Serious Rioting by Negroes

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 67, 21 March 1935, Page 6

Serious Rioting by Negroes

Hundreds of Police Needed To Quell Outbreak

EXCITEMENT IN HARLEM

United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Received Wednesday, 10.5 p.m. NEW YORK, March 20 The theft of a penny bit of caudy by a ten-year-old negro boy in a large “five and ten cent, store” in Harlem, a section of the city almost exclusively inhabited by negroes, caused serious riots to-night, which had not been completely quelled by midnight. According to tho manager, the buy was caught stealing sweets and severely bit tho fingers of liis captors, He was taken to the office, lectured and released, but either spontaneously or by the design of agitators, a rumour was spread that the child was being beaten. Soon throngs of negroes swept through the store overturning counters anil causing considerable damage, while a threatening mob of several thousand gathered outside. The arrival of a hearse gave birth lo a rumour that the child was dead and almost instantly the crowd turned into a lighting mob. The plate glass windows of the store and nearby establishments were shattered by hurled brickbats and soon vandalism spread throughout the area. Between 500 and 100 U police were called and managed to clear the immediate area, only to have rioting break out at other points. The fury of the negroes was whipped by' Communist agitators, who, within an hour of the disturbance, flooded the section with handbills denouncing the “bosses” for their persecution of negroes. Three score or more were injured among the rioters and the police, while dozens of arrests for inciting to. riot and assault were made. To pacify the negroes, the police ordered the boy, who the store officials claimed to be unharmed, to bo produced, to show the falsity of the reports, but unfortunately he had disappeared on his release and the police found the greatest difficulty in convincing the negro population that he was not dead or at least seriously injured.