Harlem uprisings of 1935

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The Harlem Riots of 1935 were the first racial riots in the Harlem neighborhood of New York . The trigger for the uprising was a rumor that a young shoplifter had been the victim of an act of violence. Three people were killed in the riot and hundreds were injured. Property damage in the neighborhood was estimated at $ 2 million, with African American- owned homes and businesses spared the worst of the damage.

Riots

trigger

On the afternoon of March 19, 1935, an employee of the store caught Kress Five and Ten in the 125th Street the 16-year-old Puerto Rican Lino Rivera in how he was a penknife trying to steal valued at 10 cents. After the clerk threatened to beat Rivera in the basement of the store, Rivera bit the clerk on the hand. The branch manager intervened and called the police, but Rivera was ultimately released. Meanwhile, a crowd gathered in front of the shop around a woman who could testify to Rivera's arrest and who shouted about the beatings. When an ambulance pulled up to treat the bitten employee's wounds, it seemed like the woman's story was confirmed. After the crowd noticed a hearse parked in front of the store , it was rumored that Rivera had been beaten to death. While the woman, who first raised people's concern, was arrested for " disorderly conduct" , the deal closed early. The crowd of people was dispersed.

outbreak

In the early evening, a group called Young Liberators organized a demonstration in front of the store, attended by at least thousands of people . Leaflets were distributed; one was headed with the sentence “CHILD BRUTALLY BEATEN” (German: “KIND BRUTAL BEATEN”). Another leaflet criticized "the brutal beating of a 12-year-old boy [...] for taking sweets."

At one point one of the protesters threw a stone that flew into the window of the shop. From that moment on, destruction and looting continued east and west along 125th Street. In particular, the protesters targeted white-owned shops and businesses between Fifth and Eighth Avenues . Some shops put up signs saying “COLORED STORE” or “HERE ARE COLORED ASSISTANTS EMPLOYED”. In the early hours of the next day, Lino Rivera was picked up from his mother's home by a police officer. The photos were subsequently circulated as evidence that Rivera was not injured. Fiorello La Guardia , the then mayor of New York, ordered posters and asked citizens for the return of peace.

Consequences and Investigations

At the end of the following day, order was restored to the streets of Harlem. District Attorney William C. Dodge blamed communist incitement for the unrest. La Guardia set up a multi-ethnic committee to investigate the causes of the riots. The committee, led by the African-American sociologist E. Franklin Frazier , published the report "The Negro in Harlem: A Report on Social and Economic Conditions Responsible for the Outbreak of March 19, 1935", in which the riots were described as "spontaneous" and any allegations for a dismissed the ideological actions of the demonstrators. The Committee continued to recognize “injustice in the form of discrimination in the workplace, aggressive police behavior and racial segregation” as factors that ultimately led to the riot. The report also congratulated the communist organizations, which "deserve more credit than anyone in Harlem for preventing physical conflict between whites and blacks." Alain Locke was called upon to implement the committee's suggestions for improvement.

Historical consideration

Jeffrey Stewart, professor of history at George Mason University , described the Harlem uprising of 1935 as "the first modern racial riot". The riots "were a symbol that the optimism and hope that fueled the Harlem Renaissance were dead."

The sociologist Allen D. Grimshaw described the uprisings as "the first manifestation of a 'modern' form of racially motivated unrest" by citing the following criteria:

  • Violence almost exclusively directed against private property
  • no fighting between ethnic groups
  • Dispute between the black underclass and the police

Even if previous racial riots were marked by brutal clashes between groups of black and white insurgents, subsequent riots would be more reminiscent of the Harlem riots.

literature

  • Janet L. Abu Lughod: Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Oxford University Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-993655-7 , pp. 129-158 (= 4. The Harlem Revolts of 1935 and 1943 ).
  • Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman (Eds.): Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: KY. Routledge, New York 2004, ISBN 1-57958-389-X , pp. 1058-1062 (= Riots: 4 - Harlem Riot, 1935 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Fisher: Street of Dreams . In: The New York Times , April 11, 1993, accessed November 1, 2015.
  2. ↑ Harlem Renaissance . In: PBS , February 20, 1998, accessed April 9, 2008.
  3. ↑ Allen D. Grimshaw: Racial Violence in the United States. Aldine Publishing, Chicago 1969.