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

Williams' drug store windows broken

The Williams' Drug Store at 2161 7th Avenue, on the southeast corner of West 128th Street and 7th Avenue, had its front windows broken during the disorder. However, no further damage was done to the store because someone painted “Colored Store, Nix Jack” on the side windows, facing 128th Street, according to the Afro-American. The text on the windows appeared in newsreel footage from the day after the disorder. The phrase was painted in each of the two window panes, each word in its own row, so that it took up at least half the window. In the pane on the left, an exclamation mark was painted at the end of the phrase, which did not appear in the right pane. Identifying the drug store as a black-owned business "saved" those side windows.

On this block of 7th Avenue multiple stores had windows broken, most on the west side of the street. Several businesses were also looted. Those businesses are not identified in any newspaper lists or stories. The Afro-American mentioned the drug store only because of the sign put up identifying it as a Black-owned; it was one of two examples, with the Monterey Luncheonette, of what the story reported as a widespread practice. An MCCH investigator visited businesses on the west side of the street seeking information about the police shooting of Lloyd Hobbs that occurred on that side of the intersection of West 128th Street. Police arrested Leroy Gillard for allegedly looting a tailor's store near the southwest corner. On the east side, Sam Lefkowitz, the owner of a business at 2147 7th Avenue, is identified among those suing the city for damages after the disorder.

No one arrested during the disorder was charged with breaking windows in the drug store. The Willams' drug store appears in the MCCH business survey taken between June and December 1935, and the owner was one of the Black businessowners interviewed by MCCH staff. The drug store had been open only three months at the time of that interview, so must have opened just prior to the disorder. The interviewer described it as "This is a typical soda-fountain, confectionery, & tobacco shop. It is somewhat larger than most, is quite neat & attractively arranged, & includes a newsstand. Carries a full line of cigars, cigarettes, & candy." Asked about his clientele, the owner said it was "Restricted largely to immediate neighborhood, though its location on a main thoroughfare draws some transient trade. Owner states he makes an effort to restrict clientele to those of "better type." For this reason he does not sell Frankfurters, certain groups, as he says, tending to "buy a hot-dog + sit around all day."  The owner employed only one staff member, a niece. The store is visible in the Tax Department photograph taken between 1939 and 1941.

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