The anti-Semitic activities of Abdul Sufi Hamid, known as “the Black Hitler of Harlem” will be investigated by the Mayor’s committee, it became known yesterday, as a result of last week’s riots in Harlem during which many Jewish stores were wrecked.
Abdul and his associates are held to be responsible for the agitation stirred in the past year in Harlem against local Jewish merchants who did not employ Negro sales clerks, floor walkers or office help.
A member of the Mayor’s committee, of which Dr. Charles J. Roberts, Negro physician, is chairman, intimated yesterday that Abdul had flirted with various Nazi organizations in this city and had obtained some encouragement and casual promises of financial aid—if not actually material assistance—in carrying on his anti-Semitic work among the residents of Harlem.
While, it was explained, the committee intends to give careful and serious consideration to the sociological problems involved in any specific policy among Harlem merchants discriminating against the employment of Negroes, it intends also to ferret out such wholly illegitimate movements designed to stir up racial animosities.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
