He claimed to
be able to call a meeting with only forty-eight hours notice and
have 10,000 persons in attendance. The 125th Street stores soon
negotiated and began employing Negro employees. Next, the Committee
hit the city's utility companies. They urged Negroes not to use
electricity on specified days. They harassed the telephone company
by urging Negroes to demand that the operator place their calls
instead of their dialing the number and utilizing the automatic
exchanges. Both companies changed their employment patterns in
response. The Committee also boycotted the bus company until it began
employing Negroes as drivers as well as on other levels of the
company's staff.
By 1935 Harlem had become a pressure cooker which was heated to the
boiling point by economic and racial frustrations. When a young
Negro stole a knife from a 125th Street store, it became the incident
which triggered a social explosion. Although he had escaped from the
pursuing officer a rumor spread around the community that he had
been beaten to death. A mob soon gathered and began to protest
everything from the discrimination practices of merchants to slum
landlords and police tactics.
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