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

Harry Levinson's store looted

Harry Levinson's store at 100 West 129th Street was looted during the disorder. There were no details of those events. That section of Lenox Avenue was one in which businesses suffered extensive damage and looting beginning around 11:30 PM; the intersection likely saw particularly extensive violence around 1:00 AM when Alice Mitchell and Hugh Young were injured by flying glass. Levinson appeared in lists of white business owners who brought the first twenty suits for damages against the city for the failure of police to protect their stores published in the New York Sun, New York World-Telegram, New York American, and New York Amsterdam News. The list included only a name, business address, and the amount of damages sought. The New York World-Telegram and New York American identified only those who filed the largest claims: Levinson's claim was the third largest.

By the time the city comptroller heard testimony from those who filed claims, 106 owners had sought damages. Levinson was mentioned in only one of the newspaper stories about that proceeding, with the New York Sun reporting that the "mob cleaned out" his store, but no other information. No one arrested for looting was identified as having stolen goods from the store.



Levinson's claim of $4,805 in damages was well above the median claim of $733. As the city lost repeatedly in court, he likely was awarded some amount of damages. However, based on the awards in those cases, what he likely would have received was only a small proportion of what he claimed. The New York Sun reported that he told the comptroller that he had been "forced to retire." No store appeared at his address in the MCCH business survey in the second half of 1935. The Tax Department photographs taken between 1939 and 1941 show a radio store and tailors store at the address.

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