Harlem Riot of 1935: Depression Conditions and Police Brutality Trigger Uprising

On March 19, 1935, a riot erupted in Harlem after rumors spread that police had killed a Puerto Rican teenager, Lino Rivera, who had been caught shoplifting. Three people were killed, hundreds injured, and $2 million in property damage resulted. A mayoral commission headed by E. Franklin Frazier found that the riot's root causes were discrimination in relief, unemployment, police brutality, and exclusion from labor unions. The riot was the first major urban uprising of the Depression era and documented the failure of New Deal programs to address Black poverty.