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

Frank DeThomas' candy store looted

Around 9.55 PM, Frank DeThomas closed and locked his candy store at 101 West 127th Street, at the rear of 339 Lenox Avenue, he told the Magistrate's Court, and likely headed to his home in White Plains. Crowds appeared on the blocks of Lenox Avenue north of West 125th Street not long after DeThomas left. Arrests for looting other stores on Lenox Avenue either side of West 127th Street were made just before and after midnight. At some point the windows of DeThomas' store were broken. Later, at about 2.45 AM, Officer William Leahy of the 28th Precinct allegedly saw Joseph Wade, a twenty-four-year-old Black "candy boy" coming out of the store, the windows already broken. When Leahy arrested him, he found several toy pistols worth sixty cents in Wade's possession, according to the Magistrate's Court affidavit, or $70 of goods, according to later reports of Wade's sentencing in the New York Age and New York Times. Wade lived near the other end of the same block of West 127th Street as the store was located, at 148 West 127th Street.

Wade was clearly not the only person to have looted the store, as DeThomas claimed $745.25 in losses. He was among the twenty white store-owners to bring the first suits against the city for failing to protect their businesses identified in the New York Sun. By the time the city Comptroller heard testimony from those bringing suit, 106 owners had sought damages. DeThomas is not among those whose testimony appeared in newspaper stories about that proceeding, nor does he appear in any of the trials to test the claims. The claim for $745.25 in losses is just above the median reported claim of $733. The city lost the test cases, so DeThomas likely was awarded some amount of damages, but based on those case it was likely only a small proportion. It is not clear if he was able to remain in business. The MCCH business survey does not include any businesses at 101 West 127th Street in the second half of 1935. The Tax Department photograph of the address in 1939-1941 also shows a business, but the angle and distance do not allow any details of the store to be identified.

Wade appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, when Magistrate Renaud ordered him held for the grand jury without bail. While only ? of those charged after the disorder were denied bail, Wade had been convicted three times since 1926, including once for unlawful entry resulting from a charge of burglary. The grand jury indicted him for burglary on March 22, and five days later he appeared in the Court of General Sessions having agreed to plead guilty to the lesser offense of petit larceny. On April 8, Judge Donnellan sentenced him to six months in the workhouse, a decision reported in the press as well as recorded in the 28th Precinct Police Blotter.

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