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Thomas Cut Rate Drug store looted
Babbitt is among those listed as being charged with burglary in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Gazette, and in the New York Evening Journal. He appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, charged with petty larceny not burglary. That change was likely made because he had not broken the store window, and had not stolen merchandise of sufficient value for a charge of grand larceny. Magistrate Renaud transferred him to the Court of Special Sessions holding him on bail of $500. His trial and conviction occurred sooner than was the case with most of those arrested in the disorder sent to that court. On March 22 Babbitt was sentenced to ten days in the Workhouse, an outcome recorded in the 28th Precinct Police Blotter.
Abraham Thomas, living at 1262 43rd Street in Brooklyn, is the complainant recorded in the docket book. Notwithstanding his last name, the forty-five-year-old white man appears to have been a staff member rather than owner of the store. In both the 1930 and 1940 census Thomas gave his occupation as "drug clerk," and his employer as Thomas Pharmacy in his draft registration in 1942 (business owners recorded themselves as self employed). Further evidence that the store remained in business after the disorder comes from the MCCH Business survey, which recorded a white-owned drug store, "Cut Rate Drug Store," at 2374 8th Avenue, and the Tax Department photograph, in which the store is visible.
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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.
- "List of Dead And Injured In Riot In New York City," Norfolk Journal and Gazette, March 30, 1935, 18.
- "Says Economic Conditions in Harlem Are Bad," Atlanta World, March 27, 1935, 1, 2.
- Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration, 1942, New York, Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147, National Archives and Records Administration. (Ancestry.com)
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book
- "List of Those under Arrest in Harlem Riot and the Charges They Face," New York Evening Journal, March 20, 1935, 3.
- "Police Guard Against New Uprising as Mayor Acts to Probe Race Riot," Home News, March 21, 1935 [clipping]
- "Harlem: Survey - Census Tracts #223-24 (28)," 1935, Roll 80, Subject Files, Office of the Mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia records (New York City Municipal Archives).
- US Census, 1930, Enumeration District 24-188, Sheet 5A, Brooklyn, Kings, New York (Ancestry.com).
- US Census, 1940, Enumeration District 24-931, Sheet 6A, Brooklyn, Kings, New York (Ancestry.com).