African Americans -- New York (State) -- New York; Riots -- New York (State) -- New York
I was on a Broadway car on the evening of Wednesday, August 15th, at
about 11:30 P. M. I boarded the car at the corner of 46th
Street and Broadway, and had reached a point a little north of 35th
Street, when I heard a mob run after the car and commence throwing
missiles at and into the car. Among other missiles was a little bottle,
which I caught, and with which I kept the rioters at bay. The car got
a short distance ahead of the mob, when it had passed 34th Street,
and I took advantage of that and jumped from the car and ran towards
three policemen in uniform, and two who were in citizens' clothes. One
of them said not to run any further, and one of the men in citizens'
clothes said, "Get on this car, and I'll get on with you." I did so
and rode to 32nd Street, and the said officer got on the rear platform
of the same car. I got off at 32nd Street and was not molested again.
Deponent further says that the officers made no attempt to disperse the
mob, though they were in plain sight. Deponent further says that he has
lived in the 19th Precinct for about eighteen years, and is well known
to a number of the officers of that precinct.
J. H. KELLUM.
Sworn to before me this 7th day of September, 1900.
GEO. P. HAMMOND, JR., Notary Public (164), N. Y. County.
(This was in the 19th, not the 20th Precinct.)
----
_City and County of New York, ss._:
Samuel Isaiah Johnson, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
I reside at No. 125 West 27th Street, in the Borough of Manhattan,
and support myself by cleaning carpet, chimney sweeping, and other
jobs of a like nature. I have been employed by a Mr. Webb, an attorney
with an office near Jefferson Market; a Mr. Davis, proprietor of a
fish market there; Mr. Andrew Phillips, 15th Street and 6th Avenue. On
Wednesday. August 15th, 1900, the first night of the riots, I was on
an 8th Avenue car bound south. I had been up to see my brother-in-law,
Joseph W. Brown, of No. 85 West 104th Street. I had my banjo with me. I
left there shortly after nine. He was out. About ten o'clock, at about
41st Street and 8th Avenue, a crowd jumped on the car, grabbed me,
and tried to pull me out of the car. I was under the seat. They took
my banjo, hat, coat, and belt away, and beat me all over the body and
head, so that I was unable to move. The car was at a standstill while
I was being beaten, which lasted from about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Another colored man was being beaten at the same time. After about
twenty minutes of this a man, probably a detective, jumped on the car,
and the crowd allowed the car to proceed. He took me to the corner of
27th Street and 7th Avenue, and asked me whether I could get home, and
he left me. I proceeded to my house unmolested. The next day I went to
the hospital at 15th Street and 5th Avenue, and obtained some liniment
for my bruises. I am fifty-four years of age, small in stature, and
lame.
SAMUEL x ISAIAH JOHNSON.
his mark
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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