On August 1st, 1943, a white policeman arrived at a Harlem hotel and got aggressive with a Black female patron. Robert Bandy, a Black soldier, chose to intervene in order to protect her.
His reward for this good deed? The cop shot him!
Word of a Black soldier being murdered spread across Harlem. Enraged, the Black community erupted.
The protest lasted 12 hours, resulting in 6,600 police officers and 8,000 States Guardsmen being deployed to Harlem, with 6 Black casualties, 495 injuries, and 500 arrests! The craziest part?
Bandy wasn’t even dead! He was recovering in the hospital, unaware that his presumed death had incited a revolution. But the story is deeper than one man.
Racial tensions were already high throughout NYC. Many Black residents were angry over America’s hypocrisy in drafting Black soldiers to “defend freedom” during World War II, when the reality was they’d return home to the same old Jim Crow. Bandy was one of those soldiers.
The 1943 Harlem Riot is one way our community demanded to be heard. Today, many call for non-violence, but violence is an option our community has chosen in the past – and many believe we should choose it again.