Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval

Unable to sleep on a very hot New York night, May Enoch and Arthur “Kid” Harris go out to eat. He stops in a bar, leaving her waiting for him on the street for almost an hour. Then, May is grabbed by a white man named Thorpe, a policeman in plainclothes. Kid comes out of the bar and sees this. He fights Thorpe, stabbing him and fleeing. The police later find May at home. They ask about Kid’s whereabouts and then arrest her for prostitution. The newspapers and the district attorney falsely claim that May is a prostitute and Kid is a rapist.

Angry in the wake of Thorpe’s death, white police officers and civilians alike go into a frenzy of anti-Black violence for the next few days. While Kid is a fugitive, the mob and the police arbitrarily assault Black people, dragging them from their homes and beating them. Reverend Brooks asserts the citizenship of Black people and calls for innocent victims to have the chance to bring the crimes against them to court.

The excessive violence leads to the formation of Black Harlem as Black people seek refuge living among themselves. Segregation intensifies in the North as it did in the South.