July 21, 1964 - White merchants in Harlem say they are frightened.
By and large, they say, they would like to sell out and move to a white neighborhood. But they cannot, they add, because there are no young whites eager to buy the businesses, and most Negroes lack the cash.
Most of the white merchants have owned stores in Harlem for 30 or 40 years. They have seen the neighborhood change slowly, first from one that contained whites as well as Negroes to a largely black community and now to a neighborhood seething with racial feeling and Black Nationalism.
They say they believe that nationalism is likely to intensify. Already an increasing number of signs in Harlem proclaim Negro ownership of stores.
“This shop is owned and operated by black me,” says a sign in the window of the Scorpio shoe repair shop, 2143 Seventh Avenue.
The white owner of one small store said he had bought it two years ago for $18,000 but would be glad to sell for $15,000.
“It’s a loss, sure, and no one wants to take a loss, but enough is enough,” he said. “Two years ago, it wasn’t like it is today.
“I tell you what they ought to do — take all that Federal money coming into Harlem and buy all the small stores. Then give them Harlem. Let them hold all the demonstrations they want. Let them do anything they want with it.”
In another store, the owner said: “If they could just shut up this guy Farmer [James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality] it would be all right.”
His son interjected: “It’s not just Farmer. It’s the Black Nationalists, the Communists, Farmer, all of them.”
His father added: “Your store isn’t worth a dollar to sell. So, we stay here.”
“You know what they’re doing?” the son asked. “They are organizing each block in this area for guerrilla war. Block by block — regular troops.”
“You’re making it too strong, son,” the older man said.
In another store, the owner summoned a reporter to the back, shook his head, and said: “If they bust Gilligan [Lieut. Thomas Gilligan, whose shooting of a Negro youth led to the riots], no cop up here is worth 10 cents.”
“It used to be,” said another store owner, “that you would sell them something for 25 cents and they would say you were cheating them. But now when it happens, they say you’re cheating the black race.”
In one store, the owner said he had been visited by a Black Nationalist. He said:
“He was one of these Muslims, and he pointed at the Negro girl who works for me and said: ‘White man, see that girl there? In five years, she will own the store, and you will be sweeping.’
“So, I told him they wouldn’t have to wait five years, that I have always done the sweeping here, and I will still do it.
“I told him as a Jewish man that we have had troubles too, but that you people want to start at the top, and we are willing to start at the bottom.”
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