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

Sam Katz's shop windows not broken

The windows of Sam Katz's store at 2274 7th Avenue were not broken during the disorder. Two Black "boys" stood in front of the store and protected the windows, according to stories in two white newspapers. Both reporters spoke to Katz; neither appear to have spoken to the boys. The New York Post provided the most details of the boys' actions, reporting that they "stood throughout the trouble in front of the glazier's shop, shouting to passing crowds that he was a friend of the Negroes." The New York Evening Journal simply stated that the boys were "on guard outside" the store. Just why the boys would have guarded the store is not mentioned. The New York Post quoted Katz as saying "the boys were volunteers, and he knew nothing about it until this morning." The New York Evening Journal likewise reported he did not know the boys were at his store; instead when he arrived at the store, "I found I had some colored friends." It is not made clear in either story if Katz knew the boys.

The store was on the block between 133rd and 134th Streets, north of most of the reported violence on 7th Avenue. There were two reports of broken windows north of 135th Street, in Moskowitz's tailor's shop two blocks north and a shoe repair shop two blocks further north. Around three-quarters of the businesses on the block were white-owned, more than in surrounding blocks.

While both stories describe Katz as a glazier, his business is recorded in the MCCH business survey as awnings and window shades. The signage on the store is not visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.

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