Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935Main MenuREAD ME: Help Navigating This BookIntroductionOn the StreetsIn the CourtsUnder InvestigationThe Mayor's Commission on Conditions in HarlemOver TimeEventsSourcesStephen Robertsona1bf8804093bc01e94a0485d9f3510bb8508e3bfStanford University Press
Officer Irwin Young assaulted
12020-02-24T22:38:05+00:00Anonymous19plain2020-03-31T20:59:39+00:00AnonymousAround 6.00PM, Harry Gordon, three other white men and a black man arrived on 125th Street and began picketing in front of Kress’ store. The group were members of the Young Liberators, an organization with ties to the Communist Party that had offices nearby, at 262 Lenox Ave near 126th Street. They carried signs that read “Kress Brutally Beats and Seriously Injures Negro Child and Negro Women. Negro and White Don’t Buy Here” and “Kress Brutally Beats Negro Child.” At some point the men set up a stand in front of the store and a member of the group began to speak to the crowd gathered there. When someone threw a rock through the window of Kress’ store, police moved to arrest the speaker. In the ensuing struggle, Gordon allegedly grabbed Patrolman Irwin Young’s nightstick and used it to hit the officer. He and the four other men were arrested and hurried into waiting cars.