NYC Tenants Resist Evictions (1932)
Tue Feb 02, 1932
Image: A rent strike in Harlem, New York City, September 1919 [dissentmagazine.org]
On this day in 1932, a crowd of more than 1,000 clashed with police attempting to evict three families in the Bronx. The action was part of a larger period of tenant rebellion which kept 77,000 tenants from being evicted.
The New York Times described the crowd like this: "Women shrieked from the windows, the different sections of the crowd hissed and booed and shouted invectives. Fighting began simultaneously in the house and the street".
The action was part of a larger period of tenant rebellion in 1930s New York City. Beginning in 1930, small bands of people, often led by communists, began to use strong-arm tactics to prevent marshals from putting furniture on the street. Rent riots began in the Lower East Side and Harlem, but quickly spread to other parts of the city.
Historians Richard Boyer and Herbert M. Morais claimed that these acts of resistance kept 77,000 tenants from being evicted.
- Date: 1932-02-02
- Learn More: libcom.org, www.tenant.net.
- Tags: #Tenant.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org