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Irving Stekin's grocery store looted
The Pathe newsreel included footage of 371 Lenox Avenue taken the day after the disorder that shows the sign identifying it as a "Cut Rate Grocery," as the New York Post reported, not a stationery store as the New York Sun and New York World-Telegram had labeled Stekin's business. Both windows and the door have been blocked off with large planks of wood, and appeared to have been completely smashed. It is not possible to see the extent of damage within the store. A white man smoking a cigarette stands in front of the door, perhaps the thirty-six-year old, Russian born Stekin, facing the crowd walking along the sidewalk. The only details of the damage to Stekin's store was in newspaper stories about the civil suits against the city brought by white merchants. Stekin was not part of the group of twenty men who brought the first suits, but was mentioned in stories published at the end of July, by which time 106 merchants had filed suits. He appeared as an example because of the large sum of damages he sought, $2,068, as a result of which, the New York Sun reported, Stekin "is not in business anymore." Or at least not at that location. He also sued for damages to a second unspecified business, at 363 Lenox Avenue, four buildings to the south of the grocery store, according to the New York Times, where he was still in business when he registered for the draft in 1942. In 1930, the federal census records that Stekin had lived above the store at 363 Lenox Avenue, a building anomalous in this area of Harlem in being home to only white residents. The six other households included three headed by men who owned stores in Harlem later looted during the disorder. All three men joined Stekin in suing the city, William Gindin, Jacob Saloway, and Michael D'Agostino. There was no evidence of whether Stekin still lived there in 1935; Gindin at least had relocated to another building on Lenox Avenue by the time of the disorder.
After the city lost the civil case that went to trial to test the merchants' case, Stekin's actions for damages were one of seven cases taken to the Supreme Court to determine the city's liability. The damages claimed in those cases totaled $20,000, according to a report in the New York Times; Justice Shientag awarded a total of only $1,200. Stekin received the largest award, although newspaper stories disagreed on the amount. The New York Times identified the award as $550 for damages to both the stationery store and the business at 363 Lenox Avenue that he had valued at more than $2,000, while the New York Amsterdam News identified the award as $700. While the New York Times reported that the city would appeal the decisions, there was no evidence that happened. Consistent with the New York Sun report that Stekin was no longer in business at 371 Lenox Avenue after the disorder, the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935 recorded a Black-owned "Stationery Store & Religious Supplies" business at that address. That store too appeared to have gone out of business, as the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941 shows a grocery store at 371 Lenox Avenue.
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- "106 Suits Filed Under Mob Law in Harlem Riot," New York World-Telegram, July 23, 1935 [clipping].
- "Harlem Riots to Cost Dearly," New York Sun, July 23, 1935 [clipping].
- "Cops Not on Job, Say Harlem Suits," New York Post, July 23, 1935 [clipping].
- [Newsreel] "Aftermath of 1935 Harlem riot," Pathe Newsreels, 1935, 0:04 (Getty Images).
- US Census, 1930, Enumeration District 31-920, Sheet 10A-B, Manhattan, New York, New York (Ancestry.com).
- "7 Win Harlem Riot Suits," New York Times, March 5, 1936, 14.
- "City Loser in 7 'Riot' Suits," New York Amsterdam News, March 7, 1936, 1.
- Draft Registration Cards for New York City, 1940-1947, Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group 147, National Archives and Records Administration (Ancestry.com).
- "Harlem: Survey - Census Tracts #223-24 (28)," 1935, Roll 80, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).