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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 are no details of those events. That section of Lenox Avenue was one in which businesses suffered extensive damage and looting, based on the claims for damages made by owners. Levinson appears 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 includes 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 three 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 is identified as having stolen goods from the store.

Levinson 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, but based on those cases it was likely 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 appears at his address in the MCCH business survey in the second half of 1935; the Tax Department photographs did not include a clear view of the address.

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