35. “Crowley Battle in 1931 Recalled,” NYT, February 21, 1955; “Coll Is Shot Dead in a Phone Booth by Rival Gunmen,” NYT, February 8, 1932; “2 Policeman, 3 Thugs and Child Slain in Battle During 12-Mile Hold-Up Chase,” NYT, August 22, 1931.
36. “Police Radio Helps Trap Two in Forgery,” NYT, February 25, 1932.
37. “Major Crime Here Down 17% Last Year,” NYT, March 20, 1933.
38. “Lieut. Wesley Williams, Only Negro Officer in New York Fire Fighting Forces, Wins Praise for Bravery,” NYA, April 7, 1928; “Lieut. Wesley Williams Is Hero in Allen Street Fire; Had Narrow Escape,” NYA, June 29, 1929; undated, unattributed newspaper photograph, WWP; “8 Firemen Trapped in Blazing Building,” NYT, November 18, 1933.
39. Samuel Battle to Wesley Williams, September 6, 1933, WWP.
40. “Society,” AMN, July 5, 1933; “Ass’n Reveals Tourney Prizes,” AMN, July 26, 1933; “Ramses of N.Y.U. Sponsors Frolic,” AMN, April 28, 1934.
41. Randall Kennedy, “Racial Passing,” Ohio State Law Journal 62, no. 1145 (2001), http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/students/groups/oslj/files/2012/03/62.3.kennedy.pdf.
42. US Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census, 1930.
43. White et al., Playing the Numbers, 178–79; “Negroes No Longer Control Harlem Numbers Business as Kings Work for Bronx Beer Racketeer,” NYA, August 13, 1932; “Two Put on Stand,” NYT, August 18, 1938.
44. “Numbers Banker Slain,” NYA, March 11, 1933.
45. J. Richard (Dixie) Davis, “Things I Couldn’t Tell Till Now,” Collier’s, July 29, 1939, 20.
46. “Committee Chosen to Present Harlem’s Needs to Mayor,” NYA, April 7, 1934.
47. Thomas Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989), 70.
48. “Rid City of Gangs, Is Order to Police,” NYT, January 12, 1934.
49. “City and State Officials Speak at NAACP Celebration,” NYA, March 24, 1934; “La Guardia Says He’d Be Glad to Help De Priest,” Afro-American (Baltimore), March 24, 1934.
50. “Identify Two Suspects in Police Killing,” New York Daily News, April 23, 1934; “Murder of 3 Cops Admitted by Felon Dying of Wounds,” New York Daily News, May 3, 1940.
51. “Miss Charline Battle Takes Vows and Changes Her Name,” AMN, June 16, 1934.
52. Walter White, A Man Called White: The Autobiography of Walter White (Atlanta: University of Georgia Press, 1995), 3–4, 11.
53. John H. Johnson, Fact Not Fiction in Harlem (Glen Cove, NY: Northern Type Printing, 1980), 50; “Blumstein’s Store to Hire Negro Clerks,” NYA, August 4, 1934.
54. “Summer College Students Offer to Picket Discriminating Store; League Preparing for Parade,” NYA, July 21, 1934.
CHAPTER FIVE: RESPECT
1. Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume I, 1902–1941: I, Too Sing America (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), 13.
2. “Harlem Greets Negro Lieutenant,” NYT, January 9, 1935.
3. “Negro Fireman Battle Discrimination,” AMN, October 13, 1934.
4. Oswald Garrison Villard, “Walking Through Race Prejudice,” Nation, January 30, 1935, 119.
5. “Rid City of Crooks, La Guardia Orders,” NYT, April 30, 1934; Lowell M. Limpus, Honest Cop: Lewis J. Valentine (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1939), 178; Thomas Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989), 358.
6. “One-Man-Raid Battles Does a Carrie Nation,” AMN, May 12, 1934.
7. Mayor’s Commission on Conditions in Harlem, The Negro in Harlem, 100–106; “Mayor Orders Investigation of Harlem Riot,” Afro-American, March 24, 1934; Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia, 373.
8. Mayor’s Commission on Conditions in Harlem, The Negro in Harlem: A Report on Social and Economic Conditions Responsible for the Outbreak of March 19, 1935, 1–2, La Guardia Papers, New York City Municipal Reference Library.
9. Arthur Garfield Hays, City Lawyer: The Autobiography of a Law Practice (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942), 281–82.
10. “Police Are Hissed at Harlem Hearing,” NYT, May 5, 1935.
11. “Hays Chides Police at Harlem Inquiry,” NYT, May 19, 1935.
12. Mayor’s Commission on Conditions in Harlem, The Negro in Harlem, 102, 107.
13. Alain Locke, Harlem: Dark Weather Vane, La Guardia Papers, New York City Municipal Reference Library.
14. COH.
15. “Holstein Seized in a Police Raid,” NYT, December 24, 1935.
16. COH.
17. Ibid.
18. US Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census, 1940.
19. “Battle to Mark 25 Years as Cop with Youthful Outlook,” AMN, June 27, 1936.
20. “Negro Celebrates 25 Years on the Force,” NYT, June 29, 1936.
21. Clay Moyle, Sam Langford: Boxing’s Greatest Uncrowned Champion (Seattle: Bennett & Hastings, 2006), 372.
22. Ernest Hemingway, “Million Dollar Fight: A New York Letter,” Esquire, December 1935, 35.
23. Langston Hughes, I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey (New York: Hill and Wang, 1956), 315.
24. William J. Baker, Jesse Owens: An American Life (New York: Free Press, 1986), 123.
25. Ibid., 127; “Harlemites Hiss Olympic Parade,” CD, September 12, 1936.
26. “Olympic Stars Get Welcome of City,” NYT, September 4, 1936.
27. “Sportopics: The Mighty Has Fallen,” AMN, September 26, 1936.
28. “Prominent in Week’s News,” AMN, January, 29, 1938.
29. “History of Bethune-Cookman University,” B-CU website, http://www.bethune.cookman.edu/about_BCU/history/index.html.
30. Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2: The Defining Years, 1933–1938 (New York: Viking, 1999), 161.
31. COH.
32. Dorothy Height, Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), 82–83.
33. BOH.
34. “Fire Fighters Organize Club in Department,” AMN, September 20, 1941.
35. “Indicts Man in Holt Slaying,” AMN, February 24, 1940; “Mayor at Funeral of Slain Policeman,” NYT, February 17, 1940.
36. Sondra Kathryn Wilson, ed., In Search of Democracy: The NAACP Writings of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins (1920–1977) (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999), 172–73.
37. Football Records of the New York Yankees, 1940–1941, http://www.luckyshow.org/football/NYYanks3.htm.
38. “Hundred Guests at Matron’s Surprise Celebration,” AMN, April 1, 1939.
39. “On Parole Board,” NYT, August 21, 1941.
40. Dominic J. Capeci, The Harlem Riot of 1943 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1977), 59.
41. Buckley, American Patriots, 270.
42. David F. Schmitz, Henry L. Stimson: The First Wise Man (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2001), 146.
43. Walter White, A Man Called White: The Autobiography of Walter White (Atlanta: University of Georgia Press, 1995), 189–92.
44. “A Disgusted Negro Trooper,” to Cleveland Call & Post, August 16, 1944, in Phillip McGuire, ed., Taps for a Jim Crow Army: Letters from Black Soldiers in World War II (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983), 196.
45. “By Way of Mention,” NYA, July 24, 1943.
46. “First Lady Praises Mrs. Mary Bethune,” NYT, May 3, 1943; “Harlem Turned Out Sunday in Honor of Noted Educator and Leader,” AMN, May 8, 1943; “Mrs. Roosevelt Assails Bigotry in Harlem Talk,” New York Herald Tribune, May 3, 1943.
47. “Hell Breaks Loose in Eight Cities,” AMN, June 26, 1943.
48. Capeci, The Harlem Riot of 1943, 82.
49. White, A Man Called White, 236–38.
50. Ibid., 3–4.
51. “The Reminiscences of David Dressler,” 1972, Oral History Collection of Columbia University; “Welfare Island Raid Bares Gangster Rule Over Prison,” NYT, January 25, 1934; “Affidavits Name Hines Parole Czar,” NYT, January 31, 1934.
52. “The Reminiscences of David Dressler,�
� 1972, Oral History Collection of Columbia University.
53. “Six Soldiers Reported Killed in Dixie Rioting,” AMN, January 17, 1942; “Jim Crowed as She Escorts Body of Her Soldier Son,” Cleveland Call & Post, July 18, 1942; “German Prisoners Ate In Station Dining Room in Texas, While Negro Soldiers Were Forced to Accept ‘Kitchen Hand-Outs,’ Army Veteran Writes Courier,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 8, 1944.
54. “By Way of Mention,” NYA, February 5, 1944.
55. New York City Fire Department Transfer Request, July 25, 1941, WWP; Wesley Williams to Alfred E. Smith, August 18, 1941, WWP; New York City Fire Department Transfer Request, January 10, 1942, WWP.
56. Anonymous to Fiorello La Guardia, August 9, 1944, WWP; Anonymous to Fiorello La Guardia, September 18, 1944, WWP.
57. Wesley Williams and others to Patrick J. Walsh, October 14, 1944, WWP.
58. Wesley Williams and others to Hubert T. Delany, November 16, 1944, WWP.
59. “Fire Commissioner to Investigate Jim Crow Charges of Firemen,” NYA, December 16, 1944.
60. Wesley Williams to Adam Powell Jr., October 20, 1945, WWP.
61. Kessner, Fiorello H. La Guardia, 527.
62. “Casper Holstein Dies, Fabulous Harlem Figure,” New York Herald Tribune, April 9, 1944; “Former ‘Policy King’ in Harlem Dies Broke,” NYT, April 9, 1944; Casper Holstein, “One-Time Numbers King, Dies Broke,” Afro-American (Baltimore), April 15, 1944.
63. COH.
64. Jim Haskins and N. R. Mitgang, Mr. Bojangles: The Biography of Bill Robinson (New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, 2000), 21–24, 296–97.
65. BN.
66. BN.
67. BN.
CHAPTER SIX: FORGOTTEN
1. “New York’s First Black Fire Chief Dies at 89,” AMN, July 7, 1984.
2. “Dr. E. P. Roberts Buried After 58 Years as Medic,” AMN, January 17, 1953.
3. “War Correspondent Lauds Negro Soldier Fighting in France,” NYA, November 9, 1918.
4. “Needham Roberts, Who Bagged 24 Germans in the War, Waxes Bitter Over the Way the Whites Have Treated Us,” Pittsburgh Courier, November 26, 1938; “New Facts Brought to Light in Roberts Double Suicide,” NYA, April 30, 1949.
5. COH.
6. BN.
7. John H. Johnson, Fact Not Fiction in Harlem (Glen Cove, NY: Northern Type Printing, 1980), 96; Charles Cobb, grandson of Moses P. Cobb, interview with author.
INDEX
Please note that page numbers are not accurate for the e-book edition.
Abyssinian Baptist Church, 181, 230, 281
Acuna, Chile, 213
Adams, Big Frank, 179
African American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church (“Freedom Church”): baptism of Carroll at, 107; Anne Battle in, 7; Thomas Battle in, 10; christening of Charline at, 94; dedication of new building for, 193; Jesse Owens at, 250; Reverdy Ransom of, 63–64; Paul Robeson at, 190; thirty-first wedding anniversary at, 246; Alexander Walters of, 41; wedding of Charline at, 227–29
Afro-American Council, 41–42
Afro-American Realty Company, 56
Agard, Harry F., 158–60
Aikens, Thomas, 238
Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company, 265
Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees, 107–8
AME Zion Church. See African American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church (“Freedom Church”)
Amsterdam News (newspaper), 152–53, 183, 193, 196, 199, 212, 238, 246, 250, 266, 273, 286
Anderson, Charles, 72, 74, 75, 177, 181
Andreini, Norman Gelio, 37
Astoria Café, 172
“Atlanta Compromise,” 26–27
Avery, Charles, 39, 52, 82
Bacharach Giants, 176
Baer, Max, 247
Baltimore, Charles, 118–19
Baltimore Police Department, 253–54
Battle, Anne Vashti Delamar, 5–7, 12, 15–16, 22–23, 166, 188, 193, 208
Battle, Carroll Henry: birth of, 106–7; education and childhood of, 194, 217; in fire department, 258–59, 285; marriage of, 246; military service by, 264, 271, 272–73, 274, 278–79; retirement of, 286
Battle, Charline Elizabeth. See Cherot, Charline Elizabeth Battle
Battle, Edith, 245, 258
Battle, Florence Carrington: courtship of, 43; at Elks testimonial dinner, 188; fiftieth wedding anniversary of, 285; at Greenwood Forest Farms, 264; as hostess, 212, 217; and Langston Hughes, 135; marriage of, 47–48; surprise birthday party for, 259; thirty-first wedding anniversary of, 246; travels by, 285–86; twenty-eighth wedding anniversary of, 217; twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of, 212
Battle, Florence D’Angeles, 57–58, 94
Battle, James, 13
Battle, Jesse Earl, 51, 57, 194, 211, 271, 286
Battle, John Edward, 6, 24, 233
Battle, Mary Elizabeth. See Oden, Mary Elizabeth Battle
Battle, Nancy, 15, 23, 37
Battle, Samuel: adolescent years, 13–15; arrival in New York, 15–19, 21–23; attempt to entrap, 87; banishment to Canarsie, 177–78, 182–84; birthday parties, 207, 212; and black regiment in World War I, 109–11, 121, 127, 128; childhood of, 7–9; completion of book by, 284–85; courting by, 42–43; death of, 290; death threats to, 87; dream of New York, 4–5; early years as police officer, 88–89, 91–94; and Equity Congress, 89–91, 109–10; fighting by, 5, 8–9; as Harlem police officer, 95–97; as houseboy, 37; and Langston Hughes, 2–4; and integration of New York Fire Department, 120–21, 123–25, 126; on joining NYPD, 50–51, 65–67, 71–75; as lieutenant colonel in auxiliary force, 264; as liveried butler, 42; malingering charge of, 88; marriage of, 47–48; move to Harlem, 151, 161–65; move to Williamsbridge, 105–6; opening of liquor store, 285; as parole commissioner, 260–61, 264, 271–72, 281, 282; pilgrimage by, 199–201; police force training, 78–80; as police officer in Harlem, 95–97; as probationary police recruit, 80–88; promotion to lieutenant, 218, 220–21, 237; promotion to sergeant, 109, 187–88; on Radio Gun Squad, 214–15; reading by, 38–39, 42, 89; as redcap, 43–47, 52–54, 63, 70, 79; return to New York after New Haven, 28–29; silence of fellow cops to, 81–83, 85–86, 93–94; on Special Service Division, 147–50, 156, 158–60, 171–78; travels with wife by, 285–86; trip to South with grandson, 232–36; undercover work by, 137–38; as waiter, 24, 25, 28; wedding anniversary celebrations, 212, 217, 246, 285; work in dye house, 23–24
Battle, Sophia, 29, 36–37, 290
Battle, Theodore, 117, 150
Battle, Thomas, 5, 7, 8–12, 15, 37, 233
Battle, William D., 46, 47, 228
Battle, Yvonne, 3
Battle of Harlem (Battle and Hughes), 284–85, 288–90
Battle of San Juan Hill, 145
Beaumont, Texas, white-on-black rioting in, 265
Belton, Samuel G., 158–59, 170
Bernstein, Michael, 205
Bethune, Mary McLeod, 250–53, 264–65, 289
Bethune-Cookman University, 251, 264
The Birth of a Nation (movie), 104
Black Cabinet, 251
Black Code (1866), 12
“Black Second,” 232–33
Black Valley (East St. Louis), 115
Blake, Eubie, 40, 163
blood donations, 263
Blumstein, William, 230
Blumstein’s Department Store, 230–31
Boddy, Luther, 167–70
Bontemps, Arna, 136
bootleggers, 157, 159
“Boston Tar Baby.” See Langford, Sam
Bowes, Edward “Major,” 160
boxers and boxing, 61–63, 67–70, 125, 178–79, 189–90, 247–48, 257
Boyden, William, 194–95
Braddock Hotel, 267–68
Bradford, Perry, 40–41, 68, 69
Brady, Diamond Jim, 83
Brennan, John J., 131, 138–40
“Bricktop” (Ada Smith), 174–76
Brown, Eugene, 230
Brown, Jake, 105
Brown, James W., 228
Brown, John, 154, 199–201
Brownsville Raid, 111–12
Brown v. Board of Education (1954), 288
Bruce, Herbert, 245
Buchalter, Louis “Lepke,” 226
Buckley, Francis J. M., 167
Burke, Joseph, 216
Burns, Tommy, 62–63
Butler, Edward, 267
Cachemaille, Enrique, 212
Cachemaille, Henrietta (Etta), 212–13, 217, 230
Calloway, Cab, 264
Calloway, Marse, 254
Campbell, James, 33, 34
Capitol Theatre, 159–60
Carnera, Primo, 247
Carrington, Elizabeth, 94
Carrington, Florence. See Battle, Florence Carrington
Carrington, Henry, 43
Carrington, Maria, 43
Carter, Eunice, 207–8, 241
Caruso, Enrico, 53
Castle, Irene and Vernon, 52, 113
Cherot, Baldomero, 217–18
Cherot, Charline Elizabeth Battle: birth of, 94–95; birth of Tony, 259; birth of Yvonne, 250; courtship of, 218; education of, 194, 207–8, 278; at Greenwood Forest Farms, 264, 278–79; marriage of, 225, 227–29; move to Englewood, NJ, 290; trip to Europe, 212–13
Cherot, Fanny DuPont, 217–18
Cherot, Thornton (Eddy), 217–18, 225, 227–29, 247, 278–79, 285, 290
Cherot, Thornton (Tony), 2, 3–4, 76, 232–36, 259, 264, 278, 290
Cherot, Yvonne, 250, 264, 278, 290
Citizens League for Fair Play, 242
Clark, Kenneth, 263
Cleary, Edward, 271
Cobb, Irvin S., 287
Cobb, Moses P., 34–37, 67, 72, 74, 290
Coll, Vincent “Mad Dog,” 214
Colored Men’s Branch of the YMCA, 71, 125, 179
Colored Orphan Asylum, 19
Compton, Betty, 213, 215
Confidential Squad, 146
Conn, Billy, 257
Connie’s Inn, 174
Connor, John W., 40, 172, 176, 177
Cook, Will Marion, 163
Cookman Institute, 251
Cooper, George W., 196
Copacabana (nightclub), 280–81
Costigan, “Honest Dan,” 146
One Righteous Man : Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the Color Line in New York (9780807012611) Page 36