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Mayor La Guardia establishes an investigation
It is not clear what led La Guardia to conclude that the city government releasing information would not be enough to calm Harlem residents or prevent further disorder. The NAACP did send La Guardia a telegram on March 20 calling for “a biracial commission to make an independent investigation of riot in Harlem last night” that examined the “fundamental as well as immediate causes of trouble with right to examine witnesses and all pertinent records.” Although the organization would later issue a press release claiming that suggestion was responsible for the mayor deciding to set up an investigation, he likely was responding to more than that prompt.
As police distributed the posters displaying the mayor’s appeal, 7.5 miles to the south at City Hall La Guardia announced the names of the eleven individuals he had appointed to that committee. The press release provided a broader charge for them than his earlier appeal: “the investigation of social and economic conditions in west Harlem,” “the ascertainment of the causes of the disturbances which occurred on the night of March 19,” and “recommendations for the betterment of conditions and the prevention of a repetition of disorder and violence.” If the role of rumors and the activities of the Communist Party mentioned in the poster spurred the mayor’s decision to investigate the events of the disorder, a concern that the disorder not be seen as a race riot led to an emphasis on underlying causes rather than events. La Guardia had shown he shared that concern in the edits he made to the text of the appeal. [= removed race riot – noted by press that would not call it a riot [can’t find that story??]
La Guardia did give more attention to the events of the disorder when he explained his approach to journalists after his announcement. “The checking of violence through adequate policing and the arrest of ringleaders,” was one of the two lines along which he said the situation in Harlem had to be approached, alongside “the amelioration of condition which gave rise to the suppressed feeling of hostility by the Negro population which was let loose on Tuesday night.” However, that framing suggested that investigation of the events of the disorder was largely in the hands of District Attorney Dodge and the grand jury that the mayor had asked him to convene. La Guardia seemed to confirm that when confronted by a reporter from the Daily Worker who said that Dodge’s investigation was at odds with the work he had assigned the Committee, insisting “these are two separate and distinct functions.”