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

"Negro Harlem Terrorized," Daily Worker, March 21, 1935, 1, 2.

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Sam Jameson, Murray Samuels and Claudio Viabolo arrested Shortly after 6.45 PM, Patrolman Timothy Shannon and other officers arrested two nineteen-year-old white men, Sam Jameson and Murray Samuels, and Claudio Viabolo, a thirty-nine-year-old Black man, who were picketing in front of Kress’ store at 256 West 125th Street. The three men had arrived a few minutes earlier, likely from 262 Lenox Avenue, the offices of the organization to which they belonged, the Young Liberators. The placards they carried read “Kress Brutally Beats and Seriously Injures Negro Child and Negro Women. Negro and White Don’t Buy Here” and “Kress Brutally Beats Negro Child.” An officer “told or asked [the men] to stop marching in front of Kress'," Patrolman Moran told a public hearing of the MCCH and when they did not leave “after about five minutes," police arrested them for unlawful assembly. Jackson Smith, the store manager, watched the arrest from inside the store. “The police took the placards and pushed the people carrying them into the vestibule,” he told a later public hearing. Around thirty minutes earlier, Patrolman Shannon had arrested another man in front of the store, twenty-year-old white man, Daniel Miller, pulling him down from a stepladder when he tried to speak to a crowd. A few minutes later, around 6.30 PM, other officers, including Patrolman Irwin Young, arrested a second white man, Harry Gordon, when tried to speak to the crowd by climbing a lamppost on 125th Street east of Kress’ store.

The testimony of Moran and Smith in the public hearings provide the only details of the arrests of Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo. The men themselves did not testify. Patrolman Shannon did testify, but was not asked about any of the arrests he made. Newspaper stories on the arrests grouped the men with Miller, and in some cases, Gordon, reflecting information from police that they had acted together to create the disorder. Two Hearst newspapers, the New York American and New York Evening Journal, published stories that described the arrest, but they included details that testimony in the public hearings indicate did not happen: Jameson and Samuels arrived with Miller and Gordon, not after them, in the newspaper narrative, picketed before Miller spoke, and with Harry Gordon came to Miller’s aid when he was arrested, battling Shannon and two other patrolmen before also being arrested. Viabolo was not on the picket line in those stories, but in the Am was a member of the crowd who joined in efforts to prevent Miller’s arrest. Although the newspapers said their information came from police, the elements that did not happen seem to be a product of the anti-communist stance and sensational style of the Hearst newspapers. The NYT and, somewhat surprisingly, the DW, also published narratives in which the men picketed before Miller spoke, but without details of their arrest. The NYT simply reported that the arrest of Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo, and Miller, came “later,” after Miller spoke. The DW did not report specific arrests, but rather that “police broke up the picket line, arresting the leaders.”

Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo all appeared in the lists of those arrested during the disorder published by the AA etc, the NYEJ, the DN, the Am and the HT, among those charged with inciting a riot. However, the white men, Jameson and Samuels, as well as Miller and Gordon, are not in the transcription of the 28th Precinct Police blotter in the MCCH records. Viabolo did appear, with Margaret Mitchell, the Black woman arrested inside Kress' store. That discrepancy suggests that the white men were omitted from the transcription, perhaps overlooked because they were somehow less readily identified as participants in the disorder among others arrested for unrelated activities at that time. It may be that the charges against those men were not recorded as riot. The charge against Viabolo in the blotter is disorderly conduct, with the note that he was “Disorderly in Kress’ 5 & 10c store,” the same description recorded for Margaret Mitchell.

In a line-up on the morning of March 20 that included ninety-six of those arrested disorder, police put Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo in a group with Miller and Gordon, a New York Herald Tribune story noted. Police described the men as all "arrested at a demonstration in front of the Kress store." That grouping was not mentioned in the two other newspaper stories about the line-up, in the Daily Mirror and New York Sun. An unnamed Black man, presumably Viabolo, was quoted in the New York Sun “giving his version of the start of the trouble:” "We were picketing in front of the store. I heard that a child had been killed inside. I thought it ought to be called to the attention of the public, about the child being killed.” The man then told the officer questioning him that he “and his companions took turns on a soap box “informing the public.”” That last detail was not part of any other description of the picketing. The two other newspaper stories on the line-up did not include Viabolo’s comments, but focused, as the New York Sun did, on Harry Gordon’s exchange with police, in which he refused to answer questions until he saw his lawyer.

The Daily News, New York American and New York Evening Journal published photographs taken a few seconds apart that are captioned as showing the four white men arrested outside Kress’ store in the West 123rd Street police station on their way to the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20. Surrounded on three sides by both uniformed police and detectives in plainclothes, three white men are visible, with another white man party visible behind them, all but the first, identified as Harry Gordon, looking at the ground. On the right of the image is a Black man, almost certainly Viabolo as police had grouped him with these men in the line-up earlier that day, and would again in the courthouse. He is unmentioned in the captions, and, perhaps as a result, cropped out of versions of the photograph published by several regional newspapers. Reflecting its anti-communist focus, the New York Evening Journal placed the photograph on page one, across the whole width of the page, with a caption labeling the men “young college-bred Communists.” The next page featured photographs of two placards used in the picket, and the leaflets circulated by both the Young Liberators and the Communist Party. The Daily News photograph, taken at almost the same moment, appeared in the center of a two page spread of photographs of the disorder in the center of the newspaper. The caption did not identify the men as Communists but as inciting the riot, focusing on drawing a contrast between their uninjured appearances and the damage done during the disorder (Gordon later testified he had been beaten and had injuries to his face; he may be the man whose face was not visible in that photograph notwithstanding the caption).

Police continued to group Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo with Miller and Gordon when they were appeared in Harlem Magistrates Court. In stories on the court appearances, the New York American, Home News, New York Herald Tribune, and New York Times all described the men as the "ringleaders" of the disorder, which was likely the term police used. However, while the Daily News, New York Herald Tribune, New York World-Telegram and Daily Mirror included all five men in that group, the New York American, Home News, and New York Times omitted Gordon. That difference appears to have resulted from Gordon being arraigned separately from the three Young Liberators and Miller. That separation would have resulted from the different arresting officer listed in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book for Gordon, Patrolman Irwin Young, not Patrolman Shannon, the arresting officer recorded for the four other men. The charge recorded for Gordon was also different, assaulting Young, not inciting riot. The Daily News claimed Gordon "was heard separately when he indicated that he would produce his own lawyers."

When the court clerk called the names of Jameson, Samuels, Viabolo and Miller were called, two lawyers from the International Labor Defense Fund rose to represent them. The appearance of those attorneys was reported by the New York American, Daily Mirror, Home News, Daily News, New York Herald Tribune, New York Times, New York World-Telegram and Daily Worker but for some reason they were not recorded in the column for the name and address of a defendant's lawyer in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book. The ILD's affiliation with the Communist Party would have been well-known to readers of those newspapers, but the Daily Mirror explicitly made the connection in its story, stating that the men's "Communistic affiliations were declared" by the identity of their attorneys. The Daily Mirror and Daily Worker named the lawyers as Miss Yetta M. Aronsky and I[sidore] Englander, while the Daily News named only Aronsky, and the New York American, New York Herald Tribune and New York Times reported only "a woman lawyer" who would not give her name to their reporters. (Englander later testified about being present in the court in a public hearing of the MCCH).

Assistant District Attorney Richard E. Carey, the Black attorney Magistrate Renaud had requested prosecute those arrested in the disorder, according to the Daily News, requested the men be held for a hearing on Friday on the maximum bail of $2500. The men's lawyers protested that sum. Other arrested during the disorder charged with felonies had their bail set at $1000, including Harry Gordon. Magistrate Renaud dismissed those protests, and complaints by Aronsky, reported by the Daily News and Daily Worker, that the men "had not been fed by police following their arrest."

When Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo returned to the Harlem Magistrates Court with Miller, Magistrate Ford dismissed the charges against the group because they had already appeared before the grand jury. The Magistrates Court docket book recorded the deposition of the men's cases as "Dism[issed], def[endant] indicted." Stories in the Home News, Daily Mirror and New York Amsterdam News also reported that they had been indicted by the grand jury. However, while the grand jury did send the men for trial, it was for a misdemeanor not a felony, so an information not an indictment, and to the Court of Special Sessions not the Court of General Sessions. Other newspaper stories included elements of that distinction. The New York American reported that after being discharged the men were "turned over to detectives with bench warrants based on the Grand Jury informations voted last week charging inciting to riot." The New York Herald Tribune also reported "two informations charging five persons with inciting riot" without naming them; so too did the Daily News, which alone specified that an information charged a misdemeanor and that the men were sent for trial in the Court of Special Sessions. The grand jury also sent all the other individuals charged with inciting a riot that appeared before it to the Court of Special Sessions to face trial for misdemeanors. If the men were being prosecuted for the form of the crime defined as a misdemeanor, unlawful assembly, their crime was being treated as involving disturbing the peace not efforts to prevent the enforcement of the law or incite force or violence.

As other prosecutions resulting from the riot made their way through the courts there were no reports mentioning Jamison, Samuels and Viabolo, or Miller. Finally, on June 20, the four men appeared in the Court of Special Sessions. The New York Amsterdam News reported an additional defendant, a "young sympathizer," Dave Mencher, not mentioned in any other sources, or in the Daily Worker story, the only other report of this trial located. Only one prosecution witness testified before the court's three judges, Sergeant Bauer of the West 123rd Street station (likely the sergeant who testified at the public hearings that he was involved in the arrest, although his name was recorded as Bowe in the transcript). It is not clear why Patrolman Timothy Shannon, the arresting officer, did not appear as a witness. International Labor Defense lawyers again represented the men, but not the same attorneys as the day after the disorder. Instead, Joseph Tauber and Edward Kuntz, who played prominent roles in the MCCH public hearings, represented the men. After cross-examining Bauer to establish that a crowd had collected in front of Kress' prior to the men arriving, they moved to have the charges dismissed. The judges agreed, and freed Jameson, Samuels and Viabolo, as well as Miller.

Claudio Viabolo lived in Harlem, at 202 West 132nd Street; the two white men did not. Sam Jameson lived at 967 East 178th Street in Washington Heights, north of the Black neighborhood, although when a reporter from the New York Evening Journal went to the address the tenants denied knowing him. Murray Samuels lived at 8621 Twentieth Avenue, Brooklyn. However, he was not a student at City College, as the New York Evening Journal reported on March 21. A week later the New York Evening Journal acknowledged that the Murray Samuels a reporter had identified as attending evening classes was not the man arrested during the disorder, in a story headlined, "Far From Red, and RIiot! Says C. C. N. Y. Man."

Claudio Viabolo’s name was spelled in a variety of ways in these sources. Viabolo is used here as it was recorded in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, and in stories about his appearances in the Harlem Magistrates Court published in the 1935_03_30_AA_12; 1935_03_21_NYDN_3; 1935_03_25_NYP_3; 1935_03_21_NYHT_2; 1935_03_21_American_2; 1935_03_21_HN; 1935_03_25_NYS_2; 1935_03_21_NYT_1; 1935_03_21_American; 1935_03_30_NYA_1; 1935_03_22_NYP_1. The name was spelled Diabolo in the list of those arrested in the disorder published in the AA, AW and NJG, and stories in 1935_03_20_WT; 1935_03_20_NYJ_1. In the edition the NYA rushed to print on March 23, the name was Bilo. In the DW on March 21, the name was Viano. Sam Jameson's name was also misspelled, but was not corrected over time as Viabolo's name was. Jameson is used here as it was recorded in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, and in stories published in 1935_03_20_NYJ_1; 1935_03_20_NYT_1; 1935_03_20_NYP_1; 1935_03_20_NYHT_1; and stores about court appearances published in the 1935_03_21_HN; and 1935_03_25_NYS_2. The name was spelled Jamieson in the 1935_03_20_NYDN_6; 1935_03_21_NYDN_3; 1935_03_27_AW_1; 1935_03_30_NJ&G_18; 1935_03_20_American_1;.
Empire Cafeteria windows not broken The Empire Cafeteria at 306 Lenox Avenue, midway between 125th and 126th Streets, escaped damage, according to a white eye-witness quoted in a story in the Daily Worker. No other source mentioned the restaurant. The eyewitness grouped the Empire Cafeteria with Koch's department store as businesses "not molested" as they had been "forced to employ Negroes as a result of recent struggles." Koch's manager told a reporter for the New York Age that his store escaped damage.

The Daily Worker had reason to draw attention to the Empire Cafeteria, as it was a campaign by the Communist Party, rather than the Black-led Citizen's League for Fair Play, that led to the owner hiring Black staff in September 1934. Committed to interracial action and goals, the Communist Party had found itself at odds with the boycott movement's focus on obtaining jobs for Black workers. When the question of who would get the positions at Blumstein's department store that the boycott movement won splintered the coalition that made up the Citizen's League, the Communist Party took the opportunity to step into the fight against job discrimination on their terms. The Empire Cafeteria was a carefully chosen target. Historian Mark Naison found that white workers in the restaurant had already been organized by the Party, which worked to have them formulate common demands with the picketers that included hiring Black countermen alongside shorter hours and better conditions. Support from the restaurant's customers was also likely, Naison found, as many came from a home relief bureau on 124th Street that that Party had helped unionize.
Koch Department store windows not broken Koch's Department store at 132 West 125th Street "was unmolested" during the disorder, according to Morris Weinstein, the manager, interviewed after the disorder by a reporter for the New York Age. He called that "action of the mob" "one of the finest tributes that could be paid Koch's." For Weinstein, the reason his store had no windows broken or stock taken was that "since we reopened last May we have consistently striven to give not only jobs but positions as well to colored men and women." A "white worker, eye-witness for several hours of the scene along 125th Street and Seventh Avenue" also referred to Koch's store as "not molested," when interviewed in the Daily Worker, similarly explaining that situation as a result of the owners having been "forced to employ Negroes as a result of recent struggles. One Black employee, James Hughes, did tell his Probation officer that he was on his way to Koch's store to protect it from the crowds breaking windows when he was arrested for allegedly throwing a stone that hit Detective Henry Roge in front of Kress' store. That claim may have reflected an effort to mitigate his sentence more than a widely shared recognition that the store warranted special treatment. The absence of damage to the store, if not the motive for it, were also indirectly confirmed by the La Prensa reporter who walked along this block of 125th Street recording store with damaged windows, and did not include Koch's Department store in their list. There were significantly fewer damaged stores reported in 125th Street east of 7th Avenue than in the block to the west, but several of those businesses were near Koch's department store: the Busch Kredit jewelry store two buildings east was the only store on the La Prensa reporter's list on that side of the department store; to the west of the store, the Hobbs dress shop at 150 West 125th Street also had windows broken (The large white-owned Ludwig Baumann furniture store between the dress shop and Koch's store ws not listed as being damaged).

Henry Koch opened the store in 1891, the first major business in what had until then been a residential area. In 1930, Henry's son William T. Koch had sold the department store, to A. Schaap and Sons, clothing jobbers, the New York Times reported. While that story quoted Koch as obliquely saying that the closing of the store was "but another token of the changed neighborhood," the New York Age more directly stated that as Black residents moved to the area, he showed them an "antagonistic attitude" and the store "became more and more exclusive, catering to the wealthier white residents," losing "so much trade they were forced out of business." The new owners operated it as "the 125th Street Store," which advertisements in the New York Amsterdam News indicate operated at least in part as a discount store, selling the stock of bankrupt businesses.

Morris Weinstein leased the store in 1934, operating it under the Koch name. Shortly before the renovated store opened on June 14, Weinstein announced "a third of his clerical staff will be colored," the New York Age reported. That decision came just as a new wave of picketing and boycotts targeting white-owned businesses on West 125th Street that did not employ Black staff began. Sufi Abdul Hamid and members of his Negro Industrial and Clerical Alliance had begun picketing the Woolworths 5c & 10c store a block west at 210 West 125th Street in mid-May, 1934, making their way on to the pages of the New York Amsterdam News when prominent clergyman Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was photographed after he joined them two weeks later. Hamid's radicalism prompted an alliance of social and political organizations, fraternal lodges and churches to come together in the Citizens League for Fair Play (CLFP), first targeting Blumstein's Department store with a boycott and picket campaign. Against that backdrop, the New York Age, a staunch proponent of the CLFP, reported Weinstein's decision to hire Black staff as a result of "admitting the justice of the Negro's demand that employment be given qualified Negroes in Harlem stores where the majority of the trade is colored." West Indian writer and social commentator Claude McKay presented Weinstein as motivated more by self-interest, that "the employment of colored clerks might effect not only better relations between white employers and colored consumers, but also bugger business." McKay added the rumor, "never admitted by either side," that Weinstein struck "a secret agreement that the Negro Industrial and Clerical Alliance should boost [Koch's Department store] among the people of Harlem." The New York Age claimed the role of selecting staff for the organizations it supported. One New York Age story, refuting attacks on the tactics of the CLFP by William H. Davies, identified Miller of the African Patriotic League as "the man chosen to select the Negro personell [sic] of Koch's." That organization took a leading role in organizing the pickets for the CLFP campaign. A week later, Vere Johns, a columnist for the New York Age, claimed Rev. Johnson, the leader of the CLFP, and the African Vanguard, helped choose the staff.

After Blumstein agreed to hire Black staff in August 1934, Weinstein more prominently promoted the Black staff of Koch's store. Where the first advertisements for Weinstein's store somewhat generically announced that it was a "New Store; New Deal, New People; New Policy, The Store With a Heart," an August advertisement more directly addressed how different its staffing was to its neighbors on 125th Street, with a banner that read "We Lead For Fair Play! Let Others Follow! There is No Distinction of Race, Creed or Color at H. C. F. Koch & Co." That same month Weinstein told the New York Amsterdam News that the store had fifty-seven Black sales girls, stock men, porters and elevator men in a staff of 125 employees, at least four or five times the proportion of Black employees as any other business on 125th Street that spoke to the reporter. Among the more prominent activities Weinstein undertook to further expand his appeal to Black shoppers was a "Three Day Scottsboro Rally" in November 1934, with a percentage of the sales receipts donated to the defense of the Scottsboro Boys.

In 1937 Koch's store was sold to Samuel Kanter, who reopened it "redecorated, renovated and modernized" in April 1937 as Kanter's Department Store, a promotional story in New York Amsterdam News reported. He expected "to create more and better jobs for the people in the community," Kanter told the newspaper, going on to say "at the present time, I am in favor of employing at least twenty-five percent Negro help, perhaps more." The store does not appear to have promoted its Black staff to the same extent Weinstein had, as when a new wave of protests began in 1938, a spokesman contacted the New York Amsterdam News "seeking to clarify any mis-apprehension as to the number of Negro employees in their store." The list provided to the newspaper identified nearly thirty Black staff, "most of whom were employed in the same capacities as others." It is Kanter's Department store that was photographed by the Tax Department between 1939 and 1941.