Harlem Riot (1935)

Tue Mar 19, 1935

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Image: Harlem Riot headline, New York Daily News, March 20th, 1935 [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1935, a riot in Harlem began, sparked by rumors that a black Puerto Rican teenager was beaten by employees at a “five and dime” store, leading to what historian Jeffrey Stewart called “the first modern race riot”.

That evening, a demonstration organized by the Young Communist League and a black group called the Young Liberators was held outside the store and, after someone threw a rock through the window, police began arresting speakers and trying to disperse the crowd. More general destruction of the store and other white-owned properties ensued. In the subsequent violence, 3 black people were killed, 125 were arrested, and 100 more injured.

An estimated $2 million in damages was caused to properties throughout the district, although black-owned homes and businesses were spared the worst of the destruction.

Sociologist Allen D. Grimshaw identified the Harlem Riot of 1935 as “the first manifestation of a ‘modern’ form of racial rioting”, which he characterized as having destruction directed almost entirely at property, and violent clashes taking place between black people and police, as opposed to racial groups fighting directly.