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

"Harlem: Survey - Census Tract #210-212 (20)," 1935, Roll 80, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).

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Chain grocery store looted Some time during the disorder, a "chain store at 135th St. and Lenox Ave" was looted, according to a story in the Home News. The store was likely the A & P grocery store at 510 Lenox Avenue, the only chain grocery store near that intersection in the MCCH Business survey. That store was in the six-story building on the northeast corner of the intersection, about four stores north of the corner. The white-owned A & P chain had nine grocery stores in Harlem, and James Butler, the other white-owned grocery chain with stores in Harlem, had seven stores in the MCCH Business survey. The only reference to the looting is a Home News report of the appearance in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court of three Black men, twenty-eight-year-old Raymond Taylor, forty-two-year-old Preston White, and fifty-year-old Joseph Payne. White and Payne allegedly smashed the store window and took food. Taylor was arrested "stealing a quantity of groceries." All three men were arrested "in the store." Officer Archbold of the 30th Precinct is recorded as having arrested White and Payne, and Officer D. Conn of the 24th Precinct as having arrested Taylor, in the Magistrates Court docket book. There is no mention of the value of the merchandise the men allegedly stole. Only one other reported event occurred on Lenox Avenue north of West 135th Street, the arrests of Charles Alston, Edward Loper, Albert Yergen, and Ernest Johnston for allegedly shooting at police at 138th Street at the very end of the disorder. As on the blocks of Lenox Avenue south of 135th Street, more than three-quarters of the businesses on the block containing the grocery store were white-owned.

Taylor, White, and Payne appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20, charged with burglary. No complainant was listed. When the three men returned to the Magistrates Court on March 26, the charge against them was reduced from burglary to disorderly conduct. Magistrate Ford convicted all three men and sentenced White and Payne each to five months and twenty-nine days in the Workhouse and suspended Taylor's sentence. There is no information on why Taylor received a different sentence.

If the looted store was the A & P store at 510 Lenox Avenue, it continued in business after the disorder, appearing in both the MCCH Business survey in the second half of 1935 and the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.
Grocery store on West 137th Street looted Sometime during the disorder the grocery store at 1 West 137th Street, close to the northwest corner of 5th Avenue, was looted. That store was visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941. The two stores in the foreground were not part of 3 West 137th Street but part of a different building that fronted 5th Avenue which would have had the address 1 West 137th Street. One of those businesses had a sign identifying it as a grocery store. The MCCH Business survey in the second half of 1935 included only one store at 1 West 137th Street, a black-owned stationery store that was likely the storefront to the left of the grocery store in the Tax Department photograph. The survey identified the store at 3 West 137th Street, immediately to the left of the triangle on the sign in the Tax Department photograph, as a black-owned grocery store that the investigator described as a "Fairly well supplied store. Has been here 8 years." That was not the grocery store reportedly looted.

When Elva Jacobs, an eighteen-year-old Black woman, appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20 charged with burglary, the Home News added the details that she had "broken a store window at 1 W. 137th St. and taken groceries." No complainant was recorded in the docket book, nor is the name of the store-owner recorded after the disorder by the MCCH investigator. Officer L. W. Adamie of the 46th Precinct arrested Jacobs. He also arrested Courtney Marsh, a thirty-nine-year-old Black man who appeared in court immediately after Jacobs, facing the same charge of burglary. Based on other cases recorded in the docket book, that indicates that Marsh was also arrested for looting the grocery store, but he is not mentioned in the Home News story on the arraignments in the court, nor does he appear in the list of those arrested in the disorder in which Jacobs appeared. Given that absence, and without a complainant recorded in the docket book to confirm a link between the two, Marsh was not included among those arrested during the disorder. Magistrate Ford sent Jacobs to the Court of Special Sessions; there is no evidence of the outcome of her trial.

No details survive of the scale of damage done to the grocery store. While it was not in the MCCH Business survey, that there was a grocery store visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941 suggests that the store may have continued to operate after the disorder.
Raymond Taylor arrested Officer D. Conn of the 24th Precinct arrested twenty-eight-year-old Raymond Taylor some time during the disorder for "stealing a quantity of groceries from a chain store at 135th St. and Lenox Ave," according to a story in the Home News. The store was likely the A & P grocery store at 510 Lenox Avenue, the only chain grocery store near that intersection in the MCCH business survey. The only reference to the looting was the Home News report of the appearance in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court of Taylor and two other Black men, forty-two-year-old Preston White and fifty-year-old Joseph Payne. White and Payne allegedly smashed the store window and took food. All three men were arrested "in the store." Officer Archbold of the 30th Precinct, not Officer Conn, was recorded as having arrested White and Payne in the Magistrates Court docket book. There was no mention of the value of the merchandise the men allegedly stole. Only one other reported event occurred on Lenox Avenue north of West 135th Street, the arrests of Charles Alston, Edward Loper, Albert Yergen, and Ernest Johnston for allegedly shooting at police at 138th Street at the very end of the disorder. Police likely arrested the three mwn after 12:30 AM, when officers appear to have begun patrolling this far north on Lenox Avenue. Taylor lived at 2228 5th Avenue, a block east of the grocery store.

Taylor, White and Payne appeared in the lists of those charged with burglary in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the New York Evening Journal. When they appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20, the charge against them was originally recorded as burglary. The magistrate denied Payne and White bail and Taylor held on bail of $1,000. The Home News mistakenly reported different bail decisions for Taylor and Payne: $500 for Taylor and $1,500 for Payne. No complainant was listed in the docket book.

The three men returned to the Magistrates Court on March 26, at which point all had the charge against them reduced from burglary to disorderly conduct. That change was recorded in the docket book in the same handwriting as the outcome of the case, a quite different hand than the original entry. The new charge indicated that police did not have evidence either that the men had damaged the store or taken merchandise from it. Instead, typically those who faced that charge had been part of crowds in the area of attacks on businesses and looting. Police could have found them in the damaged and looted store, if the Home News reported that detail of their arrest accurately.

Magistrate Ford convicted all three men, and suspended Taylor's sentence, an outcome in keeping with him being part of a crowd. Only a block for his home, Taylor may have been one of the crowds of residents watching the events of the disorder. However, Ford sentenced White and Payne each to the Workhouse for five months and twenty-nine days, one of the longer terms given to individuals convicted as participants in the disorder. There was no information on why Taylor received a different sentence, but it was likely that the other men had clashed with police in some way.
Preston White arrested Officer Archbold of the 30th Precinct arrested forty-two-year-old Preston White sometime during the disorder for smashing the store window and taking food from "a chain store at 135th St. and Lenox Ave," according to a story in the Home News. The store was likely the A & P grocery store at 510 Lenox Avenue, the only chain grocery store near that intersection in the MCCH business survey. The only reference to the looted business is a Home News report of the appearance in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court of White and two other Black men, twenty-eight-year-old Raymond Taylor and fifty-year-old Joseph Payne. Like White, Payne allegedly smashed the store window and took food, whereas Taylor was arrested for "stealing a quantity of groceries." All three men were arrested "in the store." While Officer Archbold also arrested Payne, Officer D. Conn of the 24th Precinct is recorded as having arrested Taylor in the Magistrates Court docket book. There is no mention of the value of the merchandise the men allegedly stole. Only one other reported event occurred on Lenox Avenue north of West 135th Street, the arrests of Charles Alston, Edward Loper, Albert Yergen, and Ernest Johnston for allegedly shooting at police at 138th Street at the very end of the disorder. Police likely arrested While after 12:30 AM, when officers appear to have begun patrolling this far north on Lenox Avenue. White lived at 26 West 134th Street, a block south and east of the grocery store.

White, Payne, and Taylor appeared in the lists of those charged with burglary in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the New York Evening Journal. When they appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20, the charge against them was originally recorded as burglary, with White and Payne denied bail, and Taylor held on bail of $1,000. The Home News mistakenly reported different bail decisions for Taylor and Payne: $500 for Taylor and $1,500 for Payne. No complainant is listed in the docket book.

The three men returned to the Magistrates Court on March 26, at which point all had the charges against them reduced from burglary to disorderly conduct. That change is recorded in the docket book in the same handwriting as the outcome of the case, a quite different hand than the original entry. The new charge indicated that police did not have evidence either that the men had damaged the store or taken merchandise from it. Instead, typically those who faced that charge had been part of crowds in the area of attacks on businesses and looting. Police could have found them in the damaged and looted store, if the Home News reported that detail of their arrest accurately.

Magistrate Ford convicted all three men, sending White and Payne to the Workhouse for five months and twenty-nine days, and suspending Taylor's sentence. There is no information on why Taylor received a different sentence.
Joseph Payne arrested Officer Archbold of the 30th Precinct arrested fifty-year-old Joseph Payne some time during the disorder for smashing the store window and taking food from "a chain store at 135th St. and Lenox Ave," according to a story in the Home News. The store was likely the A & P grocery store at 510 Lenox Avenue, the only chain grocery store near that intersection in the MCCH business survey. The only reference to the looting is a Home News report of the appearance in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court of Payne and two other Black men, twenty-eight-year-old Raymond Taylor and forty-two-year-old Preston White. Like Payne, White allegedly smashed the store window and took food, whereas Taylor was arrested for "stealing a quantity of groceries." All three men were arrested "in the store." While Officer Archbold also arrested White, Officer D. Conn of the 24th Precinct is recorded as having arrested Taylor in the Magistrates Court docket book. There is no mention of the value of the merchandise the men allegedly stole. Only one other reported event occurred on Lenox Avenue north of West 135th Street, the arrests of Charles Alston, Edward Loper, Albert Yergen, and Ernest Johnston for allegedly shooting at police at 138th Street at the very end of the disorder. Police likely arrested Payne after 12:30 AM, when officers appear to have begun patrolling this far north on Lenox Avenue. Payne lived at 28 East 128th Street, on Harlem's eastern boundary and much farther from the grocery store than Taylor or White.

Payne, White, and Taylor appeared in the lists of those charged with burglary in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and in the New York Evening Journal. When they appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20, the charge against them was originally recorded as burglary, with Payne and White denied bail, and Taylor held on bail of $1,000. The Home News mistakenly reported Payne as younger, twenty-three years-of-age, and different bail decisions for Payne and Taylor: $1,500 for Payne and $500 for Taylor.

The three men returned to the Magistrates Court on March 26, at which point all had the charge against them reduced from burglary to disorderly conduct. That change is recorded in the docket book in the same handwriting as the outcome of the case, a quite different hand than the original entry. The new charge indicated that police did not have evidence either that the men had damaged the store or taken merchandise from it. Instead, typically those who faced that charge had been part of crowds in the area of attacks on businesses and looting. Police could have found them in the damaged and looted store, if the Home News reported that detail of their arrest accurately.

Magistrate Ford convicted all three men, sending Payne and White to the Workhouse for five months and twenty-nine days, and suspending Taylor's sentence. There is no information on why Taylor received a different sentence.