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

Everett Breuer and Joseph Martin assaulted

Everett Breuer, a twenty-eight-year-old white photographer working for the New York Daily News, was taking images of the crowd at 7th Avenue and 125th Street when a rock hit him in the head. It was likely one of several objects thrown in Breuer’s direction as the office boy carrying his plates, Joseph Martin, was also hit on the face. Breuer’s own publication reported he was “beaten” not hit by a rock, as did the New York American, but the Daily Mirror, Home News, New York Herald Tribune and New York Times all reported him being hit by an object, while the New York Evening Journal and New York Post reported only the resulting cuts. According to all but the New York Evening Journal, Breuer’s cuts were bad enough to require a trip to the hospital. Press accounts disagree on where he received treatment, with the New York American, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York Times and Daily Mirror reporting Harlem Hospital, the Home News Sydenham Hospital on Manhattan Ave and West 124th Street, and the Daily News the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled on 42nd St and Lexington Ave.

James Martin attracted less attention than Breuer. Other than a mention in the story and an appearance in the list of the injured in the New York Daily News, Martin appears only in the list of injured published by the New York Evening Journal. Both sources describe him as having cuts on his face, with the later recording that an ambulance treated Martin.

The area around 7th Avenue and 125th Street saw a cluster of assaults during the disorder, with six other assaults reported there, including the beating of another reporter, Harry Johnson of the New York American. It was also at this location that Andrew Lyons was shot and killed. All those events occurred despite police emergency squads being deployed at the intersection from 9pm.

A photograph Breuer took immediately before the rock struck him became the most widely reproduced image of the disorder. When it initially appeared in the Daily News, the caption noted “After making this picture, The News photographer was struck down and went to hospital. He suffered lacerations to the scalp.” In later editions that information is omitted, and it does not appear in the caption of the photograph when it is reprinted by other publications. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle list of the injured did report Breuer was "hit by a rock while taking pictures of a riotous group." The scene the photographer captured shows two black men apparently trying to move away from a uniformed police officer; one man has fallen, while the officer is trying to hold the other. Neither they nor the three men and two women in the background look poised to throw anything at the photographer.

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"Injured," Daily News, March 20, 1935, 3
"1 Dead, 7 shot, 100 Hurt as Harlem Crowds Riot over Boy, 16, and Hearse," New York Herald Tribune, March 20, 1935, 1.
“List of Victims," New York Evening Journal, March 20, 1935, 1, 3.
“List of Casualties in Riots,” New York Post, March 20, 1935, 6.
"5 dying and Scores Wounded as Race Riots in Harlem Subside," Home News, March 20, 1935 [clipping]
"Snipers Fire on Police From Harlem Rooftop," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 20, 1935, 1, 2.
"Police Shoot Into Rioters; Kill Negro in Harlem Mob. 3,000 Storm Store After Boy Knife Thief, 16, Is Reported Lynched-Several Shot - Many Felled by Stones," New York Times, March 20, 1935, 1.
"1 Slain, 20 Injured in Harlem Rioting," New York American, March 20, 1935, 1.
"Harlem Mob War. 1 Dies, 50 Hurt, 100 Arrested In Wild Night, Daily Mirror, March 20, 1935, 4.
[Photograph] "One man down...," Daily News, March 20, 1935, 1 Full caption: "One Man down...one tries to flee...policeman tries in vain to hold the rioters within bounds...racial hatred ran riot in America's largest colored colony. After making this picture, The News photogrpaher was struck down and went to hospital. He suffered lacerations of the scalp." Other edition caption: “One man is falling down and another tries to flee as policeman attempts to keep rioters in line at 125th St. and Seventh Ave. Trouble was started when organized group of radicals inflamed district over reported injury to colored boy in a 125th St. Kress chain store.”