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

[Photograph] "This is how the front of a shoe store at 333 Lenox Ave. appears today," New York World-Telegram, March 20, 1935, 3.

Full caption: "This is how the front of a shoe store at 333 Lenox Ave. appears today. Rioters, in one of their mad sallies, wrecked the front of the place and scattered the contents of the windows. Many other stores were similarly damaged."

The photograph shows a store with a set of shoe windows on either side of a door set back from the street to create a small entrance flanked by displays. The poor quality microfilm image makes it difficult to see details, but both sets of windows appear to be entirely smashed and the displays emptied of merchandise. Debris is in the foreground, spread throughout the entrance way; it appears to include signs, shoe boxes, and sections of the displays.

In the New York World-Telegram

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William Gindin's shoe store looted Around 9:45 PM William Gindin locked up his business, William's Shoe Store, at 333 Lenox Avenue, according to the Magistrates Court affidavit, and presumably went home. Unusually for a white business owner, he lived in an apartment at 346 Lenox Avenue a block to the north. Crowds gathered on Lenox Avenue north of West 125th Street and began to smash store windows around 10:30 PM, when a group of men looted Towbin's Haberdashery at Lenox Avenue and West 125th Street. Gindin's store was targeted sometime soon after as one display window was already smashed and a large quantity of merchandise stolen by 11:20 PM, according to Patrolman Nador Herrman. At that time he allegedly saw Julian Rogers, a thirty-seven-year-old Black auto washer, kick in the other display window, take three odd women's shoes worth $1 each, and put them under his jacket. Herrman arrested Rogers about 100 feet from the store and recovered the shoes, according to the Magistrates Court affidavit.

Just over an hour later, at 12.30 AM, a crowd gathered in front of the shoe store and threw stones and other objects at the windows, breaking more of the glass, after which a police officer arrested John Kennedy Jones for allegedly both inciting the group and throwing stones. The multiple attacks combined to do significant damage to the shoe store. Both display windows were smashed and emptied of their contents in a photograph of the store published in the New York World Telegram. Merchandise scattered on the street is also visible. Gindin told a Probation Department investigator that shoes valued at $1,200 were stolen during the disorder.

Gindin was one of the twenty white business owners that the New York Sun, New York World-Telegram, and New York Amsterdam News identified as filing claims against the city for failing to protect their stores. He claimed $1,273.89 in damages, well above the median reported claim of $733. By the time the city comptroller heard testimony from those bringing suit, 106 owners had sought damages. Gindin was not among those whose testimony appeared in newspaper stories about that proceeding. Nor was he one of those whose cases went to trial. The city lost those cases, so Gindin likely was awarded some amount of damages. Whatever the award, Gindin was able to remain in business. His store appeared in the MCCH business survey from the second half of 1935, and Gindin still owned and operated the store when he registered for the draft in 1942.

Born in Russia in 1894, Gindin was resident in New York City at least by 1917 when he registered for the draft. He owned the shoe store by 1930, when he was one of a small number of white business owners who resided in Harlem. According to the federal census schedule, he lived a block north of his store, at 363 Lenox Avenue. Unusually, all six of the other apartments in that building had white residents, including three households headed by men who owned stores in Harlem later looted during the disorder who joined Gindin in suing the city, Irving Stekin, Jacob Saloway, and Michael D'Agostino. In 1935, Gindin lived at 346 Lenox Avenue, where he would have been a neighbor of Herman Young, who lived above a hardware he owned at that address that was also looted during the disorder. While Young and his wife went to his store when they heard glass smashing and witnessed the looting, Gindin apparently did not go to his store during the disorder. The Magistrates Court affidavit specified that no one was in the store when Rogers stole the shoes. By 1942, while still in business in Harlem, Gindin had moved to the Upper West Side, according to his draft registration.

Rogers was arraigned in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, charged with burglary. Magistrate Renaud held him for the grand jury. After they indicted him, Rogers agreed to plead guilty to petit larceny. Judge Allen gave Rogers a suspended sentence.
William Gindin's shoe store windows broken At 12:30 AM Patrolman James Lamattina saw a "large number" of people gathered in front of William's Shoe store at at 333 Lenox Avenue. Then John Kennedy Jones "motioning with his hand, said to the others 'come on,' and threw a rock that broke the plate glass window" of the store, Lamattina alleged in his Magistrates Court affidavit. Other people in the crowd also threw "stones and sticks" at the window. Lamattina arrested Jones, a twenty-four-year-old Black laborer, likely after having to pursue him. No other members of the crowd were arrested. Groups of people broke windows in at least two other nearby stores in the preceding half hour. About fifteen minutes before this alleged attack on the shoe store, a group of about thirty people had broken windows in a restaurant at 317 Lenox Avenue, a block to the south, where a police officer arrested one man. Ten minutes before that arrest, about 12:05 AM, another group had broken windows in the store across the street at 318 Lenox Avenue, where a police officer arrested two men.

Just over an hour earlier, at 11:20 PM, Patrolman Nador Herrman allegedly saw Julian Rogers, a thirty-seven-year-old Black auto washer, kick in one of the store's display windows, take three odd women's shoes worth $1 each, and put them under his jacket. Herrman arrested Rogers about 100 feet from the store. William's Shoe store had been a target before Roger's arrest. One display window was already smashed and a large quantity of merchandise stolen, according to Patrolman Herrman. The multiple attacks combined to do significant damage. Both display windows were smashed and emptied of their contents in the photograph of the store published in the New York World Telegram. Merchandise scattered on the street is also visible. Gindin told a Probation Department investigator that shoes valued at $1,200 were stolen during the disorder.

Gindin was one of the twenty white business owners that the New York Sun identified as suing the city for failing to protect their stores; he claimed $1,273.89 in damages, well above the median reported claim of $733. By the time the city comptroller heard testimony from those bringing suit, 106 owners had sought damages. Gindin is not among those whose testimony appears in newspaper stories about that proceeding, and he is not one of those whose cases went to trial to test the claims. The city lost the test cases, so Gindin likely was awarded some amount of damages. Whatever the award, Gindin was able to remain in business. William's Shoe Store appears in the MCCH business survey from the second half of 1935, and Gindin still owned and operated the store when he registered for the draft in 1942.

Born in Russia in 1894, Gindin was resident in New York City at least by 1917, when he registered for the draft. By 1930, Gindin owned the shoe store, and was one of a small number of white business owners who resided in Harlem. According to the federal census schedule, he lived a block north of his store, at 363 Lenox Avenue. Unusually, all six of the other apartments in that building had white residents, including three households headed by men who owned stores in Harlem later looted during the disorder who joined Gindin in suing the city, Irving Stekin, Jacob Saloway, and Michael D'Agostino. In 1935, Gindin lived at 346 Lenox Avenue, where he would have been a neighbor of Herman Young, who lived above a hardware he owned at that address that was also looted during the disorder. While Young and his wife went to his store when they heard glass smashing and witnessed the looting, Gindin apparently did not head to his store during the disorder. The Magistrates Court affidavit specified that no one was in the store when Rogers stole the shoes. By 1942, while still in business in Harlem, Gindin had moved to the Upper West Side, according to his draft registration.

Jones was also arraigned in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, charged with riot according to the docket book, for leading others in the crowd to attack the store. Crossed out is an additional charge of malicious mischief, for damage to the store window; that charge does appear on the Magistrate Court affidavit, in a handwritten note that also lists the forms of riot being charged. Magistrate Renaud held Jones for the grand jury and set bail at $1,000. On March 27, when he appeared before the grand jury, they transferred him to the Court of Special Sessions for trial on misdemeanor forms of the charges. The judges convicted Jones on April 1 and gave him a suspended sentence, recorded in the 28th Precinct police blotter.