After many years of planning and effort, the Municipal Archives launched online Collection Guides in October 2021. The Guides provide researchers with essential information about the Archives holdings in an easily searchable format.

The Guides have allowed patrons to discover resources that are relevant to a great variety of research topics and queries. Thanks to the Guides, patrons are now able to access records long-held by the institution, but rarely, if ever, examined due to imperfect intellectual control.

This week For the Record highlights a series originally accessioned in 1973, that has recently informed research by several patrons as a result of its listing in the Collection Guides. The collection is titled, “New York Police Department (NYPD) Demonstrations and Disturbances Records.” Although small in quantity, less than four cubic feet, the eclectic contents include NYPD memoranda and correspondence, as well as reports, maps, pamphlets, and assorted ephemera. The materials date from the mid-1960s. Accessioned from the NYPD’s Ninth Police Precinct in 1973, the collection had been only minimally described. Patron interest in this small series has prompted City archivists to inventory the material and publish a resource record.

Scanning the folder inventory quickly reveals why researchers have found the contents of value. Folder headings range from “Police Department Committee to Study the Report of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice,” to “Watts Riots, 1965,” and “Papal Visit to City of New York, 1965.”

In the first box there are nine folders of NYPD records about racial “disorder” in Harlem during 1963-1965. Several are specific to demonstrations staged by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). One example is an NYPD Memorandum, dated June 12, 1963, concerning an “Afro-Asian Bazaar” scheduled to take place at the 69th Regiment Armory. The memo states that Malcolm X, “leader of the Nation of Islam in this city,” had been interviewed about the Bazaar. The NYPD confirmed that the Nation of Islam had approval from the Adjutant General in Albany to use the Armory, but also noted, “This situation will receive continued attention and new developments reported as they occur.” In another document, dated June 7, 1965, the NYPD discussed “possible trouble this summer,” specifically referring to “…groups of youngsters [who] are very dangerous and could easily set off further riots and disorders.”  

Three folders in this box document NYPD preparations for anticipated anti-draft demonstrations in 1967. Among the items is a multi-page mimeographed document helpfully listing the “Laws Relating to Public Demonstrations” that police officers might invoke when arresting persons at the planned demonstrations.

Other documents are more general in nature. The series includes a nine-page Memo dated June 10, 1966, Subject: Resume of Certain Police Problems Associated with the Summer Season.” Among the problems addressed in the list are Panic Triggered by Sudden Storms, Throwing Bricks and Debris from Roof Tops, Drag Racing, Fireworks, and Prevention of Swimming at Unauthorized Locations. More ominously, it also lists, Automobile Larceny, Vandalism in Schools, Narcotics, and Youth Gangs and Juvenile Delinquency.

Similarly, in another summer-related communication, a memo from July 19, 1966, to “All Commands,” discusses “Emergency Distribution of Hydrant Spray Caps.” In six detailed paragraphs the document provides very specific guidance to police patrols who were apparently tasked to distribute hydrant spray caps in areas “where there have been many unauthorized openings of hydrants.”

Not all of the items in this collection pertain to riots and disorder. There are several folders documenting the visit of Pope Paul VI to New York City in October 1965. Not surprisingly the files contain numerous memos and correspondence describing NYPD preparations for the Papal visit as well as several folders of clippings about the event carefully clipped from many local newspapers.

There are notably fewer documents in this series about the visit by President Lyndon Johnson to the City at the same time. However, there is one item that at first glance seemed odd. It is titled “Hospitals located in proximity of routes used by the President traveling to and from Queens Airports.” But after a little thought, its purpose becomes obvious.

Some of the items in this series may be duplicative of the several NYPD Intelligence Bureau series, a.k.a. the Handschu Collection, also described in the Collection Guides. Now, thanks to the Guides and awareness of these related series such as the “Demonstrations and Disturbances” material, patrons can more easily explore the diverse and vast holdings of the Municipal Archives. Look for future For the Record articles about previously little-known resources.