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Public Hearings - Outbreak (March-April 1935), 86, Subject Files, Box 408, Folder 8 (Roll 194), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945 (New York City Municipal Archives).
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The MCCH investigation of the shooting of Lloyd Hobbs
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The MCCH learned of the shooting of Lloyd Hobbs from the New York Urban League. His father, Lawyer Hobbs, went several times to the 28th Precinct police station on West 123rd Street trying to get the name and shield number of the patrolman who had shot Lloyd, which the family had been too upset to get when they encountered him at Harlem Hospital. He also wanted to file a complaint against the officer. Although Hobbs "was told by the inspector that he could not file a complaint because he did not witness the affair, and knew nothing about it," no one at the precinct mentioned that Detective O'Brien was investigating the shooting. As police kept him "running up and down with no satisfaction," Lawyer Hobbs also went to the offices of the New York Urban League on West 136th Street. The Urban League was a social work and civil rights organization focused on the social and economic conditions of Black residents. James Hubert, the executive director, told Hobbs that they would look into it and to come back later. Although Hobbs did not mention it, someone at the Urban League also recorded his statement. Hobbs recounted what his son Russell had told him, that the boys had stopped to see what a crowd was looking at when a patrolman appeared telling them to "break it up." The boys joined everyone else in running; the patrolman then shot Lloyd. Hobbs also added the exchange he and his wife had with the patrolman at Harlem Hospital, when he told them he had shot the boy because he had not stopped when told to. Lawyer Hobbs returned on Monday, March 25, to find that Hubert had no results for him. However, three days later, on March 28, the Urban League sent a letter sent to the MCCH, which enclosed the statement by Hobbs and asked for ”cooperation” and “assistance.” The MCCH had appealed for information in the statement it gave the press after its first meeting on March 25.
The MCCH responded to the information from the Urban League by including “Mr Lloyd Hobbs and family" on the list of eyewitnesses asked to give testimony to the first public hearing on March 30. Near the end of the day-long hearing, as Captain Rothengast was being questioned about who had been shot during the disorder, the chairman, Arthur Garfield Hays, asked did he "know anything specifically about a boy by the name of Hobbs?" Hays then had Mrs. Carrie Hobbs stand up, to ask her if her son Russell was present, and called the boy up to testify. Rothengast knew nothing beyond what was in the arrest report, so Hays excused him so Russell could be questioned. His testimony, or at least as recorded by the stenographer, was a somewhat garbled version of what he had told his parents. He talked of stopping on 125th Street, not 7th Avenue, and the patrolmen running up on the pavement on a horse, not in a patrol car. Few newspapers stories about the hearing mentioned Russell's testimony, even as they reported Lloyd's death later that night. Hays, however, did pay attention to the testimony, not only because Lloyd had died. Hays made investigating deaths during the disorder and victims of police brutality the next focus of his subcommittee's hearings.
On April 1, Hays wrote to the MCCH's secretary, Eunice Carter, telling her to have the Hobbs family attend the next hearing, on April 6, and to "have our investigators find out all they can about [the Hobbs case]." He also had an attorney at his law firm assisting him, Hyman Glickstein, write to Police Inspector Di Martini and the superintendent of Harlem Hospital to obtain their records relating to Lloyd Hobbs. Carter assigned the investigation to James Tartar, one of the staff who had sought witnesses to the causes of the disorder the previous week. He did what Detective O'Brien had not; he interviewed the Hobbs family "as the first source," having the advantage of knowing that Russell had been with Lloyd when Mcinerney shot him. Tartar complied a "social and economic history of the family" and took statements from Russell and his mother. He also learned from Lawyer Hobbs that he had been contacted by two eyewitnesses, Howard Malloy and Arthur Moore.
Tartar met with the men at 213 West 128th Street, the apartment building in which they both lived, and recorded "their story." Malloy said he had walked past the automobile store almost two hours before McInerney alleged he had heard the window breaking and Hobbs taking items and the windows had been entirely broken with no merchandise remaining inside them. Not long before the Hobbs brothers arrived, he and Moore had come out to get ice cream for their wives, who were in the Moores apartment. As they arrived at the northwest corner of 128th and 7th Avenue, they saw a "commotion" on the block of 7th Avenue to the south. As they watched, people began to move toward them, breaking into a run. When Lloyd Hobbs turned west on 128th Street, they saw the patrolman shoot the boy without calling on him to halt. Nothing fell to the ground when the shot hit the boy. They also contradicted the officers' claim that objects had been thrown at them, saying that seeing both men had guns caused people in the area to stay away.
On April 2, Tartar also spoke with ADA Saul Price, who told him "that the officer had not been exonerated, due to the fact that he was waiting to hear the story from the Hobbs family, particularly Russell Hobbs." An interview with the police department's ballistic expert produced no information as he had not received the bullet that hit Lloyd. Tartar's visit to Harlem Hospital was more successful, as Dr. Steinholz shared the boy's chart, which the investigator copied. An additional interview with Inspector Di Martini not mentioned in Tartar's report allowed him to make a copy of a report to Commissioner Valentine from commander of the 28th Precinct, Captain George Mulholland, on the subject of "The shooting of prisoner by Patrolman." It described McInerney observing Hobbs leaving the store window "with several objects in his hands," giving that evidence a far more prominent and specific place than they had in O'Brien's reports. Threats to the patrolman also received more attention, with allegations that "the colored people in the immediate vicinity threw bottles and other objects from the windows with the intent to strike the officer” and that the officers "dispersed a large crowd of colored men and women who had threatened them" before they could leave the scene.
Tartar was among those who testified at the MCCH's April 6 public hearing, with Russell Hobbs and both his parents, Malloy and Moore, and a third man who had been with them when Lloyd Hobbs was shot, Samuel Pitts. Pitts' name was added in pencil to the MCCH's typewritten witness list, indicating they had not known he would be present. He likely came with Malloy and Moore, although he lived some distance from them, at 112 West 127th Street. Pitts witnessed the shooting from the same corner as those men, where he had been since about 10:00 PM, "looking after people and cops shooting[, and] talking about the riot." Russell's testimony was more in line with his statement than the previous week. Having continued to run up 7th Avenue fearing a beating by police, he had not, however, seen his brother shot. His parents testified that when they found Lloyd in the hospital, he told them, “Mother, the officer shot me for nothing. I was not doing anything.” McInerney, guarding the boy, said "Why didn't you halt when I told you to?" Malloy, Moore, and Pitts, who all had seen the shooting, described the same details. Arthur Garfield Hays had also expected Patrolman McInerney to testify, but although he was at the hearing, District Attorney Dodge had refused to allow officers involved in cases in the legal system to give evidence. The police officer who did testify, also not on the MCCH list of witnesses, was Detective Thomas McCormick, the stenographer who recorded Lloyd's statement at Harlem Hospital. He read that statement, which echoed what the boy had told his parents when they found him in the hospital: he had done nothing but run when the patrol car pulled up but McInerney had shot him. The hearing also heard from medical staff from Harlem Hospital. The case of Lloyd Hobbs was the first about which Hays asked them. All Dr. Arthur Logan could tell him was the nature of the boy's injuries; he had not said anything in the doctor's presence and no items had been found in his clothing. While the Black press (except for the New York Amsterdam News) highlighted the testimony on the case, among white publications only the radical Daily Worker and New Masses gave it similar prominence in reporting the hearing, and only the New York Times and Home News among the mainstream white press even mentioned Lloyd Hobbs.
Hays announced plans to continue hearing evidence about the killing of Lloyd Hobbs at his subcommittee's next public hearing, in two weeks, the New York Times, New York Age, and Afro-American reported. However, Detective O'Brien delivered subpoenas to the three eyewitnesses after they appeared before the MCCH. Two days later, ADA Saul Price drew the men into the police investigation.
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10:00 PM to 10:30 PM
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Around 10:00 PM, violence away from 125th Street intensified. That change marked a shift in the disorder from a protest focused on the Kress store to a broader attack on Harlem’s white businesses and white men and women on the streets. The correspondent for the Afro-American and other journalists on 125th Street noticed what he described as a change to “promiscuous stoning and destruction of property” although they appear to have remained with police in the vicinity of the Kress store. The spreading violence also attracted the attention of the residents of the neighborhood, with some gathering on 7th Avenue to see what was happening.
While some of those in the crowds unable to get near the Kress store had been moving south on 7th Avenue since around 8:30PM, it was not until 10:00 PM that violence was reported below 125th Street. Some of that violence targeted police. Patrolman Charles Robbins, a crew member of one of the emergency trucks that served as the Police Department’s riot squad, was hit over the head with an iron bar in the vicinity of 124th Street by someone who police did not apprehend. Those circumstances indicated considerable disorder in the area despite the presence of police. Somehow Robbins must have ended up in the midst of the people on the sidewalks and in the street, as he was hit by someone rather than by an object thrown from a distance, as Detective Roge had been minutes earlier at the other end of the block. Police must have been outnumbered and not in control of the area to be unable to identify and arrest the person who hit the patrolman. It may have been during these clashes between police and some of those on the streets that Joseph Sarnelli was attacked while closing his barber shop in the Hotel Theresa, which spanned the block of 7th Avenue between 125th and 124th Streets. Three Black men smashed their way into the business, he alleged, and demanded his razors. As Sarnelli struggled with the men, Patrolman Thomas Jordan came to his aid. While he was able to prevent the attempted robbery, the officer failed to arrest any of the men. The struggles of police to control crowds outside the barber shop made this a possible time for robbery of Sarnelli, which was otherwise difficult to reconcile with the large number of police in the area. It could have happened earlier while crowds at 125th and 7th Avenue were at their height, although they were focused on police. The direct confrontations with store owners involved in a robbery were rare during the disorder, but could be examples of those willing to break the law taking advantage of the disorder.
If police were not in control of the area around 124th Street, officers had yet to be deployed further south around 121st Street where one or more Black individuals allegedly attacked another white man, thirty-four-year-old Anthony Cados. He reported the assault only to the ambulance doctor called to treat him for cuts to his head. Cados lived a little over ten blocks to the south, so was likely walking somewhere on the street or perhaps coming from work at a business that had recently closed. Those who targeted him were echoing the attacks on white men encountered on the street on 125th Street and in the blocks of 7th Avenue to its north. With groups only beginning to move from 125th Street, white residents and visitors were still likely unaware of the disorder and the danger it could pose to them. Edward Genest, a white sailor likely visiting the neighborhood, may also have been assaulted around this time. He was stabbed, allegedly by Black assailants, closer to 125th Street, at 7th Avenue and 123rd Street. Stabbing, typical at other times, was unusual during the disorder, when most assaults involved throwing objects or beatings. Whenever the assault occurred, no police were present to intervene or arrest whoever targeted the sailor. Groups moving down 7th Avenue likely also broke windows at this time. Channing Tobias, back at his home at 203 West 122nd Street, just off 7th Avenue, after being on 125th Street, heard “the real smash” of windows begin after 10:00 PM. Just which businesses were damaged was not reported.
Another attack on a white man encountered on the street occurred on 7th Avenue north of 125th Street around the same time. Forty-four-year-old George Anton suffered cuts on his hands, head, and knees at the hands of several allegedly Black assailants on the block between 126th and 127th Streets. Like Genest, he had come from outside Harlem, either to visit or to work. Police were beginning to be deployed in this area at the time of the attack but were not close enough to intervene or for Anton to report the assault. Again, only hospital staff who treated him recorded the attack.
Increasing numbers of residents began to appear on the street in response to noise of the crowds and breaking glass as well as the spread of news about events on 125th Street. Not everyone who became aware of the disorder was moved to investigate. “The real smash” of windows Channing Tobias heard begin after 10:00 PM did not cause him to venture back to the street, perhaps because he already knew the cause. Mary Hobbs, whose sons Lloyd and Russell had walked through the crowds and passed damaged windows to go to a show at the Apollo Theatre at 7:30 PM, heard about the “riot” at her home on St. Nicholas Avenue and 126th Street around 10:00 PM. Although she “got all excited,” Hobbs decided it was a “fake.” Samuel Pitts, however, decided to “go and see what it’s all about.” His wife had woken him at 10:00 PM to tell him “she heard that a kid was killed in Kress store.” He went to the western corner of 7th Avenue and 128th Street to investigate. There he joined others standing on the wide sidewalk and sometimes in the street watching the crowds and police and “talking about the riot.” Pitts remained at the corner for around two hours. Marshall Pfifer arrived on the corner across 7th Avenue opposite Pitts, having come from his home to the east on 128th Street around the same time. A crowd of spectators gathered there too. Pfifer would watch events on the avenue for even longer than Pitts, not leaving until 2:30 AM.
As Pitts, Pfifer, and the other spectators arriving on 7th Avenue watched, more windows were broken in Lazar’s cigar store and Alfonso Principe’s saloon in the block between 127th and 128th Streets. Spectators would also have seen more police deployed from 125th Street arriving and driving by in radio cars. Residents watching events added to the complexity of the disorder. Not only did their presence make it difficult to assess how many people participated in the violence, they also contributed to the fluidity of that violence. Watching provided the opportunity to participate. A change from breaking windows to taking merchandise from those windows was likely fueled in part by spectators who decided to act. Leroy Gillard, a forty-six-year-old unemployed Black man, may have been one such resident. He lived on 128th Street just off 7th Avenue so may have been drawn to the street as Pitts and Pfiffer had been. Gillard would have been familiar with the tailor’s shop behind the building that faced 7th Avenue, across 128th Street from where Pitts stood. While staff remained in the businesses in the block of 7th Avenue to the south whose windows had been broken, the owner of the tailor's shop, Morris Sankin, had closed his business at 9:00 PM and left for his home in the Bronx. Likely because he was not there, when a group of people broke the store windows at 10:10 PM, several people went into the store. Gillard was allegedly among them, taking two suits of clothing, items of which he was likely in need. Patrolman Irwin Young saw that happen and arrested Gillard. Police must have only recently arrived at the intersection from 125th Street as the arrest was the first this far north on the west side of 7th Avenue. It was not, however, the patrolman’s first arrest of the evening. Young had arrested Harry Gordon on 125th Street four hours earlier. Further south, in the block north of 125th Street, where Max Greenwald had given up moving merchandise out of his window displays when repeated attacks left him exposed to being hit by rocks and stones being thrown at the store, it would have become possible for individuals to enter the store and begin to take the “about twenty suiting lengths of woolens” that Greenwald reported he lost.
What was happening on 8th Avenue to the west was less clear. Narrower and with the elevated railroad line looming over it, the street was not a major thoroughfare like 7th Avenue and was near the boundary of the area of Black population, so would have been accessible to Black residents. On the other hand, white-owned businesses predominated to a greater degree than on 7th Avenue. The groups of people that James Hughes had passed around 9:30 PM moving up the avenue from 125th Street breaking windows likely continued north but there are no reported incidents to confirm that. The broadening shift to a more general attack on white businesses and individuals on the street saw groups also moving south with similar results. Andy's Florist on the southeast corner of 125th Street, the Arrow Sales 5 & 10c store at 2318 8th Avenue, and vacant storefronts at 2314 8th Avenue, 2320 8th Avenue, and 2324 8th Avenue all likely had windows broken around this time. There were now sufficient police on 125th Street to respond to those attacks, making it likely that it was around this time that Officer St. Louis of the 28th Precinct arrested Viola Woods, a twenty-eight-year-old Black woman, for allegedly smashing the window of a vacant store at 2314 8th Avenue with an umbrella. Her arrest also indicated that women remained a prominent part of the crowds around 125th Street even as observers associated the increasing violence with men. Woods, however, proved not to be involved in the damage to the store. The charge against her was later reduced to disorderly conduct, placing her in the crowd near the store, and then dismissed by the magistrate, leaving Woods as simply a bystander mistakenly arrested by police.
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Battle's Pharmacy windows broken
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Sometime during the disorder, windows were broken in Battle's Pharmacy at 2156 7th Avenue, on the northwest corner of 128th Street. The only mention of that damage is in a story in the New York Evening Journal focused on Communist activities in Harlem. In arguing that "the riot [was] conducted on the best Communist lines," the reporter pointed to how "the Negro merchant's property was destroyed as well as that of the white." Three Black-owned businesses close together on 7th Avenue that had windows broken were identified in the story. Battle's Pharmacy was mentioned together with the Williams drug store, across 7th Avenue on the southeast corner of 128th Street. "Both of these stores were damaged by the rioters although virtually everyone in Harlem knows who operates them." Signs were painted on the Williams drug store identifying it as a "colored store," a set of windows that were not broken. The third store was the Burmand Realty office at 2164 7th Avenue, two buildings north of the pharmacy. Not mentioned in the New York Evening Journal story was the Cozy Shoppe restaurant at 2154 7th Avenue across the street from Williams drug store which also had a sign on its window identifying it as Black-owned, and had no windows broken.
Residents of nearby buildings stood on the corner from around 10:00 PM, "looking after people and cops shooting[, and] talking about the riot," as Samuel Pitts put it. The pharmacy windows likely were broken before that time, by the groups who came from 125th Street around 8:30 PM, 9:00 PM, and 9:30 PM. It was unlikely that the windows would have been broken once there was a crowd of residents who knew it was a Black-owned business standing nearby.
No one arrested during the disorder was identified as charged with breaking windows in the pharmacy. The MCCH business survey misidentified Battle's Pharmacy as a white-owned business. Walter Battle's obituary in the New York Amsterdam News identified him as a Black man born in North Carolina, educated at Biddle University and Columbia University, who opened the drug store in 1932. He was named as the pharmacist at the store in a New York Amsterdam News advertisement in 1936. The store was still visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.
Patrolman John McInerney shot and killed Lloyd Hobbs, a sixteen-year-old Black boy, as he ran across West 128th Street toward the pharmacy around 12:45 AM. Four men who testified about the shooting witnessed it from the corner in front of the pharmacy, as part of a crowd watching the disorder on 7th Avenue.