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

William Burkhard assaulted

At around 11.30pm, William Burkhard, a forty-three-year-old white man was assaulted by a group of black men on West 118th Street between Lenox and 7th Avenues. This block likely still had white residents in 1935, and perhaps Puerto Rican residents, rather than the African Americans and West Indians who lived on the blocks further north. An ambulance from Bellevue Hospital arrived at 11.45pm, and Dr. Solomon proceeded to treat cuts and bruises on his right cheek. Burkhard then left for his home, 533 East 12th Street, at the opposite end of Manhattan.

The assault on Burkhard was the first in a cluster of attacks on or near 7th Avenue north of 116th Street and later up around 125th Street by 1am, suggesting the presence of crowds in this area in the hours immediately after the disorder spread from 125th Street. He was one of only two individuals assaulted off the avenues, although it seems likely the attack originated on 7th Avenue.

Burkhard appears in the record of hospital attendances, and in lists of the injured in four papers. The HT unusually provided the same details as the hospital records, that Burkhard had been “assaulted by some unknown colored persons.” The NYDN, NYJ and NYP listed only his injuries to his cheek.
 

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