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Investigations (March 30-April 5)
Hyman Glickstein, an attorney working with Hays, undertook the work of gathering other evidence for the hearing. His correspondence indicated that the investigation of the killing of Lloyd Hobbs was part of a shift in the subcommittee’s focus from the events of March 19 to police misconduct and brutality, which Hays described in the MCCH meeting on April 5. Letters to Inspector Di Martini and Commissioner Valentine, the District Attorney and Harlem and Bellevue hospitals asked for the records of six cases. Four cases involved men who died during the disorder, Hobbs and James Thompson, Andrew Lyons and August Miller. Questions about those cases had been raised during the testimony of Captain Rothengast at the hearing on March 30. The other two cases had not occurred during the disorder. Edward Laurie had died at the hands of police soon after the disorder, a case that had been widely reported in the press. Thomas Aiken, blind in one eye after a beating by police just over a week before the disorder, had been brought to the MCCH's attention by Rev, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., to who Aiken's mother had written. Glickstein asked that the police officers and physicians who had been involved in the cases be present at the next hearing. Witnesses to Aiken's beating and Laurie's family were also asked to be at the hearing.
Glickstein also wrote to the ILD lawyers James Tauber and Edward Kuntz and James Ford, Robert Minor and Carl Brodsky of the Communist Party seeking more cases, “all complaints of alleged police misconduct, not only on March 19th, but also on other occasions.” He told them to send him that information as soon as possible so he could have the police officers and physicians involved at the hearing. The requests continued the collaboration with the Communists that Hays had initiated the previous week. The Communist Party at some point send the MCCH the "Cases of Police Brutality , Discrimination and Mistreatment of Negroes in Harlem" in the Hays Papers. While that list of seventeen cases included Laurie, Aiken, and Frank Wells, an attack on an unidentified man, the arrest of a boy for lighting a fire in a school and the eviction of an interracial couple, it mostly consisted of clashes with police at Communist Party meetings and protests. Moreover, Glickstein wrote to Hays on April 4 that “evidence on behalf of the various persons arrested, shot or beaten seems to be considerably more difficult to obtain. I am, however, keeping at it, and I think that at least three or four of the cases, and, perhaps, more will be presented in complete detail before the Committee on Saturday.”
The requests for evidence from the Police Department were initially more successful. “You have my assurance that both the men and records will be made available to the Committee at its next hearing as well as subsequent meetings,” Valentine wrote to Glickstein. The day before hearing, DA Dodge intervened to disrupt the MCCH’s plans to have police officers testify. He directed police commanders to “instruct all police officers who may have cases pending not to reveal any of their testimony at any public hearing.” Those instructions restricted what police officers could say, not their ability to testify, so the officers requested to be present nonetheless attended the hearing. Hays read Dodge's letter to Commissioner Valentine, and his brief letter to Glickstein, the MCCH attorney, summarizing what he had instructed the Commissioner, at the beginning of the hearing, so those in attendance might know why police did not testify.
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- James Tartar, "Investigator's Report Re: The Shooting of Lloyd Hobbs by Patrolman McInerny on the Morning of 3/20/1935," "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 25, Folder 19, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University)
- James Tartar, "Interview with Howard Malloy and Arthur Moore, 213 W. 128th St.," (April 5, 1935), "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 25, Folder 19, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University)
- Public Hearings - Outbreak (March-April 1935), 80-81, Subject Files, Box 408, Folder 8 (Roll 194), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Arthur Garfield Hays to Eunice Carter, April 1, 1935, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 26, Folder 1, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- "Report of the Secretary for March 30th to April 5th inclusive," Subject Files, Box 383, Folder 10 (Roll 184), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Public Hearings - Outbreak (March-April 1935), 52-53, Subject Files, Box 408, Folder 8 (Roll 194), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Public Hearings - Outbreak (March-April 1935), 182-83, Subject Files, Box 408, Folder 8 (Roll 194), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
- James Tartar, "Interview with Asst. District Attorney Saul Price, 4-2-35," "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 25, Folder 19, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- Lewis Valentine to Hyman Glickstein, April 3, 1935, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 26, Folder 1, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).
- William Dodge to Lewis Valentine, April 5, 1935, "Harlem, Mayor's Commission on Conditions in," Box 26, Folder 1, Arthur Garfield Hays Papers (Princeton University).