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

Sentences in the Magistrates Court (39)

Just over half, thirty-nine of the seventy-seven, of the individuals convicted after the disorder were sentenced by magistrates in the Harlem and Washington Heights courts. They had been convicted of disorderly conduct, which carried a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or two years of probation. That was half the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor, so it is to be expected that those sentenced in the Magistrates Court were typically imprisoned for shorter periods that those sentenced in the Court of Special Sessions and in the Court of General Sessions, from five days to one month. However, more sentences to terms around six months were imposed in the Magistrates courts than in the other courts: two of five months and twenty-nine days (Preston White and Joseph Payne) and two of six months (James Lloyd and James Smith). While all the men other than Lloyd had been arrested for looting, there is nothing in the sparse information on the circumstances of those cases to explain the unusually long terms. It could be that, like Edward Larry, who received the longest prison term of those convicted after the disorder, those men had extensive criminal records (that information is only available for individuals sent to the grand jury).

It is difficult to determine if the allegations police made when they arrested those convicted in the Magistrates Court had any bearing on their sentences. Whatever those initial charges, these individuals were instead prosecuted for disorderly conduct, indicating a lack of evidence to support those allegations. It could be that those arrested in crowds around an event remained associated with that particular violence even if police did not charge them as participants. However, the large proportion of individuals sentenced in the Magistrates courts who had been arrested in unknown circumstances obscures any patterns that there might be.

The only one of the three white men convicted in the disorder whose sentence was found in the sources, Leo Smith, was among those sentenced in the Magistrates Court. The term of one month in the Workhouse imposed on him was consistent with the punishments that Black men and women arrested for breaking windows received. Four others arrested in the same circumstances received the same term, while three received terms of only five days and two had their sentences suspended. Only three men arrested for breaking windows charged with malicious mischief and sent to the Court of Special Sessions received longer terms, and then only of three months.

Those sentenced in the Magistrates courts included three of the five Black women convicted. The sentences Magistrate Renaud imposed on them appear consistent with those given to Black men: Louise Brown had her sentence suspended; Margaret Mitchell was given a choice between three days in the Workhouse or a fine (she paid the fine); and Elizabeth Tai was sentenced to five days in the Workhouse.

Given the widely variety of activities encompassed by the disorderly conduct statute, it is difficult to tell if the sentences imposed by magistrates were out of the ordinary. In the week leading up to the disorder, when the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book recorded thirty-six men and women as convicted of disorderly conduct, two individuals received three-month terms and three six-month terms, including one charged with "jostling," placing the most severely punished acts in the disorder on a par with attempted pickpocketing. On the other hand, none of the remaining thirty-one sentences were for more than ten days, with fourteen for one to three days with the option to instead pay a fine and the sentences of eight suspended, making the one-month terms given to some of those arrested during the disorder a harsher punishment than was usual.

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