The Harlem Race Riot of 1935
The Harlem race riot of 1935 occurred on March 19th to the 20th, that took place in what was known as the capital of black America, Harlem, New York. It was known as the first modern race riot because it dealt with the destruction against property instead of people being against other people. Around this time frame, thousands of African Americans from the rural South migrated to Northern and Midwestern states where they were promised work and great prosperity; escaping segregation, severe Jim Crow laws, and economic hardships due to the emancipation of their slavery and starting a new life. However, due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the unemployment rate dropped approximately 30 percent and those who were already in absolute gruesome conditions were doing worse and tension grew within the country.
The underlying conditions of the riot was fueled by racial injustice, police brutality and economic hardship and the unemployment crisis of the Great Depression. The riot itself commenced due to rumors that circulated of the murder of 16-year-old black Puerto Rican, Lino Rivera; Who was caught stealing a penknife from S.H. Kress dime store across from the Apollo Theater on West 124th Street. A group of people gathered around the store to see what happened and then a rumor broke out that the police killed Lino, when on the contrary the store owner told the police to let Lino go, and he left through the store’s back door. Since the crowd outside didn’t see Lino come out from the store, they assumed that the police killed him. Afterwards, activist groups such as the Young Communist League and the Young Liberators ascended a rally; over 10,000 residents marched the streets to protest. The protest turned into a riot once objects were being thrown breaking the windows of local stores and businesses. As police tried to stop the crowds, the rioters fought back. When the riot ended, there were at least 125 arrests, three deaths, and 200 stores vandalized with a total of $2 million dollars of property damage.
Fiorello La Guardia, who had been in the position as mayor of New York for slightly more than a year, appointed a biracial commission to investigate the riot. Later that year, the commission issued the report of the Harlem Riot, but Mayor La Guardia suppressed the report because it illustrated a grim picture of the conditions among the black residents of New York. Yet, La Guardia remained popular with African American leaders and voters because he advocated to further expand the opportunities for African American residents within the city’s government as well as integrate city hospitals and improve sanitation, health care, and police protection and fired some police workers as well. Despite the attempts to improve conditions, La Guardia was very limited in easing the abiding problems facing Harlem’s residents.
Unfortunately, the riot of 1935 was not Harlem’s last. The cultural neighborhood of Harlem had two more riots in 1943 and in 1964, both due to racial tensions between African Americans residing in New York City and the police. Similar to the riot of 1935, the riot of August 1st, 1943 started with a dispute between an African American WWII veteran and a police officer, James Collins, that shot and wounded the veteran Robert Bandy. Bandy was trying to provide aid for an African American woman who was being restrained by Officer Collins in a hotel lobby. After being shot by the rookie cop, rumors spread that Bandy was dead, thus having rioters raid the city causing $5 million in property damage and six deaths. The riot was ultimately a result of the disappointment of the African American community which was because the expectations for their service in World War II were rather high, in hopes of gaining equal amount of respect from white Americans. However, they were continuously tormented by Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial inequality on both the economic and social levels.
Eventually the riot of 1964, which was the longest riot lasting from July 16th to the 22nd, was based on a factual incident of the death of a 15-year-old African American male, James Powell, who shot by white off-duty Officer Thomas Gilligan. The officer’s statement towards the incident is that Powell lunged at him with a knife, so he reacted fast for his own protection. What started off as a peaceful protest turned into a rebellious outcry when protesters gathered at Harlem Police Station to convince them to terminate Officer Gilligan. Things got violent once police officers guarded the building and the crowd began to throw rocks, glass bottles, and bricks at the officers. The disturbance lead to different boroughs of New York City and there were more than 100 injuries, 450 arrests, one death and around $1 million in property damage. September of that year, Officer Gilligan was cleared of any wrong doing by the grand jury and all charges were dropped. The irony of this riot is that two weeks prior of the uprising President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and nationality. Yet African Americans still were discriminated against due to the socioeconomic systems and structures that were grandfathered in the country. Multiple riots were taken place the summer of 1964, heightening the Civil Rights Movement, what is known as one of the most influential movements in U.S. history.
A sociologist known as Allen D. Grimshaw analyzed the riot of 1935 in his work “Racial Violence in the United States” (1969). Throughout his observation, Grimshaw described the riot to be the first demonstration of a ‘modern’ form of racial rioting. Three unique factors that he states made it different from previous cases of urban racial conflict. It was due to the violence that was directed primarily against property, which in previous circumstances of public racial disputes usually dealt with mobs of white Americans attacking African Americans or by clashing between both groups of races. Another distinctive problem was the absence of clashes between racial groups, and the antagonism between African American residents in poverty and law enforcers.
To summarize crucial matters, the pattern of the Harlem riots was an uprising against racial discrimination, segregation, police brutality, economic and social injustice. Interestingly enough, most of the riots erupted due to rumors and the deaths of the black youth in Harlem. Giving them a boiling point to fight back against the maltreatment and oppression. Today Harlem subliminally is still represented as the capital of black America, growing rapidly with the population of 112,000; and growing more culturally diverse each day, neighboring boroughs such as Little Senegal, Spanish Harlem, Little Italy, and Chinatown.
Citations:
- (1935).’, ‘. R. (2018). Harlem Riot (1935). Retrieved November 30, 2018, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/harlem-riot-1935
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Harlem Race Riot of 1935.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Harlem-race-riot-of-1935.
- “Harlem Race Riot (1935).” Boley, Oklahoma (1903- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed, blackpast.org/aah/harlem-riot-1935.
- “Disasters.” A Faculty Guide to Student Academic Integrity – Baruch College, 3 Dec. 2018, www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/disasters/riots-harlem_1943.html.
- Boley, Oklahoma (1903- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed, 14 Dec. 2018, blackpast.org/aah/harlem-race-riot-1964.
- “Population of Harlem, New York, New York (Neighborhood).” Educational Attainment in the United States – Statistical Atlas, 17 Dec. 2018, statisticalatlas.com/neighborhood/New-York/New-York/Harlem/Population.
