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

James Smitten arrested

Patrolman Gross of the 23rd Precinct arrested James Smitten, a twenty-five-year-old Black man, for allegedly beating William Kitlitz, a white mail clerk, in front of Kress' store on 125th Street. Dr Russell of Harlem Hospital attended Smitten at 8.45 PM at the 28th Precinct on West 123rd Street, after his arrest, a Medical Attendance record indicated, so the alleged assault took place before that, likely around 8.30 PM. Smitten’s arrest occurred early enough on March 19 that he was arraigned that evening, in the Night Court, the New York Herald Tribune reported, one of three who appeared in that court mentioned in the story. The story did not mention when the men were arrested.

The Medical Attendance record described Smitten's injuries as "lacerations of scalp which he received in some unknown manner." Those injuries could have come in a struggle with Kitlitz, or at the hands of police during or after his arrest, as was the case with Harry Gordon and the unidentified men photographed with bandages on their heads being taken to court. Other than that record there was no other evidence of Smitten's injury; he did not appear in any newspaper's list of the injured. Kitlitz, however, did appear in two lists of the injured in the press, but there was no record of him receiving medical treatment. A list in the New York American described him as "beaten on head," while the Daily News reported he had “bruises on face.”

Only two sources connect Smitten and Kitlitz. The hospital record identifies Smitten as having been arrested for assaulting Kitlitz. Only the story in the New York Herald Tribune describes the assault. In addition, Smitten appears in lists of those arrested for assault in the Afro-American, Atlanta World, Norfolk Journal and Guide, New York Evening Journal, and Daily News. His name is misspelled as Smith in the New York Herald Tribune and as Smithner in the Daily News. (Another man named James Smith was arrested during the disorder, for robbery. Smith lived at a different address than Smitten, and was younger, but was confused with Smitten and given Smitten’s address in reports in the New York American and Daily News).

Smitten’s arrest occurred early enough on March 19 that he was charged with assault and arraigned that evening, in the Night Court. The New York Herald Tribune reported Magistrate Capshaw remanded him for investigation until Saturday, March 23, but he is not in the Magistrates Court docket book on that day, and there is no record of the outcome of his prosecution. One of the two other men mentioned in the New York Herald Tribune as arraigned with Smitten, an eighteen-year-old white man named Leo Smith, did appear in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20. The other man, Claudius Jones, was convicted and sentenced in the Night Court on March 19.

 

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