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Sarah Refkin's delicatessen looted
Wright denied any involvement in the looting of the store when interviewed by a Probation officer. Instead he said he was returning to his home at 155 West 123rd Street, around the corner from the delicatessen, having gone out to buy cigarettes, when he saw the crowd in front of the store. Those men ran when they saw Rothengast approaching; Wright said he stayed where he was as he was not involved in attacking the store.
The lists of those arrested published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Gazette, and in the New York Evening Journal included Wright among those charged with burglary. He appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 20, with the docket book and the Home News recording that Magistrate Renaud held him for the grand jury on $1000 bail. The grand jury indicted Wright on March 22, according to his District Attorney's case file, and only two more days for Wright to agree to a plea bargain offered by a district attorney, and plead guilty to unlawful entry in the Court of General Sessions. Wright told a Probation officer he pled guilty on the advice of his lawyer, not because he attacked the store. On April 8, Judge Donnellan sent him to the Workhouse for three months, an outcome recorded in the 28th Precinct Police blotter and reported in the New York Evening News and New York Times on April 9, and in the New York Amsterdam News, New York Age and Afro-American on April 13.
The store appears to have remained in business despite the damage and losses. Refkin had insurance for the store windows, which cost $47.41 to replace according to the Probation Department investigation report (the insurance company unsuccessfully sought to have the judge require Wright to pay them restitution for that cost). A white-owned delicatessen is recorded at 2067 7th Avenue in the MCCH Business survey from the second half of 1935, with the investigator adding the note that it was a "Small, neat store." The business captured in the Tax Department photograph from 1939-1941 is also likely Refkin's delicatessen; while the name is not legible, signage typical of grocery stores can be seen in the window. By then Nathan Pavlowitz was likely no longer the store manager. He told census enumerators in 1930 and 1940 that he was a painter, making his job in the store likely the result of being unable to find such work in the Depression. By the time he registered for the draft in 1942 he was employed as a painter, still traveling from his home at 1225 Boston Road in the Bronx to Harlem, to the Superior Decorating Company based at 271 West 125th Street.
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This page references:
- "Transcripts of Police Blotter - Precinct 28, March 19 & 20, 1935," Folder "MCCH - Juvenile Delinquency - 1935-36," Correspondence (Roll 13), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945.
- "Harlem Riot Damage is Figured at Half Million," Afro-American, March 30, 1935, 1, 2.
- "Says Economic Conditions in Harlem Are Bad," Atlanta World, March 27, 1935, 1, 2.
- "List of Dead And Injured In Riot In New York City," Norfolk Journal and Gazette, March 30, 1935, 18.
- Probation Department Case File, 26453 (1935) (New York City Municipal Archives).
- "List of Those under Arrest in Harlem Riot and the Charges They Face," New York Evening Journal, March 20, 1935, 3.
- "Continue Inquiry At Courthouse As Three Men Are Sentenced To Workhouse For Riot Activities," New York Age, April 13, 1935, 1, 2.
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book
- "Police Guard Against New Uprising as Mayor Acts to Probe Race Riot," Home News, March 21, 1935 [clipping]
- "3 Negroes Sentenced For Looting in Riot," New York Times, April 9, 1935, 44.
- "3 Negroes Sentenced As Harlem Rioters," New York Evening Journal, April 9, 1935, 2.
- "High Rentals, Landlords Hit at Riot Probe," New York Amsterdam News, April 13, 1935, 1, 2.
- "3 Harlem Rioters Sentenced Monday," Afro-American, April 13, 1935, 12.
- District Attorney's Closed Case Files, 203998 (1935) (New York City Municipal Archives).
- Draft Registration Cards for New York City, 1940-1947, Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group 147, National Archives and Records Administration (Ancestry.com)
- "Harlem: Survey - Census Tract #221-222 (26)," 1935, Roll 80, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).
- US Census, 1940, Enumeration District 3-516, Sheet 10B, Bronx, New York, New York (Ancestry.com).
- US Census, 1930, Enumeration District 3-272, Sheet 7B, Bronx, New York, New York (Ancestry.com).