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

William Kitlitz assaulted & James Smitten injured

Around 8.30PM, as police struggled to control crowds on 125th Street that had begun to smash store windows, William Kitlitz, a white mail clerk standing in front of Kress’ store, was allegedly “beaten on the head” by a Black man named James Smitten. Attacks by individuals such as this represented a very small proportion of both the assaults reported in the riot (7/53) and the assaults on whites (3/29).

Both men lived only a few blocks from the site of the assault – Smitten on 123rd Street between 7th and Lenox, southeast of Kress, and Kitlitz on St Nicholas Ave between 125th and 124th just a block west. The proximity of their homes to 125th Street likely contributed to them being present early in the disorder. This was the first reported assault on a white man or woman, occurring as clashes between black crowds and white police and attacks by blacks on white-owned stores began, intertwining all those forms of racial violence. Blacks targeted at least three other white men shortly after this assault. Morris Spellman reported being attacked by group of men a few buildings to the west at 125th Street and 8th Avenue at 9pm and Timothy Murphy a few blocks further west by a group of men at around the same time. Half an hour later, another group attacked Morris Werner at 125th St and 7th Avenue, the eastern end of the block on which Kress’ stood. All these men lived west of Harlem, relatively close to where they were attacked, so were likely regular visitors to 125th Street, to shop, seek entertainment or access public transport, on this evening caught up in the disorder.

With police concentrated on 125th Street, and on protecting the store, it is not surprising that Kitlitz’s alleged assailant was one of only nine men arrested for assault, with 83% (44/53) of reports not producing an arrest. Patrolman Gross of the 23rd Precinct made the arrest, and took Smitten back to the station house. At 8.45PM a doctor from Harlem Hospital attended Smitten in the precinct to treat lacerations of scalp “which he received in some unknown manner,” according to the hospital records. Those injuries could have come in a struggle with Kitlitz, or at the hands of police, as was the case with a number of those arrested during the course of the disorder. Kitlitz is listed as injured in the press but there is no record of him receiving medical treatment. A report in the New York American described him as ‘beaten on head, while the New York Daily News reported he had “bruises on face.”

Smitten’s arrest occurred early enough on March 19 that he was arraigned that evening, in the Night Court, one of only three of those arrested who appeared in court prior to March 20. The New York Herald Tribune reported Magistrate Capshaw remanded him for investigation until Saturday, March 23, but there is no record of the outcome of his legal proceedings.

Only two sources connect Smitten and Kitlitz. A hospital record for a call-out to treat Smitten at the 28th Precinct identifies him as having been arrested for assaulting Kitlitz. Only one newspaper report describes the assault, but mistakenly identifies Smitten as Smith. In addition, Smitten appears in four lists of those arrested for assault during the disorder, while Kitlitz appears in four lists of the injured (New York Evening Journal; New York Daily News; New York American (March 20 only); and Home News). (Another man named James Smith was arrested during the disorder, for robbery. Smith lived at a different address than Smitten, and is younger, but is confused with Smitten in reports in the Am and NYDN, given Smitten’s address)
 

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