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
Walter White to Arthur Springarn, April 1, 1935, Correspondence on Race Riot in Harlem, Papers of the NAACP, Part 07: The Anti-Lynching Campaign, 1912-1955, Series A: Anti-Lynching Investigative Files, 1912-1953 (ProQuest).
12023-06-24T20:58:01+00:00MCCH meeting (April 12, 1935)14plain2024-01-28T17:11:28+00:00The minutes of this meeting offer a slightly confused picture of the discussion. Eunice Carter was in Albany pursuing legislation on behalf of the MCCH on the date of this meeting, so Hubert Delaney served as secretary. However, in the absence of Arthur Garfield Hays, it appeared there was no discussion of the work of the subcommittee on crime. Charles Roberts, the chairman, did note that they would be holding a further public hearing on April 20.
One issue with ramifications for the MCCH investigation of the events of the disorder was discussed: the selection of who would lead the MCCH survey of conditions in Harlem. At the March 25 meeting, the MCCH members had voted to pursue Ira B. Reid for that role, but left the final selection to Roberts, Delany, and Carter. On this occasion, those present discussed two candidates, Reid and E. Franklin Frazier of Howard University. The reconsideration of the earlier decision appeared to been at least in part a response to lobbying by the NAACP. Walter White had asked Frazier if the organization could suggest his names and obtained from him an outline of the study he would undertaken, which it had sent to Mayor La Guardia on April 1. At the same time, White had written to Arthur Springarn, a vice-president of the NAACP, that he understood that Hubert Delany “has vigorously fought for the appointment of Ira Reid,” but that in his assessment Frazier would "do a much better job." He was someone, in White' s opinion, who will “not only get at the facts but who will have the social vision to break new ground and to suggest remedies over and above the usual stereotyped ones.” The decision between Reid and Frazier remained with the subcommittee of Delany, Eunice Carter, and Charles Roberts, the latter of who promised a decision for the next meeting.