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| Harlem Riot of 1935 | |
|---|---|
| Name | Harlem Riot of 1935 |
| Date | March 19–20, 1935 |
| Place | Harlem, New York City |
| Causes | Allegations of police brutality, economic hardship, racial tensions |
| Methods | Rioting, looting, mobs, confrontations with police |
| Fatalities | 3 dead (official), dozens injured |
| Arrests | Hundreds |
Harlem Riot of 1935
The Harlem Riot of 1935 was a three-day civil disturbance in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City triggered by the alleged police beating of a black teenage shoplifter. The disturbance drew national attention to conditions in Harlem, involving figures and institutions such as the New York Police Department, the Works Progress Administration, the NAACP, and the New York Daily News while influencing policy debates in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and local officials like Fiorello La Guardia.
In the early 1930s Harlem was a cultural and political hub shaped by the Great Migration, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, and demographic shifts linked to neighborhoods across Manhattan and boroughs like Brooklyn and The Bronx. Local leaders including Adam Clayton Powell Jr., A. Philip Randolph, and Marcus Garvey had previously mobilized around labor and civil rights alongside organizations such as the National Urban League, the NAACP, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Federal programs from the New Deal era—implemented by agencies like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps—coexisted with pervasive unemployment, housing shortages, and strained relations between residents and institutions like the New York Police Department and the municipal courts dominated by figures from Tammany Hall-era politics and reformers allied with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia.
On March 19, 1935, a report circulated that an African American teenager had been beaten by white employees at the S.S. Kresge five-and-dime (a subsidiary of what later became Kmart) on 125th Street. The story reached congregation leaders at churches such as Abyssinian Baptist Church and community organizations including the Local 1199 and the Harlem Tenants League, and was amplified by newspapers like the New York Amsterdam News and the Daily Worker as well as wire services used by the Associated Press. Rumors and eyewitness accounts connected the incident to patterns of confrontations involving the NYPD, local shopkeepers, and the municipal police precincts that served Harlem residents.
What began as a gathering outside the store rapidly escalated as protesters moved along commercial corridors including 125th Street and clashed with patrolmen from the New York Police Department. Mobs engaged in looting and property damage at establishments including chain stores and local businesses, while firefighters from the New York City Fire Department and ambulance crews responded to injuries. The disturbance prompted interventions by city officials, with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and Police Commissioner Murray Hulbert?—note: municipal leadership—deploying additional precincts and calling for marshals and auxiliary police. Reporters from newspapers such as the New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the Chicago Defender documented arrests and the use of force as clashes spread to adjacent blocks and attracted attention from labor unions like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and civil rights advocates tied to Randolph and the NAACP.
The riot reflected long-standing grievances tied to the Great Depression's impact on employment, discriminatory practices in housing in areas like the Upper West Side and Spanish Harlem, and antagonism toward law enforcement patterns associated with precincts and municipal courts. Political patronage networks involving Tammany Hall and reformist alliances under La Guardia shaped policing and social services responses, while cultural institutions from the Apollo Theater to literary outlets emerging from the Harlem Renaissance signaled a community simultaneously vibrant and economically precarious. Influences from national movements—labor activism spearheaded by the CIO and civil rights strategies advanced by the NAACP and leaders like A. Philip Randolph—intersected with local dynamics including storefront discrimination, boycotts organized by neighborhood associations, and the circulation of reports through black press organs such as the New York Amsterdam News and the Chicago Defender.
Official tallies reported several deaths and dozens injured, with hundreds arrested by the New York Police Department and detained in facilities tied to the municipal court system and city jails. Hospitals including Harlem Hospital Center treated victims while clergy from Abyssinian Baptist Church and social workers from agencies like the Urban League mobilized relief. Investigations and inquests involved local judges and prosecutors and prompted coverage in national papers including the New York Times and magazines such as Time (magazine), sparking debates in the offices of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and members of Congress representing New York districts.
The riot generated responses from elected officials including Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and borough politicians, and triggered inquiries led by municipal bodies and civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the National Urban League. Legislative figures such as members of the United States House of Representatives from New York pressed for hearings, while local courts processed mass arrests, engaging public defenders and private attorneys associated with groups like the International Labor Defense and attorneys connected to civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union. The disturbances influenced policing policies, recruitment practices in the NYPD, and municipal programs under New Deal agencies such as the Works Progress Administration that sought to address unemployment and public works in minority neighborhoods.
The 1935 disturbance became a reference point for subsequent actions in Harlem and other urban centers, informing civil rights organizing by figures like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and institutional strategies by the NAACP and A. Philip Randolph. It contributed to discussions about urban policy within the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and later municipal leaders, affected media coverage in outlets from the New York Amsterdam News to the Chicago Defender, and resonated in scholarly studies of the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, and race relations in the United States. Cultural and political memory of the event shaped later responses to disturbances in cities such as Detroit, Los Angeles, and Newark, influencing debates about policing reform, housing policy, and federal relief programs administered by agencies like the Social Security Board and the Works Progress Administration.
Category:1935 riots Category:History of Harlem Category:New York City riots