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

Harry Piskin's laundry looted

Harry Piskin's laundry at 100 West 126th Street, just off Lenox Avenue, was first the target of stones, according to testimony he gave to the city Comptroller reported by the New York Sun. The intersection of West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, and the blocks of the avenue to the north were the site of multiple acts of violence and attacks on businesses during the disorder, but there is no clear evidence of when crowds would have first arrived at the laundry other than the report that looting of a store at the intersection started around 10.30 PM. The stones were eventually followed by a bullet fired into the show laundry's show window, Piskin testified, according to the New York Sun. The story quoted an exchange in which the Comptroller asked Piskin if he had heard other pistol shots; he answered "plenty." There are no other mentions of guns being fired in attacks on businesses; shooting is instead associated with police responding to looting. As in other stories about the disorder, shooting signifies a greater level of violence than stones being thrown. At issue in this case is the police response: the Comptroller's next question in the exchange reported by the New York Sun was "Did [the police] send protection?" Piskin answered, "they did not."

Instead, after the shot at the window, Piskin testified that "they looted his laundry, broke all of his machinery and drove him out of business." George's Lunch, the neighboring business on the corner of West 126th Street and Lenox Avenue, suffered similarly extensive damage. At some point he sought help. He first found a police officer a block away at the intersection of West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue: "Report it--I can't leave my post," the officer told him, according to the New York Post. He continued across town to the police station on West 123rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues: "Oh we know all about it," was the response there. Later, a police officer responded to Piskin's complaints about the lack of police protection by telling him, "My life is more important to me than your business is to you," testimony reported in the New York Post and New York World-Telegram. Piskin had joined other white merchants in suing the city for damages on the basis that police had not protected businesses, so he had an incentive to emphasize police failures. Nonetheless, the extent of the attacks on businesses and violence in this area, and the small number of arrests, most of which came several hours after crowds first arrived on the avenue, add weight to his complaint. No one arrested for looting was identified as taking goods from the laundry.

The only mention of the damage to Piskin's laundry is in newspaper stories about the civil suits against the city brought by white merchants. Piskin is part of the group of twenty who brought the first suits identified by the New York Sun, New York World-Telegram, New York American and New York Amsterdam News and is mentioned in stories published by the New York Sun, New York Post and New York World-Telegram at the end of July, by which time 106 merchants had filed suits. He appears as an example in those stories likely because he sought the largest damages, $14,125 (the next largest claim was for damage to the adjacent business, George's Lunch), well above the median reported claim of $733. The city lost the civil cases that went to trial to test the merchants' claims, so it is likely that Piskin received some damages. His was not among the seven awards made in March 1936 by the Supreme Court, which was responsible for large claims.

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