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College Boys Cause A Riot and A Race Riot on the West Side of Manhattan 1900

SERIOUS TROUBLE AT NINTH REGIMENT ARMORY over a Baseball Game. Attempt Made to Seize Arms.

1.The indoor baseball game played last evening between teams from the College of the City of New York and the Ninth Regiment at the armory in West Fourteenth Street ended in a Riot. The college boys and their adherents were not satisfied with the decision of the umpire in the second half of the fifth inning. The first protest was made to the umpire direct. This had no effect, and some of the college boys started in to make things lively. Their first move was to threaten the umpire. This was followed by a more serious demonstration, when a crowd of the students rushed to one end of the drill floor and tried to break open the cases in which the guns are kept. The protests against the umpire's decision had excited the students to such an extent that a crowd of those who had been sitting in the galleries rushed down to the drill floor and joined with the others in the attempted raid on the guns.

Meanwhile members of the Ninth Regiment, under the direction of an armorer, had gathered near the guns and were doing their best to prevent the students from breaking open the cases. Some one called the nearest policemen, who by persuasion and threats of arrest succeeded in clearing the armory. A group of college boys stood on the street in front of the building for some time waiting for the umpire who had incurred their displeasure. The man was taken out of one of the other doors by the police, however, and escaped the threatened trouble.

At the time of the outbreak the score stood 11 to 9 in favor of the regiment team. The college boys up to that inning had held the score a tie, and the protest was against a decision of the umpire's which admitted 2 runs against them. The only serious damage done as a result of the trouble was the wrecking of the large blackboard on which the score was posted. The umpires, against whom the college boys became incensed were Messers. Lichtenstein and Jenks. As a result of the trouble orders will be issued by Col. Morris of the Ninth Regiment that the members shall not play with outside teams in future.

A Race Riot On The West Side of Manhattan 1900

A disturbance which had its inception in race prejudice broke out on the West Side of Manhattan, in the district embraced between Twenty-eighth and Forty-second streets and Seventh and Tenth avenues, about 11 o'clock last night and lasted until nearly 3 o'clock this morning. It grew to the proportions of a riot between whites and negroes and the services of nearly 700 of the police reserves under Chief Devery and Acting Captain Cooney were required to restore order. So serious did the affair become at one time that the chief instructed the Brooklyn police precinct commanders to have their reserves in readiness to join him in Manhattan at any time.

In the course of the riot nearly sixty persons mostly colored, were injured, many of them severely, and some thirty-five were arrested and locked up. There is much uncertainty as to how the row started, but it is generally agreed that the death of Policeman Robert J. Thorpe of the West Thirty-seventh street station had much to do with the affair.

Thorpe made an effort, early Sunday morning, to arrest May Eao, a negress, at Eighth avenue and Forty-first street. The black woman's lover, Arthur Harris, attacked Thorpe. He had a razor and cut Thorpe three times in the stomach and escaped. Thorpe died on Monday.

The body of the dead policeman was taken to the home of his sister, Lizzie Thorpe, 481 Ninth avenue, last night. The hearse had hardly driven away when Thorpe's friends began to arrive for the wake. Considerable liquor was consumed and a yearning for revenge began to rise in the breasts of Thorpe's friends, which gradually extended to the entire colored race. A woman, evidently intoxicated, issued from the house and raised an outcry for vengeance on Thorpe's murderer, and she was soon joined by men and women similarly stimulated.

An attack was made on the first passing colored man and this was repeated. The negroes who fled got off easy: these who resisted were brutally handled. The infection of riot and destruction extended to certain gangs of white loafers, who infest the neighborhoods, notably that known as the "Hell's Kitchen Gang," and they readily joined in the assaults upon the negroes. "Kill the niggers" was the slogan of the lower west side for blocks around.

Finally the disturbance assumed such proportions that the policemen on beat realized that they could not cope with it and they telephoned to Acting Captain Cooney. The captain not only turned out the west Thirty-seventh street reserves, but called up Police Headquarters, and from that point the policemen on reserve in West Twentieth street, West Thirtieth street and even as far up as West Forty-seventh street were routed out and ordered to the scene of riot. For the next hour the streets were filled with the sound of flying, clanging patrol wagons, ambulances, the rushing of angry thousands, the shrieking of women, the lamentations of children.

From that time until 3 clock the police found they had all that they could do to subdue the crowd. Driven from one neighborhood the mob surged into other streets, searched tenements for colored men and women whom they dragged forth and proceeded to kick and pound all over the streets until the victims were rescued by a rush of the police.

In the meantime the negroes themselves were not backward in their own defense. Revolvers, knives and razors played a prominent part in the engagement and several persons suffered from gunshot, wounds, cuts and stabs. In one encounter Policeman John Kennedy was cut in the arm and shoulder and seriously but not fatally hurt. In return he shot one of his negro assailants. Lee, through the jaw and breast and he was otherwise so badly injured that it is thought at Bellevue Hospital that he will die.

From the roofs of the tenements the negroes showered the police and rioters both with bricks, stones and sticks and inflicted some painful injuries. Not satisfied with attacking such blacks as could be found in the streets and tenements, the rioters boarded the Eighth and Ninth avenue cars and dragged negro passengers over the laps of the other passengers to the street where they were kicked and pounded into insensibility.

James Rice, the conductor of a Ninth avenue car was shot in the left leg by a negro passenger who was trying to defend himself and was taken to Roosevelt Hospital.

The mob invaded the various restaurants and attacked the negro waiters, and in some cases the restaurants were closed. The police gradually restored order, but were not withdrawn from the neighborhood until late this morning. The arrests were numerous. The blacks were in the majority in the lists of prisoners. In several cases the police absolutely declined to arrest white men. In one case on Eighth avenue, a ruffian in the mob even ventured to ask a policeman for his club to attack a negro bicyclist, who was already lying prostrate in the street.

The reserves of the station which had been on duty nearly all night were called in during the morning and after 5 o'clock there were only spasmodic troubles, a policeman once in a while bringing in a prisoner. Two arrests made were those of James and Ethel Harris on suspicion of being the Harris who killed Thorpe. The man and his wife live at 229 West Fortieth street, and two detectives hearing that a man named Harris lived there with his wife and that they were negroes went up and arrested them on no other evidence. They were taken to the station house and locked up. They denied knowing anything about Thorpe, and said they had had no part in the disturbances. They were finally discharged, but were afraid to leave the station and were finally given cells for the night.

The precinct was very quiet during the later hours of the morning. There were no signs of a renewal of the troubles and colored and white people passed one another without any sign that the terrible times of last night had happened at all. Fifteen patrol wagons were required to take the prisoners of the West Thirty-seventh street station to the West Side court this morning. The
rioters arrested were in a bad state. They were bandaged up in many instances, but very many of them exposed their cuts and bruises, and they did not present a very cheerful appearance.

David H. Tarr of 215 West Thirty-fifth street, the negro charged with cutting Policeman Kennedy was arraigned by Policeman Dorsey. He said he found Tarr running through West Thirty-seventh street, toward Seventh avenue. His clothing and collar were bloody, and he arrested him. He was told by another officer that Tarr had stabbed Kennedy, and Kennedy identified Tarr as one of his assailants. Lloyd Lee, another negro, was arrested at the same time on the same charge, but he was bruised and bleeding from participation in the rioting and they took him to Bellevue Hospital. Magistrate Cornell held Tarr without bail to await the result of Kennedy's injuries.

Other prisoners were arraigned, but the police were so unprepared as to cause the magistrate great annoyance. Many of them had no witnesses, but the magistrate, in most cases, held the prisoners for examination on the officers' statement.

In the Jefferson Market court this morning the following prisoners arrested by the officers of the West Thirtieth street station were arraigned: John Shank of 631 East Thirty-seventh street. Richard Wilson of 518 East Thirty-seventh street. Margaret Wicksman of 500 West Thirty-seventh street. Charles Denis of 308 West Thirty-seventh street, James Wilson of 260 West Fifty-third street, James Harris of 229 West Fortieth street. Ethel Harris of 229 West Fortieth street, Richard Harris of 125 West Thirty-seventh street, William Knack of 12 West Thirty-sixth street, John A. Hughes of 110 West Thirty-sixth street, Henry; Miller of 135 East Thirty-fifth street, John Smadick of 210 West Forty-fourth street, John Benson of 437 West Thirty-sixth street, Richard Benning of 254 West Fifty-fourth street.

Nearly all of them were put under bonds to keep the peace for six months or held for examination where specific charges could be made. There were no disturbances this morning in the district where the rioting occurred last night and negroes and whites appeared each unconcerned by the other's presence, but the police arrangements are of the most perfect character.

To take the places of the 120 men from the West Thirty-seventh street station who will attend the funeral of the murdered policeman Inspector Walter Thompson has caused other policemen from various precincts to take their places and aside from these he has as a precautionary measure scattered 150 more policemen throughout the precinct to see that order of the strictest character is observed.

The precinct will be kept fairly alive with bluecoats until every vestige of the trouble between the whites and blacks has disappeared, and the first semblance of trouble will be quelled in the shortest order possible. With the additional policemen scattered about it is not likely, according to Inspector Thompson, that any trouble will arise. If it does, he says, it will be of short duration.

[End of Article]

 


Article Information:
Article Name: College Boys Cause A Riot and A Race Riot On The West Side Of Manhattan 1900
Website: http:www.thehistorybox.com | Researcher/Transcriber Miriam Medina
Source:  BIBLIOGRAPHY:  1. New York Times January 28, 1900  2. Brooklyn Eagle August 16, 1900
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