Steinway Street Brawl
(script)
INTRO
Steinway Street in 1920s Astoria was paved with Belgian block, a trolley ran down the middle and communists would hold open-air meetings on the corner.
This was a time when World War One veterans groups made it their mission to fight communism.
RIVAL MEETINGS
In the summer of 1928, the local communists in Queens would hold open-air meetings on the northwest corner of Steinway Street and 31st Avenue on Thursday nights.
One night, August 9, the communists set up their platform with a banner and were talking about liberating the working class. The local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter showed up to hold a rival meeting across the street. A crowd of hundreds formed between the stands.
TENSIONS BURST
The communist Joseph Padgug called the VFW and American Legion “sponsors of war.”
The local Democratic woman leader Anna Meyer told Padgug to stop attacking the veterans.
People in the crowd agreed and were arguing, booing and hissing. The Workers Party campaign manager Rebecca Grecht shouted at the crowd, “You’ll get tired before I will!”
According to testimony, men clustered into groups of six and eight, and attacked the communists, punching and kicking them. Eggs and fruit were flying.
To quote the Long Island Daily Star: “Blow were struck, the crowd moved as one, the Communists were swept against a nearby building.”
GRECHT AND HARTFIELD
Rebecca Grecht saw men attacking a local socialist candidate, Abraham Hartfield, his face covered in blood, his shirt getting torn off.
Rebeccal Grecht shouted out, “The men who are responsible for assaulting Mr. Hartfield and breaking up this meeting are nothing but a bunch of hoodlums!” and she called over to Officer Donnelly, who pushed his way into the crowd.
Hartfield and Grecht got held up against a wall, Hartfield getting punched as others attacked their comrades. Officer Donnelly got between Grecht and Hartfield and their attackers, while their comrades ran away as people chased them.
ARREST
Officer Donnelly arrested Grecht and Hartfield, and as he escorted them to the station, a crowd followed them down 31st Avenue, growing with each block. After five blocks, at 34th Street, Donnelly put the leftists in a taxi and ordered the driver to take them to the station. People chased after the cab.
BACK AT DEBATE
Back at Steinway Street, the veterans meeting continued, and the communist Paul Newman asked if he could speak, and they let him. Newman made the case that under capitalism, machines would ultimately replace humans, and people would lost their jobs. The veteran Joseph Kamp said that was unlikely and said communism was failing in Russia.
EPILOGUE
In the ensuing weeks, the precinct designated 10* cops to patrol the Thursday night meetings, and the police asked the veterans to stay on the east side of Steinway Street. The charges against Grecht and Hartfield were dismissed.
*I said “9” in the piece, but should be 10.