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Rivers Wright arrested
Only one source provided any details of the circumstances of his arrest. The Home News reported on March 21 that Wright was arrested "after he and a number of others are said to have attacked a white man at 125th St and Lenox Ave." Wright appeared in lists of those arrested during the disorder in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide, the New York American, New York Evening Journal, and Daily News.
Among the first arraigned in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, Wright was charged with disorderly conduct, not assault, as was the case with half of those arrested for assault. The attack cannot have resulted in significant injury if the charge was disorderly conduct: the applicable section of the statute applied only to a person who used "offensive, disorderly, threatening, abusive or insulting language, conduct or behavior." It could also have been the case that police did not have evidence that Wright participated in the assault; he may have been part of a crowd nearby, caught up in police efforts to arrest those responsible for the assault. Those circumstances fitted the definition of the offense. Disorderly conduct was also an offense that could be adjudicated in the Magistrates Court.
Magistrate Renaud convicted Wright and remanded him for sentence on March 23. On that date, he sent Wright to the Workhouse for ten days. His appearance was widely reported, in stories that named him in the Daily News, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune and New York Age and stories that did not in the New York World-Telegram, New York American, New York Post, New York Evening Journal, and Home News. None of those stories mentioned what Wright had allegedly done. Four other men convicted of disorderly conduct sentenced at the same time, after being charged with breaking windows, received terms of thirty days. The disparity in sentence offers further evidence that Wright had not actually committed an assault.
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This page references:
- "Police Guard Against New Uprising as Mayor Acts to Probe Race Riot," Home News, March 21, 1935, 1.
- New York Penal Law, § 722-724: Disorderly Conduct
- "Riot Deaths Mounting Daily as Fourth Victim Succumbs. Extra Police Still on Duty; Many Sentenced to Workhouse Terms," New York Age, March 30, 1935, 1
- "Harlem Death Toll Rises to 4; Mayor's Group Starts Probe; 2 More Succumb to Riot Injuries as Inquiry Begins," New York Post, March 23, 1935, 3.
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book
- "Blamed for Riot, Harlem Girl Fined. Disorders Fatal to Three Laid to Her Screaming in Store Where Boy Stole Knife. 5 MEN GO TO WORKHOUSE. Dodge Expects Arrest of Red Leaders," New York Times, March 24, 1935, 19.
- "Harlem Riot Prisoners and Charges," New York American, March 20, 1935, 4.
- "Jailed for Rioting," Daily News, March 20, 1935, 4.
- "Dodge Plans War on Reds," Daily News, March 24, 1935, 4.
- "Third Victim of Riots Dies in Harlem Hospital," New York Herald Tribune, March 24, 1935, 3.
- "Six Sentenced in Harlem Court; Guard Against New Outbreaks," New York Evening Journal, March 23, 1935 [clipping]
- "Girl Fined $10 As Riot Cause," New York World-Telegram, March 23, 1935, 2.
- "Dodge Declares War in Red Leaders; Harlem Girl, "Cause of Riot," is Fined," Home News, March 24, 1935, 3.
- "Dodge Vows No Quarter in Rioting Probe," New York American, March 24, 1935, 7.