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

Roof set on fire

Sometime after midnight a fire was set on the roof of 5 West 131st Street, according to an eyewitness writing for the Daily Worker. A fire was first set at a 5 & 10c store on Lenox Avenue, according to the story, a reference to a fire at Lash's store soon after midnight, then on the roof. The fire on the roof, that writer surmised, was a distraction: “This was done, I suppose, to draw the attention of the police force and riot squads from Lenox Avenue where they had concentrated their forces and were attacking the Negroes.” Police did come to the area around the building sometime during the night, even though there were few reports of disorder. A patrolman arrested Lamter Jackson for allegedly taking items from Israel Riehl's unclaimed laundry store in the adjacent building, 3 West 131st Street.

The only other mention of rooftop fires, in the Home News, did not refer to any specific locations. The story explained such fires as an incitement as much as a distraction: “One method by which the mobs stirred up excitement was to stack great heaps of newspapers on the roofs of buildings. The paper, when ignited, led those in the streets to believe spectacular fires were in progress and many fire alarms were sounded.” False alarms and the sounds of fire engines are mentioned in several newspapers, which might indicate that other roof fires were lit, or simply that calls were made to the fire department. Unlike fires in stores on the ground floor, those on a roof posed less danger to the apartments in the building.

The three fires in stores during the disorder were a block west of this building, on Lenox Avenue and West 130th Street, and at 429 and 431 Lenox Avenue, between West 131st and West 132nd Streets.

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