In the aftermath of the disorder, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed “a committee of representative citizens” to investigate the causes of the disorder and plans to prevent its repetition. Its members included several members of the Harlem community, and employed prominent black sociologist E. Franklin Frazier to conduct research.

In addition to gathering material from a variety of city agencies and officials, the committee held 21 public hearings and 4 closed hearings during which it heard from 160 witnesses. It submitted its report a year after the riot. The city government never officially released it, but the New York Amsterdam News published a leaked copy.

This section provides a narrrative of the MCCH's work, with analysis focused on the events of the riot not the other chapters of the report