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Empire Cafeteria windows not broken
The Daily Worker had reason to draw attention to the Empire Cafeteria, as it was a campaign by the Communist Party, rather than the Black-led Citizen's League for Fair Play, that led to the owner hiring Black staff in September 1934. Committed to interracial action and goals, the Communist Party had found itself at odds with the boycott movement's focus on obtaining jobs for Black workers. When the question of who would get the positions at Blumstein's department store that the boycott movement won splintered the coalition that made up the Citizen's League, the Communist Party took the opportunity to step into the fight against job discrimination on their terms. The Empire Cafeteria was a carefully chosen target. Historian Mark Naison found that white workers in the restaurant had already been organized by the party, which worked to have them formulate common demands with the picketers that included hiring Black countermen alongside shorter hours and better conditions. Support from the restaurant's customers was also likely, Naison found, as many came from a home relief bureau on 124th Street that that party had helped unionize.