March 19, 1935: The 1st Harlem Race Riot

March 19, 1935: What is generally regarded as the 1st "modern" race riot in Harlem breaks out. It will not be the last.

Named by Dutch settlers for the city of Haarlem back home, the area -- generally agreed to be Manhattan Island between 100th and 155th Streets -- had started out as farmland tended by wealthy landowners. When it was first developed at the turn of the 20th Century, it became home to poor Germans, like Lou Gehrig and his family. But it soon became America's best-known black neighborhood. By the 1920s, it was the home of "the Harlem Renaissance," a literary and artistic flowering.

The New York Police Department, still largely made up of poor Irishmen, didn't like the attention that the blacks of Harlem were getting, and tended to treat them roughly. And, as with many racial disturbances, the one that began on March 19, 1935 began with a rumor. In all likelihood, this one will never be proven one way or the other. The rumor was that a black Puerto Rican teenager had shoplifted at an S.H. Kress "five-and-ten" (or "five-and-dime") store, and was beaten by the police.

That night, a demonstration was held outside the store, and, after someone threw a rock through the store's front window, more general destruction of the store and other white-owned properties ensued. Three people died (that Daily News headline above is an early edition), hundreds of people were wounded or injured, and an estimated $2 million in damages was caused to properties throughout the district. Unlike many later race riots in America, African American-owned homes and businesses were spared the worst of the destruction.

There have since been race riots in Harlem in 1943, 1964 and 1968.

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March 19, 1935 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Montreal Maroons beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Eagles, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the New York Rangers and the New York Americans were not scheduled.