This page was created by Anonymous. 

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

MCCH Meeting (April 30, 1935)

The only source for the MCCH meeting on April 30 are the minutes. Much of what was recorded of Hays' report for the subcommittee on crime concerned a request that the MCCH appoint a committee to investigate the recent arrest and trial of Charles Romney, which had been brought to the MCCH's attention at their meeting the previous week.

The meeting must also have discussed the cases of Thomas Aiken and Lloyd Hobbs and the failure of staff from the Kress store to testify, as the MCCH voted that letters be sent about those topics. With the grand jury already having dismissed the case against Patrolman McInerney for killing Hobbs, the letter in that case could only ask that the police department bring disciplinary charges against McInerney, the only action still possible with the evidence gathered by the MCCH. (In the Aiken case, the letter asked for the evidence to be presented to a grand jury as well as a police department hearing.) In the case of the Kress store, as the MCCH's efforts had "failed to secure the full co-operation" of the staff, they voted to go above their heads and write to the company's management. They asked that the store manager, Jackson Smith, be instructed to appear at the May 4th hearing.

The other item of business relevant to the investigation of the events of the disorder was a letter from E. Franklin Frazier accepting the position leading the MCCH survey of conditions in Harlem. The MCCH decided to have Frazier present his plans at their next meeting, marking the beginning of shift in their focus from the disorder to the neighborhood.

This page has tags:

This page references: