Sufi Abdul Hamid, Harlem’s so-called “black Hitler.” denied in Sixth District Magistrate’s Court yesterday that he is conducting a race-war against Jews in Harlem. Edgar Burman, who had hailed Hamid into court on a charge of disorderly conduct, testified that Hamid had incited Negroes against Jews in street corner meetings.
Magistrate Overton Harris denounced the “cheap publicity” given to the case when he noticed a newspaper cartoonist sketching him. Asked by Assistant District Attorney Edward Margolies if he was prejudiced, he said that he was not and that he would find Hamid guilty if the testimony against him is true.
Edgar Burman, commander of the Anti-Nazi Minute Men, was the complainant. He had hailed Hamid into court on a charge of disorderly conduct arising from the alleged inflammatory statements of Hamid on street corners.
Witnesses yesterday said that Hamid, the head of the Negro Industrial Alliance, coerced Harlem merchants into hiring Negroes.
Edgar Burman continued his testimony from where he had left off on Monday. He said that his organization, the Minute Men, is “a non-racial, non-political organization formed to combat bigotry.”
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