General Meat & Grocery Market, 2214 7th Avenue, c. 1939-1941.
1 media/nynyma_rec0040_1_01936_0035_thumb.jpg 2024-06-02T01:59:40+00:00 Stephen Robertson a1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bf 1 2 Source: DOF: Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos (New York City Municipal Archives). plain 2024-06-02T02:00:00+00:00 nynyma_rec0040_1_01936_0035 20180307 134001+0000 Stephen Robertson a1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bfThis page has tags:
- 1 2023-12-13T11:08:55+00:00 Anonymous Department of Finance, Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos: 7th Avenue Anonymous 4 plain 2023-12-13T16:17:45+00:00 Anonymous
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General Meat & Grocery Store looted
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Around 12.35 AM, as Fred Campbell, a thirty-two-year-old Black man, collected the day's receipts from his barber's shop at 2213 7th Avenue, he told MCCH staff he saw the show window of the "Butcher shop located at 7th Ave and 131 Street S.W. corner" opposite his store being broken. The building on that corner is 2214 7th Avenue. In the MCCH business survey the business at that address is the General Meat & Grocery Store, a grocery store, not simply a butcher's shop. The investigator described it as a "Large corner store operated by Italians. One Negro clerk. Large display on sidewalks." That business is still present in the Tax Department photograph of 2214 7th Avenue, taken between 1939 and 1941, with a sign reading General Food Market.
While Campbell watched, "some negroes were taking hams from the windows," with "no police in sight." This looting does not seem to have been part of a broader wave of attacks. Campbell had driven up 7th Avenue to get to his shop, and told the MCCH staff that about 12:30 AM beginning at 121st Street, he saw store windows being broken and police attempting to disperse crowds on both sides of the avenue up to at least 123rd Street. He did not mention any violence further north, but did see stores with broken windows up to 127th Street. Beyond that point, in the four blocks before he arrived at his store near 131st Street, Campbell apparently did not see any signs of damage or clashes involving police, nor was anyone attacking the grocery store when he entered his shop. This was the only reported looting on 7th Avenue north of 128th Street. That may be because the majority of the businesses on the blocks north of 127th Street were Black-owned at the time of the MCCH business survey, after the disorder, including the block on which the General Meat & Grocery Store was located. The opposite side of the next block, between 131st and 132nd Street, was home to the Lafayette Theater, a nightclub and several restaurants, which likely meant that there were more people on the street here at this time than other parts of 7th Avenue.
About five minutes after Campbell saw the store being attacked, police arrived. Campbell then continued to his second shop, further up the street at 2259 7th Avenue. His statement made no mention of what happened at the grocery store after police arrived. The statement is a summary of what he said, not a transcript. No other sources mention any arrests at that address, although there are no details of the circumstances that led to the arrest of twenty-nine of those charged with burglary. Nor are there any sources that describe damage to the store. Police were patrolling the avenue in cars around this time. Approximately ten minutes later, a police officer would shoot and kill Lloyd Hobbs three blocks to the south, having seen a crowd in front of a damaged automobile parts store while driving up 7th Avenue in a patrol car. It seems likely that that police who arrived at the grocery store similarly came by car, and caused the crowd to disperse, with officers unable to catch and arrest any of those looting the store. Those officers would have soon after returned to patrolling the avenue, leaving the store vulnerable to further looting later in the disorder.
