This page was created by Anonymous. 

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 filed a claim for $745.25 in damages. He was among the twenty white store-owners to file claims against the city for failing to protect their businesses identified in the New York Sun and New York Amsterdam News. By the time the city Comptroller heard testimony from those bringing suit, 106 owners had sought damages. DeThomas was not among those whose testimony appeared in newspaper stories about that proceeding, nor did he appear in any of the trials to resolve the claims. The claim for $745.25 in losses was just above the median reported claim of $733. The city lost the court cases, so DeThomas likely was awarded some amount of damages, but based on those case it was only a small proportion. It is not clear if he was able to remain in business. The MCCH business survey did 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 showed 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 few 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. Almost all those indicted for looting agreed to such plea bargains. 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.

This page has tags:

This page references: