted at 7th Avenue and 125th Street. At least five other assaults and the fatal injury of Andrew Lyons took place at that intersection during the course of the disorder. Dr Millfrank treated Brockson at Knickerbocker Hospital at 12.35 AM for injuries to her left hand "received when assaulted by some unknown person or persons." It was not clear if an ambulance brought Brockson to the hospital or whether she made her own way. The Knickerbocker Hospital was located west of 7th Avenue. Given the time she was at the hospital, the alleged assault on Brockson likely took place around midnight. After being attended by the doctor, Brockson left for her home. She lived only two blocks to the west of where the alleged assault took place on 126th Street.

The hospital record was the only evidence of the assault. It did not contain information on a patient's race. Given the location of the assault and the area where she lived, on the boundary of an area of white residences, Brockson was likely a white woman. As Brockson did not appear in any of the lists of the injured or assaulted published in the press, she likely did not make a report to police. Around midnight there would have been police on at least some of the corners of West 125th Street and 7th Avenue as a cordon had been thrown up around the block of 125th Street to the west and officers were guarding Herbert's Jewelry store on the northeast corner.

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"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).