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

Loyola Williams arrested

Sometime during the disorder, Loyola Williams, a twenty-eight-year-old Black woman who lived at 301 West 130th Street was arrested and charged with burglary. Williams' name appeared among those charged with burglary in the list published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide and the list in the New York Evening Journal, which also included her age, race and address. However, Williams did not appear in 28th Precinct Police Blotter, the 32nd Precinct Police Reports, the docket book of either Magistrates Court or any newspaper stories, and there was no evidence of the location of the business that she allegedly looted. That was also the case with nine men who appeared only in the list published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide. Their failure to appear in court could mean that police questioned and released them the next day.

In the case of Loyola Williams, it was also possible that whoever compiled the list had confused her with another Black woman arrested during the disorder, Viola Woods, who was identified as Viola Williams in several sources. Both women were recorded as being twenty-eight-years of age and living at 301 West 130th Street. However, both Loyola Williams and Viola Williams appeared in the list published in Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and the list in the New York Evening Journal, with Viola Williams charged with malicious mischief. Viola Williams also appeared in the 28th Precinct Police blotter with the same age and address, and a note that recorded her alleged offense as using her umbrella to break a store window. However, when that woman appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court, the docket book, and stories about her two appearances in court in the New York Amsterdam News, Home News and New York Times, recorded her name as Viola Woods.

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