[The Harlem Riot]

The file contains the copy of a booklet of 29 pages entitled “The Harlem Riot – A study in Mass Frustration” written by Harold Orlansky (Harold Orlans), then a young anthropologist, and published in 1943 by Social Analysis, a group based in New York and aiming at applying techniques of social anthropology to current social phenomena. Harold Orlansky analyzed the riots that had broken out in Harlem/New York in August 1943, following the shooting of an African American soldier by a policeman, and causing the death of five people, and leading to hundreds of wounded people, as well as to lootings and destruction. While the press almost unanimously denied the racial character of the riots, Harold Orlansky put forward another hypothesis: The aggression expressed by the riots stems from a situation of frustration caused by the contrast between the public discourse on equal rights and the African American actual experiences of inequality and discrimination. In order to provide a more nuanced picture of the riots, he analyzed the various social groups involved in the riots to show the social and economic differences within the African American community.