🚨Massive Riot Breaks Out in Harlem

July 19, 1964 - Thousands of rioting Negroes raced through the center of Harlem last night and early today, shouting at policemen and white people, pulling fire alarms, breaking windows, and looting stores.

At least 30 persons were arrested.

There was no estimate on the number injured. Scores of persons with bloodied heads were seen throughout the eight-block area between Eighth and Lenox Avenues and 123rd and 127th Streets, where most of the rioting occurred.

The riot grew out of a demonstration in front of the West 123rd Street police station protesting the slaying of a Negro youth by a white police lieutenant last Thursday.

The demonstration followed a rally at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue, where speakers decried the shooting of the boy, 15-year-old James Powell, by Lieut. Thomas Gilligan in Yorkville.

When the police sealed off the block in front of the station house, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, the shouting, keyed-up crowd spread out in angry groups in the surrounding neighborhood.

Shots fired into the air by policemen to disperse the milling crowds echoed through streets littered with overturned garbage cans and broken glass.

More than 500 policemen, including all members of the tactical patrol force on duty in Manhattan and Brooklyn, were called out to control the mobs. However, the crowds continued to grow as rumors of the rioting spread through the community.

Fire apparatus was brought in at 1 a.m. in an effort to block off streets in the riot area.

The Transit Authority sent extra policemen to stand guard at most of the Harlem subway stations. It also diverted buses from their regular routes.

By 3 a.m., 5½ hours after the riot started, the situation was not under control.

Police roamed the streets with revolvers drawn.

On Lenox Avenue, between 125th and 126th Streets, police fired at people who were throwing bottles and bricks down at them from roofs.

Some people milling at the corner of 125th Street and Lenox Avenue ran as the policemen fired. Others stood their ground, laughing and applauding.

Attempts to disperse the crowds by appealing to them through loudspeakers failed. Refuse baskets were set afire, and Molotov cocktail bombs — bottles filled with gasoline — were thrown into the streets.

More than 20 patrol cars had to come to the assistance of policemen at the corner of 125th Street at Lenox Avenue who were guarded two smashed shop windows when a group of Negroes began to threaten them.

The reinforcements dispersed the crowd by firing shots into the air. The crowd retreated, shouting taunts over their shoulders.

However, when the reinforcements left to assist other policemen, the crowd re-formed and threatened the guards again. This maneuver was typical of the many roving gangs in the area.

Windshields of several police cars were smashed by hurled objects. Policemen on foot moved gingerly along the streets to avoid objects thrown from roofs.

Crowds even yelled “Killers, killers” at policemen who went to the aid of a young Negro girl who apparently was struck by a hit-and-run driver on 125th Street.

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