“I Get So Mad Cause We Ain’t Got No Freedom”: Black Women, Rage, and the Harlem Uprising of 1943

Abstract

In the early evening of August 1, 1943, a New York City police officer arrested Marjorie Polite at the Braddock Hotel. Polite’s arrest created an expansive political moment for shortly after her arrest, some 3,000 New Yorkers deployed upon 125th Street. Over the course of the next two days and in their shared rage, a group of Black Harlemites targeted white-owned businesses which culminated in 500 physical injuries, at least six deaths, a reported 5 million dollars in property damages, and 623 arrests at the height of World War II. What do the stories of five ordinary women, each with different relationships to Harlem and the uprising, tell us about Black women’s experience in mid-twentieth century urban America? Using the biographical vignettes of Black women arrested in connection with the Harlem uprising, this article examines popular protest and property destruction as a feminine form of rage.