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

Sarah Refkin's delicatessen looted

Around 12.30 AM, Acting Captain Conrad Rothengast of the 6th Detective Division claimed that he heard shots being fired on 7th Avenue near 123rd Street, according to a Probation Department investigation report. Looking around for the source of the shooting he saw a group of men standing in front of the delicatessen at 2067 7th Avenue, owned by Sarah Refkin and managed by Nathan Pavlowitz, a thirty-one-year-old Romanian immigrant living in the Bronx. Approaching the group, he saw Hezekiah Wright, a thirty-six-year-old Black janitor, kick and smash the store's plate glass window, reach in and take four lamps and two jars of food. When Wright saw him, Rothengast alleged he dropped those items and held his hands above his head. The detective somehow interpreted that stance as indicating that Wright was about to attack him, so struck him with his baton before arresting him. The Magistrate Court affidavit included few of those details. In that account, Rothengast simply saw Wright kick in the window and take a quantity of groceries. A Home News report of Wright's arraignment in that court put the value of the goods he allegedly stole at $100. The Probation Department investigation report specified that the items Rothegast alleged Wright tried to steal had a combined value of $11.10, the lamps 90 cents each and the jars of food $3.75 each. Stories in the New York Age and New York Times reporting later stages of his prosecution included the details that he had allegedly stolen "four lamps and a quantity of food," with the latter story misstating the value of those items as "about $8 in all." Pavlowitz, the store manager, estimated that between $50 and $75 of merchandise was missing from the store, according to Probation Department investigation report. He told a Probation officer that he thought people other than Wright had taken those goods, and there were certainly many on the street around this time. Arrests for breaking windows and looting continued to be made for at least another hour after Rothegast arrested Wright. Attacks on the store likely began around 11:15 PM. A crowd of twenty-five to thirty people was observed by Detective Peter Naton on 7th Avenue around 123rd Street at that time smashing store windows and attacking white men and women. the plainclothes officer arrested one member of the group, but the others continued along the street.

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. He appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 20, was sent to the grand jury by Magistrate Renaud, and indicted. After Wright pled guilty Judge Donnellan sent him to the Workhouse for three months.

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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