Harlem
Encyclopedia
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City
borough
of Manhattan
, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch
village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem
in the Netherlands
. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873.
Harlem has been defined by a series of boom-and-bust cycles, with significant ethnic shifts accompanying each cycle. Black residents began to arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great Migration
. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood was the focus of the "Harlem Renaissance
", an outpouring of artistic and professional works without precedent in the American black community. However, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression
and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II
, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly.
New York's revival in the late 20th century has led to renewal in Harlem as well. By 1995, Harlem was experiencing social and economic gentrification
. Though the percentage of residents who are black peaked in 1950, the area remains predominantly black.
Harlem stretches from the East River
west to the Hudson River
between 155th Street; where it meets Washington Heights
—to a ragged border along the south. Central Harlem begins at 110th Street
, at the northern boundary of Central Park
; Spanish Harlem
is in Eastern Harlem and extends south to 96th Street
, while in the west the neighborhood begins north of Upper West Side
, which gives an irregular border west of Morningside Avenue
. Harlem's boundaries have changed over the years; as Ralph Ellison
said, "Wherever Negroes live uptown is considered Harlem."
The neighborhood contains a number of smaller, cohesive districts. The following are some examples:
The New York City Police Department
patrols five precincts located within Harlem. The areas of West Harlem are served by the 30th Precinct, the areas of Central Harlem are served by the 28th and 32nd Precincts, and the areas of East Harlem are served by the 23rd and 25th Precincts.
Harlem is represented by New York's 15th congressional district
, the New York State Senate
's 30th district, the New York State Assembly
's 68th and 70th districts, and the New York City Council
's 7th, 8th, and 9th districts.
, most likely Lenape
occupied the area on a semi-nomadic basis. As many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. The first European settlement in the area was by Hendrick (Henry) de Forest, Isaac de Forest, his brother, and their sister Rachel de Forest, French – Dutch immigrants in 1637. Early European settlers were forced to flee to New Amsterdam in lower Manhattan whenever hostilities with the natives heated up, and the native population gradually decreased amidst conflict with the Dutch. The settlement was named Nieuw Haarlem, after the Dutch city of Haarlem
, and was formally incorporated in 1660 under leadership of Peter Stuyvesant
. The Indian trail to Harlem's lush bottomland meadows was rebuilt by black laborers of the Dutch West India Company
, and eventually developed into the Boston Post Road
. In 1664, the English
took control of the New Netherland
colony and tried to change the name of the community to "Lancaster," but the name never stuck, and eventually settled down to the anglicized Harlem. The Dutch took control of the area again for one year in 1673. The village grew very slowly until the mid 1700s, and it became a resort of sorts for the rich of New York City. Only the Morris-Jumel Mansion
survives from this period. Harlem played an important role in the American Revolution. The British had established their base of operations in lower Manhattan, and George Washington
fortified the area around Harlem to oppose them. From Harlem, he could control the land routes to the north, as well as traffic on the Harlem River
. The Provincial Congress met there, as did the convention drafting the constitution for New York State. On September 16, 1776, the Battle of Harlem Heights
, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Harlem or Battle of Harlem Plain, was fought in western Harlem around the Hollow Way (now West 125th St.), with conflicts on Morningside Heights to the south and Harlem Heights to the north. The American troops were outnumbered, 5000 to 2000, and were ill-equipped compared to their opponents, but outflanked the British and forced them to retreat to the area around what is now West 106th Street. It was Washington's first American victory. Later that year, the British would avenge this defeat by chasing Washington and his troops north, then turning back and burning Harlem to the ground.
Rebuilding took decades, and infrastructure was improved much more slowly than was happening in New York City proper. The village remained largely rural through the early 19th century and, though the "grid system" of streets, designed downtown, was formally extended to Harlem in 1811, it does not seem that anybody expected it would mean much. The 1811 report that accompanied the establishment of the grid noted that it was "improbable that (for centuries to come) the grounds north of the Harlem Flat will be covered with houses."
Though undeveloped, the area was not poor. Harlem was "a synonym for elegant living through a good part of the nineteenth century." The village remained largely farmland estates, such as [Conrad] Van Keulen's Hook, orig. Otterspoor, bordered north of the Mill Creek (now 108th St., orig. Montagne Creek at 109th St.), which flowed into Harlem Lake, to the farm of Morris Randall, northwest on the Harlem River
, and westward to the Peter Benson, or Mill Farm. This former bowery [of land] was subdivided into twenty-two equal plots, of about 6 to 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) each, of which portions later owned by Abraham Storm, including thirty-one acres (east of Fifth Avenue between 110th & 125th St.) were sold by Storm's widow Catherine in 1795 to James Roosevelt (great grandfather of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
, 1760–1847). This branch of the Roosevelt family subsequently moved to the town of Hyde Park
, but several of Roosevelt's children remain interred in Harlem.
As late as 1820, the community had dwindled to 91 families, one church, a school, and a library. Wealthy farmers, known as "patroons", maintained these country estates largely on the heights overlooking the Hudson River. Service connecting the outlays of Harlem with the rest of the City of New York (on the southern tip of the island of Manhattan) was done via steamboat on the East River, an hour-and-a-half passage, sometimes interrupted when the river froze in winter, or else by stagecoach along the Boston Post Road, which descended from McGown's Pass (now in Central Park
) and skirted the salt marshes around 110th Street, to pass through Harlem.
The New York and Harlem Railroad
(now Metro North
) was incorporated in 1831 to better link the city with Harlem and Westchester Co., starting at a depot at East 23rd Street
, and extending 127 miles (204.4 km) north to a railroad junction in Columbia County
at Chatham, New York by 1851. Charles Henry Hall
, a wealthy lawyer and land speculator, recognized the changes that this railroad would make possible in Harlem and began a successful program of infrastructure development, building out streets, gas lines, sewer lines, and other facilities needed for urban life. Piers were also built, enabling Harlem to become a center of industry serving New York City. The rapid development of infrastructure enabled some to become wealthy, and the area became important to politicians, many of whom lived in Harlem. New York mayors Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence
and Daniel Tiemann both lived in Harlem in this period. For many in New York City, Harlem was at this time regarded as a sort of country retreat. The village had a population of poorer residents as well, including blacks, who came north to work in factories or to take advantage of relatively low rents.
In the years between roughly 1850 to 1870, many large estates, including Hamilton Grange, the estate of Alexander Hamilton
, were auctioned off as the fertile soil was depleted and crop yields fell. Some of the land became occupied by Irish squatters, whose presence further depressed property values.
, Harlem saw draft riots, along with the rest of the city, but the neighborhood was a significant beneficiary of the economic boom that followed the end of the war, starting in 1868. The neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian. Factories, homes, churches, and retail buildings were built at great speed. The Panic of 1873
caused Harlem property values to drop 80%, and gave the City of New York the opportunity to annex the troubled community as far north as 155th Street.
Recovery came soon, and row houses (as distinct from the previous generation's free-standing houses) were being constructed in large numbers by 1876. Development accelerated in part in anticipation of elevated railroads, which were extended to Harlem in 1880. With the construction of the "els," urbanized development occurred very rapidly. Developers anticipated that the planned Lexington Avenue subway
would ease transportation to lower Manhattan. Fearing that new housing regulations would be enacted in 1901, they rushed to complete as many new buildings as possible before these came into force. Early entrepreneurs had grandiose schemes for Harlem: Polo
was played at the original Polo Grounds
, later to become home of the New York Giants
baseball
team. Oscar Hammerstein I
opened the Harlem Opera House on East 125th Street in 1889. By 1893, even row houses did not suffice to meet the growing population, and large scale apartment buildings were the norm. In that year, Harlem Monthly Magazine wrote that "it is evident to the most superficial observer that the centre of fashion, wealth, culture, and intelligence, must, in the near future, be found in the ancient and honorable village of Harlem."
However, also in that year, the construction glut and a delay in the building of the subway led to a fall in real estate prices which attracted immigrant Eastern Europe
Jews and Italians to Harlem in accelerating numbers. There had been a Jewish community of 12 in Harlem in 1869 which grew to a peak of almost 200,000 in about 1915. Presaging their resistance to the arrival of blacks, existing landowners tried to stop Jews from moving into the neighborhood. At least one rental sign declared “Keine Juden und Keine Hunde” (No Jews and no dogs). Italians began to arrive in Harlem only a few years after the Jews did. By 1900 there were three times as many Italians in Harlem as there were in Sicily
, peaking at 150,000. Both groups moved particularly into East Harlem.
The Jewish population of Harlem embraced the City College of New York
, which moved to Harlem in 1907. In the years after the move, 90% of the school's students were Jewish, and many of the schools's most distinguished graduates date from this period. Both the Jewish and Italian Mafia emerged in East Harlem and soon expanded their operations to the entire neighborhood. West 116th Street between Lenox and 8th Avenue became a vice district. The neighborhood also became a major center for more conventional entertainment, with 125th Street as a particular center for musical theater, vaudeville, and moving pictures.
The Jewish presence in Harlem was ephemeral, and by 1930 only 5,000 Jews remained. As they left, their apartments in East Harlem were increasing filled by Puerto Ricans, who were arriving in large numbers by 1913. Italian Harlem lasted longer, and traces of the community lasted into the 1970s in the area around Pleasant Avenue.
Black people have been present in Harlem continually since the 1630s, and as the neighborhood modernized in the late 19th century, they could be found especially in the area around 125th Street and "Negro tenements" on West 130th Street. By 1900, tens of thousands lived in Harlem. The mass migration of blacks into the area began in 1904, due to another real estate crash, the worsening of conditions for blacks elsewhere in the city, and the leadership of a black real estate entrepreneurs, including Phillip Payton, Jr.
After the collapse of the 1890s, new speculation and construction started up again in 1903 and the resulting glut of housing led to a crash in values in 1904 and 1905 that eclipsed the late-19th century slowdown. Landlords could not find white renters for their properties, so Philip Payton stepped in to bring blacks. His company, the Afro-American Realty Company, has been credited with the migration of blacks from their previous neighborhoods, the Tenderloin
, San Juan Hill
(now the site of Lincoln Center), Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village
and Hell's Kitchen
in the west 40s and 50s. The move to northern Manhattan was driven in part by fears that anti-black riots such as those that had occurred in the Tenderloin in 1900 and in San Juan Hill in 1905 might recur. In addition, a number of tenements that had been occupied by blacks in the west 30s were destroyed at this time to make way for the construction of the original Penn Station
.
In 1907, black churches began to move uptown. Several congregations built grand new church buildings, including St Philip's Protestant Episcopal Church on West 134th Street just west of Seventh Avenue (the wealthiest church in Harlem), the Abyssinian Baptist Church on West 138th Street and St Mark's Methodist Church on Edgecombe Avenue. More often churches purchased buildings from white congregations of Christians and Jews whose members had left the neighborhood, including Metropolitan Baptist Church on West 128th and Seventh Avenue, St James Presbyterian Church on West 141st Street, and Mt Olivet Baptist Church on Lenox Avenue. Only the Catholic Church retained its churches in Harlem, with white priests presiding over parishes that retained significant numbers of whites until the 1930s.
The early 20th-century Great Migration
of blacks to northern industrial cities was fueled by their desire to leave behind the Jim Crow
South, seek better jobs and education for their children, and escape a culture of lynching
violence. During World War I
, expanding industries recruited black laborers to fill new jobs, thinly staffed after the draft began to take young men. So many blacks came that it "threaten[ed] the very existence of some of the leading industries of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama." Many settled in Harlem. By 1920, central Harlem was 32.43% black. The 1930 census revealed that 70.18% of Central Harlem's residents were black and lived as far south as Central Park
, at 110th Street. The expansion was fueled primarily by an influx of blacks from the southern U.S. states, especially Virginia
, North
and South Carolina
, and Georgia
, who took trains up the East Coast. There were also numerous immigrants from the West Indies. As blacks moved in, white residents left
; between 1920 and 1930, 118,792 white people left the neighborhood and 87,417 blacks arrived.
Between 1907 and 1915, some white residents of Harlem resisted the neighborhood's change, especially once the swelling black population pressed west of Lenox Avenue
, which served as an informal color line until the early 1920s. Some made pacts not to sell to or rent to blacks. Others tried to buy property and evict black tenants, but the Afro-American Realty Company retaliated by buying other property and evicting whites. They also attempted to convince banks to deny mortgages
to black buyers, but soon gave up.
In 1910, Central Harlem was about 10% black. By 1930, it had reached 70%.
Starting around the time of the end of World War I
, Harlem became associated with the New Negro
movement, and then the artistic outpouring known as the Harlem Renaissance
, which extended to poetry, novels, theater, and the visual arts.
The growing population also supported a rich fabric of organizations and activities in the 1920s. Fraternal orders such as the Prince Hall Masons
and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
set up lodges in Harlem, with elaborate buildings including auditoriums, and large bands. Parades of lodge members, decked out in uniforms and accompanied by band music, were a common sight on Harlem's streets, on public holidays, lodge anniversaries, church festivities and funerals. The neighborhood's churches housed a range of groups, including athletic clubs, choirs and social clubs. A similar range of activities could be found at the YMCA on 135th Street and the YWCA on 137th Street. The social pages of Harlem's two African American newspapers, the New York Age
and the New York Amsterdam News recorded the meetings, dinners and dances of hundreds of small clubs. Soapbox speakers drew crowds on Seventh and Lenox Avenues until the 1960s, some offering political oratory, with Hubert Harrison
the most famous, while others, particularly in the late 1920s, sold medicine. Harlem also offered a wealth of sporting events: the Lincoln Giants
played baseball at Olympic Field at 136th and Fifth Avenue until 1920, after which residents had to travel to the Catholic Protectory Oval in the Bronx; men's and women's basketball teams from local athletic clubs played in church gymnasiums, and, as they became more popular, at the Manhattan Casino on 155th Street, before giving way to professional teams, most famously the Rens
, based at the Renaissance Ballroom on Seventh Avenue; and boxing bouts took place at the Commonwealth Casino on East 135th Street (run by white promoters the McMahon brothers
). The biggest crowds, including many whites, came to see black athletes compete against whites.
It took years for business ownership to reflect the new reality. A survey in 1929 found that whites owned and operated 81.51% of the neighborhood's 10,319 businesses, with beauty parlors making up the largest number of black-owned businesses. By the late 1960s, 60% of the businesses in Harlem responding to surveys reported ownership by blacks, and an overwhelming fraction of new businesses were black owned after that time.
Marginalized in the legitimate economy, a small group of blacks found success outside the law, running gambling on number
s. Invented in 1920 or 1921, numbers had by 1924 exploded into a racket turning over tens of millions of dollars every year. That year the New York Age reported that there were at least thirty bankers (the name given to someone running a numbers game) in Harlem, with many employing between twelve and twenty people to collect bets, and Marcellino, the largest banker, employing over one hundred. By the late 1920s, Wallace Thurman
guessed there were over a thousand collectors taking bets from 100,000 clients a day. The most successful bankers, who could earn enormous sums of money, were known as Kings and Queens. The wealthiest numbers king of all was almost certainly the reputed inventor of the game, Casper Holstein
. He owned a fleet of cars, apartment buildings in Harlem and a home on Long Island, but did not have the ostentatious style and life style of many other kings. He, and other bankers, gave money to charities and loans to aspiring businessmen and needy residents. Holstein's role in the community extended further than most of his colleagues, included membership in the Monarch Lodge of the Elks, support for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association
, philanthropy in his native Virgin Islands, and patronage of the Harlem Renaissance
.
Harlem adapted rapidly to the coming of Prohibition
, and its theaters, nightclubs, and speakeasies became major entertainment destinations. Claude McKay
would write that Harlem had become "an all white picnic ground," and in 1927 Rudolph Fisher
published an article titled "The Caucasian Storms Harlem." Langston Hughes described this period at length, including this passage from his 1940 autobiography,
In response to the white influx, some blacks operated alternative venues in their homes. Called buffet flats, they offered alcohol, music, dancing, prostitutes, and, commonly, gambling, and, less often, rooms to which a couple could go. Their location in residential buildings, typically on cross streets above 140th Street, away from the nightclubs and speakeasies on the avenues, offered a degree of privacy from police, and from whites: you could only find a buffet flat if you knew the address and apartment number, which hosts did not advertise.
Since the 1920s, this period of Harlem's history has been highly romanticized. With the increase in a poor population, it was also the time when the neighborhood began to deteriorate to a slum
, and some of the storied traditions of the Harlem Renaissance were driven by poverty, crime, or other social ills. For example, in this period, Harlem became known for "rent parties", informal gatherings in which bootleg alcohol was served and music played. Neighbors paid to attend, and thus enabled the host to make his or her monthly rent. Though picturesque, these parties were thrown out of necessity. Further, over a quarter of black households in Harlem made their monthly rent by taking in lodgers, many of who were family members, but who sometimes brought bad habits or even crime that disrupted the lives of respectable families. Lodgers also experienced disruption, with many having to move frequently when households relocated, roommates quarreled or they could not pay rent. Urban reformers campaigned to eliminate the "lodger evil" but the problem got worse before it got better; in 1940, still affected by the Depression
, 40% of black families in Harlem were taking in lodgers.
The high rents and poor maintenance of housing stock, which Harlem residents suffered through much of the 20th century, was not merely the product of racism by white landlords. By 1914, 40% of Harlem's private houses and 10% of its tenements were owned by blacks. Wealthier blacks continued to purchase land in Harlem, and by 1920, a significant portion of the neighborhood was owned by blacks. By the late 1960s, 60% of the businesses in Harlem responding to surveys reported ownership by blacks, and an overwhelming fraction of new businesses were black owned after that time.
In 1928, the first effort at housing reform was attempted in Harlem with the construction of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Houses
, backed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
These were intended to give working people of modest means the opportunity to live in and, over time, purchase houses of their own. The Great Depression
hit shortly after the buildings opened, and the experiment failed. They were followed in 1936 by the Harlem River Houses
, a more modest experiment in housing projects. And by 1964, nine giant public housing projects had been constructed in the neighborhood, housing over 41,000 people.
. In the early 1930s, 25% of Harlemites were out of work, and employment prospects for Harlemites stayed bad for decades. Employment among black New Yorkers fell as some traditionally black businesses, including domestic service and some types of manual labor, were taken over by other ethnic groups. Major industries left New York City altogether, especially after 1950.
The job losses of the Depression were exacerbated by the end of Prohibition in 1933 and by the Harlem Riot of 1935
, which scared away the wealthier whites who had long supported Harlem's entertainment industry. White audiences decreased almost totally after a second round of riots in 1943
. Many Harlemites found work in the military or in the Brooklyn shipyards during World War II
, but the neighborhood declined rapidly once the war ended. Some middle-class blacks moved north or west to suburbs, a trend that increased after the 1960s Civil Rights Movement decreased discrimination in housing.
The neighborhood enjoyed few benefits from the massive public works projects in New York under Robert Moses
in the 1930s, and as a result had fewer parks and public recreational sites than other New York neighborhoods. Of the 255 playgrounds Moses built in New York City, he placed only one in Harlem.
Little investment in private homes or businesses took place in the neighborhood between 1911 and the 1990s. However, the unwillingness of landlords elsewhere in the city to rent to black tenants, together with a significant increase in the black population of New York, meant that rents
in Harlem were for many years higher than rents elsewhere in the city, even as the housing stock decayed. In 1920, one-room apartments in central Harlem rented for $40 to whites or $100–$125 to blacks. In the late 1920s, a typical white working-class family in New York paid $6.67 per month per room, while blacks in Harlem paid $9.50 for the same space. The worse the accommodations and more desperate the renter, the higher the rents would be.
This pattern persisted through the 1960s; in 1965, CERGE reported that a one-room apartment in Harlem rented for $50–$74, while comparable apartments rented for $30–$49 in white slums. The high rents encouraged some property speculators to engage in block busting
, a practice whereby they would acquire a single property on a block and sell or rent it to blacks with great publicity. Other landowners would panic, and the speculators would then buy additional houses relatively cheaply. These houses could then be rented profitably to blacks.
In the post-World War II
era, Harlem ceased to be home to a majority of NYC's blacks, but it remained the cultural and political capital of black New York, and possibly black America. The character of the community changed in the years after the war, as middle-class blacks left for the outer boroughs (primarily the Bronx
, Queens
and Brooklyn
) and suburbs. The percentage of Harlem that was black peaked in 1950, at 98.2%. Thereafter, Hispanics and, more recently, white residents have increased their share.
The high cost of space forced people to live in close quarters, and the population density
of Harlem in these years was stunning—over 215,000 per square mile in the 1920s. By comparison, in 2000, Manhattan
as a whole had a population density under 70,000 per square mile. The same forces that allowed landlords to charge more for Harlem space also enabled them to maintain it less, and many of the residential buildings in Harlem fell into disrepair.
In 1937, the Harlem River Houses
, America's first federally subsidized housing project, were opened. Other massive housing projects would follow, with tens of thousands of units constructed over the next twenty years.
The 1960 census showed only 51% of housing in Harlem to be "sound," as opposed to 85% elsewhere in New York City. In 1968, the New York City Buildings Department received 500 complaints daily of rats in Harlem buildings, falling plaster, lack of heat, and unsanitary plumbing. Tenants were sometimes to blame; some would strip wiring and fixtures from their buildings to sell, throw garbage in hallways and airshafts, or otherwise damage the properties which they lived in or visited.
As the building stock decayed, landlords converted many buildings into "single room occupancies
", or SROs, essentially private homeless shelters. In many cases, the income from these buildings could not support the fines and city taxes charged to their owners, or the houses suffered damage that would have been expensive to fix, and the buildings were abandoned. In the 1970s, this process accelerated to the point that Harlem, for the first time since before WWI, had a lower population density than the rest of Manhattan. Between 1970 and 1980, for example, Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 110th Street and 125th Street in central Harlem lost 42% of its population and 23% of its remaining housing stock. By 1987, 65% of the buildings in Harlem were owned by the City of New York, and many had become empty shells, convenient centers for drug dealing and other illegal activity. The lack of habitable buildings and falling population reduced tax rolls and made the neighborhood even less attractive to residential and retail investment.
Inadequate housing contributed to racial unrest and health problems. However, the lack of development also preserved buildings from the 1870–1910 building boom, and Harlem as a result has many of the finest original townhouses in New York. This includes work by many significant architects of the day, including McKim, Mead, and White
; James Renwick
; William Tuthill
; Charles Buek
; and Francis Kimball
.
By some measures, the 1970s were the worst period in Harlem's history. Many of those Harlemites who were able to escape from poverty left the neighborhood in search of safer streets, better schools and homes. Those who remained were the poorest and least skilled, with the fewest opportunities for success. Though the federal government's Model Cities Program
spent $100 million on job training, health care, education, public safety, sanitation, housing, and other projects over a ten-year period, Harlem showed no improvement.
The deterioration shows up starkly in the statistics of the period. In 1968, Harlem's infant mortality rate had been 37 for each 1000 live births, as compared to 23.1 in the city as a whole. Over the next eight years, infant mortality for the city as whole improved to 19, while the rate in Harlem increased to 42.8, more than double. Statistics describing illness, drug addiction, housing quality, and education are similarly grim and typically show rapid deterioration in the 1970s. The wholesale abandonment of housing was so pronounced that between 1976 and 1978 alone, central Harlem lost almost a third of its total population, and east Harlem lost about 27%. The neighborhood no longer had a functioning economy; stores were shuttered and by estimates published in 1971, 60% of the area's economic life depended on the cash flow from the illegal "Numbers game
" alone.
The worst part of Harlem was the "Bradhurst section" between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Edgecombe, from 139th Street through 155th. In 1991, this region was described in the New York Times as follows: "Since 1970, an exodus of residents has left behind the poor, the uneducated, the unemployed. Nearly two-thirds of the households have incomes below $10,000 a year. In a community with one of the highest crime rates in the city, garbage-strewn vacant lots and tumbledown tenements, many of them abandoned and sealed, contribute to the sense of danger and desolation that pervades much of the area."
The city began auctioning its enormous portfolio of Harlem properties to the public in 1985. This was intended to improve the community by placing property in the hands of people who would live in them and maintain them. In many cases, the city would even pay to completely renovate a property before selling it (by lottery) below market value. The program was soon beset by scandal—buyers were acquiring houses from the city, then making deals with churches or other charities in which they would inflate the appraised values of the properties and the church or charity would take out federally guaranteed 203(k) mortgage and buy it. The original buyer would realize a profit and the church or charity would default on the mortgage (presumably getting some kind of kickback from the developer). Abandoned shells were left to further deteriorate, and about a third of the properties sold by the city were tenements which still had tenants, who were left in particularly miserable conditions. These properties, and new restrictions on Harlem mortgages, bedeviled the area's residential real estate market for years.
From 1987 through 1990, the city removed long-unused trolley tracks from 125th Street, laid new water mains and sewers, installed new sidewalks, curbs, traffic lights, street lights, and planted trees. Two years later, national chains opened branches on 125th Street for the first time – The Body Shop
opened a store at 125th street and 5th Avenue (still extant as of 2010), and a Ben & Jerry's
ice cream franchise employing formerly homeless people opened across the street. The development of the region would leap forward a few years later with the 1994 introduction of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, which brought $300 million in development funds and $250 million in tax breaks.
After years of false starts, Harlem began to see rapid gentrification
in the late 1990s. This was driven by changing federal and city policies, including fierce crime-fighting and a concerted effort to develop the retail corridor on 125th Street. The number of housing units in Harlem increased 14% between 1990 and 2000, and the rate of increase has been much more rapid in recent years. Property values in Central Harlem increased nearly 300% during the 1990s, while the rest of New York City saw only a 12% increase. Even empty shells of buildings in the neighborhood were, as of 2007, routinely selling for nearly $1,000,000 each. Since completing his second term in the White House
in 2001, former U.S. President Bill Clinton
has maintained his office at 55 West 125th Street.
In January 2010, The New York Times reported that in "Greater Harlem," which they defined as running from the East River to the Hudson River, from 96th Street to 155th Street, blacks ceased to be a majority of the population in 1998, with the change largely attributable to the rapid arrival of new white and Hispanic residents. The paper reported that the population of the area had grown more since 2000 than in any decade since the 1940s.
Black Harlem has always been religious. The area is home to over 400 churches. Major Christian denominations include Baptists, Methodists
(generally African Methodist Episcopalian
, or "AME"), Episcopalians, and Roman Catholic
. The Abyssinian Baptist Church
has been a particularly potent organization, long influential because of its large congregation, and recently wealthy as a result of its extensive real estate holdings.
There are mosques in Harlem, including the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque No. 7 (formerly Mosque No. 7
Nation of Islam
), the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood and Masjid Aqsa. The LDS Church established a chapel at 128th Street in 2005. Many of the area's churches are "storefront church
es", which operate out of an empty store, or a building's basement, or a converted brownstone townhouse. These congregations may have fewer than 30–50 members each, but there are hundreds of them. Judaism, too, maintains a presence in Harlem, including The Old Broadway Synagogue, Temple Healing from Heaven, and Temple of Joy. A non-mainstream synagogue of black Jews known as Commandment Keepers
, was based in a synagogue at 1 West 123rd Street until 2008. Especially in the years before World War II, Harlem produced popular Christian charismatic "cult" leaders, including George Wilson Becton
and Father Divine
.
The Apollo Theater
opened on 125th Street on January 26, 1934, in a former burlesque house. The Savoy Ballroom, on Lenox Avenue, was a renowned venue for swing
dancing, and was immortalized in a popular song of the era, "Stompin' At The Savoy". In the 1920s and 1930s, between Lenox and Seventh avenues in central Harlem, over 125 entertainment places operated, including speakeasies, cellars, lounges, cafes, taverns, supper clubs, rib joints, theaters, dance halls, and bars and grills. Some jazz venues, including most famously the Cotton Club
, where Duke Ellington
played, and Connie's Inn
, were restricted to whites only. Others were integrated, including the Renaissance Ballroom and the Savoy Ballroom
.
In 1936, Orson Welles
produced his famous black Macbeth
at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem. Grand theaters from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were torn down or converted to churches. Harlem lacked any permanent performance space until the creation of the Gatehouse Theater in an old pumping station on 135th Street in 2006.
Since 1965, the community has been home to the Harlem Boys Choir
, a famous touring choir and education program for young boys, most of whom are black. The Girls Choir of Harlem was founded in 1988.
Harlem is also home to the largest African American Day Parade which celebrates the culture of African diaspora in America. The parade was started up in the spring of 1969 with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
as the Grand Marshal of the first celebration.
Arthur Mitchell
, a former dancer with the New York City Ballet
, established Dance Theatre of Harlem
as a school and company of classical ballet and theater training in the late 1960s. The company has toured nationally and internationally. Generations of theater artists have gotten a start at the school.
Manhattan's contribution to hip-hop stems largely from artists with Harlem roots such as Kurtis Blow
, and P. Diddy
. Harlem is also the birthplace of popular hip-hop dances such as the Harlem shake
, toe wop, and Chicken Noodle Soup
.
rates higher than the New York average (generally more than twice as high), and high mortality rates as well. In both cases, the numbers for men have been consistently worse than the numbers for women. Unemployment and poverty in the neighborhood resisted private and governmental initiatives to ameliorate them. In the 1960s, uneducated blacks could find jobs more easily than educated ones could, confounding efforts to improve the lives of people who lived in the neighborhood through education. Infant mortality was 124 per thousand in 1928 (twice the rate for whites). By 1940, infant mortality in Harlem was 5% (one black infant in 20 would die), still much higher than white, and the death rate from disease generally was twice that of the rest of New York. Tuberculosis
was the main killer, and four times as prevalent among Harlem blacks than among New York's white population.
A 1990 study reported that 15-year-old black women in Harlem had a 65% chance of surviving to age 65, about the same as women in India
. Black men in Harlem, on the other hand, had a 37% chance of surviving to age 65, about the same as men in Angola
. Infectious diseases and diseases of the circulatory system were to blame, with a variety of contributing factors, including consumption of the deep-fried foods
traditional to the South and neighborhood, which may contribute to heart disease.
The neighborhood remains a predominantly African-American area, with census data revealing about 72% of the population in 2005 to have been black. The number of white residents has increased from only 672 people in 1980, about 0.5% of the population, to some 5000 people, or 4.3% of the population, in 2005. As of September 2008, their number was estimated to have tripled from 2005 levels.
, or bolita in Spanish Harlem
. This was a gambling scheme similar to a lottery that could be played, illegally, from countless locations around Harlem. According to Francis Ianni, "By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in Harlem, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues."
By the early 1950s, the total money at play amounted to billions of dollars, and the police force had been thoroughly corrupted by bribes from numbers bosses. These bosses became financial powerhouses, providing capital for loans for those who could not qualify for them from traditional financial institutions, and investing in legitimate businesses and real estate. One of the powerful early numbers bosses was a woman, Madame Stephanie St. Clair
.
The popularity of playing the numbers waned with the introduction of the state lottery
, which has higher payouts and is legal. The practice continues on a smaller scale among those who prefer the numbers tradition or who prefer to trust their local numbers bank over the state.
1940 statistics show about 100 murders per year in Harlem, "but rape is very rare." By 1950, essentially all of the whites had left Harlem and by 1960, much of the black middle class had departed. At the same time, control of organized crime shifted from Jewish and Italian syndicates to local black, Puerto Rican, and Cuban groups that were somewhat less formally organized. At the time of the 1964 riots, the drug addiction rate in Harlem was ten times higher than the New York City average, and twelve times higher than the United States as a whole. Of the 30,000 drug addicts then estimated to live in New York City, 15,000 to 20,000 lived in Harlem. Property crime was pervasive, and the murder rate was six times higher than New York's average. Half of the children in Harlem grew up with one parent, or none, and lack of supervision contributed to juvenile delinquency; between 1953 and 1962, the crime rate among young people increased throughout New York City, but was consistently 50% higher in Harlem than in New York City as a whole.
Injecting heroin grew in popularity in Harlem through the 1950s and 1960s, though the use of this drug then leveled off. In the 1980s, use of crack cocaine
became widespread, which produced collateral crime as addicts stole to finance their purchasing of additional drugs, and as dealers fought for the right to sell in particular regions, or over deals gone bad.
With the end of the "crack wars
" in the mid 90s and with the initiation of aggressive policing under mayor Rudolph Giuliani, crime in Harlem plummeted. In 1981, 6,500 robberies were reported in Harlem. The number dropped to 4,800 in 1990, perhaps due to an increase in the number of police assigned to the neighborhood. By 2000, only 1,700 robberies were reported. There have been similar changes in all categories of crimes tracked by the New York City Police Department
. In the 32nd Precinct, which services Central Harlem above 127th Street, for example, between 1990 and 2008, the murder rate dropped 80%, the rape rate dropped 58%, the robbery rate dropped 73%, burglary dropped 86%, and the total number of crime complaints dropped 73%.
became active in Harlem in 1910 and Marcus Garvey's
Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1916. The NAACP chapter there soon grew to be the largest in the country. Activist A. Philip Randolph
lived in Harlem and published the radical magazine The Messenger starting in 1917. It was from Harlem that he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
. W. E. B. Du Bois lived and published in Harlem in the 1920s, as did James Weldon Johnson
and Marcus Garvey.
The earliest activism by blacks to change the situation in Harlem itself grew out of the Great Depression
, with the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" movement. This was the ultimately successful campaign to force retail shops on 125th Street to hire black employees. Boycott
s were originally organized by the Citizens' League for Fair Play in June 1934 against Blumstein's Department Store on 125th Street. The store soon agreed to more fully integrate its staff. This success emboldened Harlem residents, and protests continued under other leadership, including that of preacher and later congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
, seeking to change hiring practices at other stores, to effect the hiring of more black workers, or the hiring of members of particular protesting groups.
Communism gained a following in Harlem in the 1930s, and continued to play a role through the 1940s. 1935 saw the first of Harlem's five riots
. The incident started with a (false) rumor that a boy caught stealing from a store on 125th Street had been killed by the police. By the time it was over, 600 stores had been looted and three men were dead. The same year saw internationalism in Harlem politics, as Harlemites responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
by holding giant rallies, signing petitions and sending an appeal to the League of Nations
. Such internationalism continued intermittently, including broad demonstrations in favor of Egyptian president Nasser
after the Suez invasion of 1956.
Black Harlemites took positions in the elected political infrastructure of New York starting in 1941 with the election of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to the City Council. He was easily elected to Congress when a congressional district was placed in Harlem in 1944, leaving his City Council seat to be won by another black Harlemite, Benjamin J. Davis
. Ironically, Harlem's political strength soon deteriorated, as Clayton Powell, Jr. spent his time in Washington or his vacation home in Puerto Rico
, and Davis was jailed in 1951 for violations of the Smith Act
.
The year 1943 saw the second Harlem riot. A black soldier knocked down a policeman who then shot him. An onlooker shouted that the soldier had been killed, and this news spread throughout the black community and provoked rioting. A force of 6,600, made up of city police, military police and civil patrolmen, in addition to 8,000 State Guardsmen and 1,500 civilian volunteers was required to end the violence. Hundreds of businesses were destroyed and looted, the property damage approaching $225,000. Overall, six people died and 185 were injured. Five hundred people were arrested in connection with the riot.
s by neighborhood tenants, led by local activist Jesse Gray
, together with the Congress of Racial Equality
, Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited
(HARYOU), and other groups. These groups wanted the city to force landlords to improve the quality of housing by bringing them up to code, to take action against rat
s and roaches
, to provide heat during the winter, and to keep prices in line with existing rent control regulations. According to the Metropolitan Council on Housing, in the mid-1960s, about 25% of the city's landlords charged more for rent than allowed by law.
Many groups mobilized in Harlem in the 1960s, fighting for better schools, jobs, and housing. Some were peaceful and others advocated violence. By the early 1960s, the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) had offices on 125th street, and acted as negotiator for the community with the city, especially in times of racial unrest. They pressed for civilian review boards to hear complaints of police abuse, a demand that was ultimately met. As chairman of the House Committee of Education and Labor at the start of the 1960s, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used this position to direct federal funds to various development projects in Harlem.
The influence of the southern nonviolent protest movement was muted in Harlem. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was the black leader most respected in Harlem, but at least two dozen groups of black nationalists also operated in New York. The most important of these was the Nation of Islam
, whose Temple Number Seven was run by Malcolm X
from 1952–1963. Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom
in Washington Heights
in 1965. The neighborhood remains an important center for the Nation of Islam.
The largest public works projects in Harlem in these years were public housing, with the largest concentration built in East Harlem. Typically, existing structures were torn down and replaced with city-designed and managed properties that would, in theory, present a safer and more pleasant environment than those available from private landlords. Ultimately, community objections halted the construction of new projects.
From the mid-20th century, the terrible quality of local schools has been a source of distress. In the 1960s, about 75% of Harlem students tested under grade levels in reading skills, and 80% tested under grade level in math. In 1964, residents of Harlem staged two school boycotts to call attention to the problem. In central Harlem, 92% of students stayed home.
In 1963, Inspector Lloyd Sealy
became the first African-American officer of the NYPD to command a police station, the 28th precinct in Harlem. Community relations between Harlem residents and the NYPD were strained as civil rights activists requested that the NYPD hire more black police officers, specifically in Harlem. In 1964, across Harlem's three precincts, the ratio was one black police officer for every six white officers. A riot broke in the summer of 1964 following the fatal shooting of an unarmed 15-year-old black teenager by an off-duty white police lieutenant. One person was killed, more than 100 were injured, and hundreds more were arrested. Property damage and looting were extensive. The riot would later spread out of Manhattan and into the borough of Brooklyn and neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the heart of Brooklyn's African-American community. In the aftermath of the riots, the federal government funded a pilot program called Project Uplift
, in which thousands of young people in Harlem were given jobs during the summer of 1965. The project was inspired by a report generated by HARYOU called Youth in the Ghetto. HARYOU was given a major role in organizing the project, along with the National Urban League
and nearly 100 smaller community organizations.
In 1966, the Black Panthers
organized a group in Harlem, agitating for violence in pursuit of change. Speaking at a rally of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), Max Stanford, a Black Panther, declared that the United States "could be brought down to its knees with a rag and some gasoline and a bottle
."
In 1968, Harlemites rioted after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., as did black residents in other U.S. cities. Two people died—one stabbed to death in a crowd and another trapped in a burning building. Mayor John Lindsay
helped to quell the rioting by marching up Lenox Avenue in a "hail of bricks" to confront the angry crowds.
. A related retail complex was planned to the west, between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and St. Nicholas. However, this plan depended on $30 million in financing from the federal government, and with the election of Ronald Reagan
to the presidency of the United States, it had no hope of being completed.
The city did provide one large construction project, though not so favored by residents. Starting in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s, Harlemites fought the introduction of an immense sewage treatment plant, the North River Water Pollution Control Plant, on the Hudson River
in West Harlem
. A compromise was ultimately reached in which the plant was built with a state park, including extensive recreational facilities, on top. The park, called Riverbank State Park
, was opened in 1993 (the sewage plant having been completed some years earlier).
Five years later, the revitalization of 125th Street resumed, with the construction of a Starbucks outlet backed in part by Magic Johnson
(1999), the first supermarket in Harlem in 30 years, the Harlem USA retail complex, which included the first first-run movie theater in many years (2000), and a new home for the Studio Museum in Harlem
(2001). In the same year, former president Bill Clinton
took office space in Harlem. In 2002, a large retail and office complex called Harlem Center was completed at the corner of Lenox and 125th. There has been extensive new construction and rehabilitation of older buildings in the years since.
The neighborhood's changes have provoked some discontent. James David Manning
, pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary church on Lenox Avenue, has received press for declaring a boycott on all Harlem shops, restaurants, other businesses, and churches other than his own. He believes that this will cause an economic crash that will drive out white residents and drop property values to a level his supporters can afford. There have been rallies against gentrification.
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
As of May 2006, Harlem was the heart of the charter schools movement in Manhattan; of the 25 charter schools operating in Manhattan, 18 were in Harlem. In 2010, about one in five age-eligible children in Harlem was enrolled in charter schools.
The New York Public Library
operates the Harlem Branch Library at 9 West 124th Street, the 115th Street Branch Library at 203 West 115th Street, and the 125th Street Branch Library at 224 East 125th Street, near Third Avenue.
The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
, City College of New York
, and New York College of Podiatric Medicine
are all located in Harlem.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873.
Harlem has been defined by a series of boom-and-bust cycles, with significant ethnic shifts accompanying each cycle. Black residents began to arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
. In the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood was the focus of the "Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
", an outpouring of artistic and professional works without precedent in the American black community. However, with job losses in the time of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, rates of crime and poverty increased significantly.
New York's revival in the late 20th century has led to renewal in Harlem as well. By 1995, Harlem was experiencing social and economic gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
. Though the percentage of residents who are black peaked in 1950, the area remains predominantly black.
Location and boundaries
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
west to the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
between 155th Street; where it meets Washington Heights
Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
—to a ragged border along the south. Central Harlem begins at 110th Street
110th Street (Manhattan)
110th Street is a street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is commonly known as the boundary between Harlem and Central Park, along which it is known as Central Park North. In the west, it is also known as Cathedral Parkway....
, at the northern boundary of Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
; Spanish Harlem
Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
is in Eastern Harlem and extends south to 96th Street
96th Street (Manhattan)
96th Street is a major two-way street in East Harlem and the Upper West Side, which is a part of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from the East River at the FDR Drive to the Henry Hudson Parkway at the Hudson River...
, while in the west the neighborhood begins north of Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
, which gives an irregular border west of Morningside Avenue
Morningside Avenue (Manhattan)
Morningside Avenue is a New York City avenue in the borough of Manhattan along the east or lower side of Morningside Park near Columbia University . It divides Harlem and Morningside Heights and is the address for many of the at-grade entrances to the park...
. Harlem's boundaries have changed over the years; as Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
said, "Wherever Negroes live uptown is considered Harlem."
The neighborhood contains a number of smaller, cohesive districts. The following are some examples:
- West Harlem (west of St. Nicholas Avenue and north of 123rd Street)
- Hamilton HeightsHamilton Heights, ManhattanHamilton Heights is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattanville to the south and Washington Heights to the north. It contains the neighborhood of Sugar Hill....
, around the Hamilton Grange - Sugar HillSugar Hill, ManhattanSugar Hill is a neighborhood in the northern part of Hamilton Heights, which itself is a sub-neighborhood of Harlem, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is defined by 155th Street to the north, 145th Street to the south, Edgecombe Avenue to the east, and...
- ManhattanvilleManhattanvilleManhattanville is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan bordered on the south by Morningside Heights on the west by the Hudson River, on the east by Harlem and on the north by Hamilton Heights. Its borders straddle West 125th Street, roughly from 122nd Street to 135th Street and...
, north of Morningside Heights
- Hamilton Heights
- Central Harlem (east of St. Nicholas Avenue, north of 110th Street, south of 155th Street, west of 5th Avenue.)
- Mount Morris, extending west from Marcus Garvey ParkMarcus Garvey ParkMarcus Garvey Park, or Mount Morris Park as it is referred to by the people in the neighborhood, is located in Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park interrupts the flow of Fifth Avenue, which is routed around the park via Mount Morris Park West. The park is bounded by 120th...
- Strivers' RowStrivers' RowStrivers' Row is three rows of townhouses in western Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan on West 138th and West 139th between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Originally called the "King Model Houses" after developer David King, they were designed...
, centered on 139th Street - Astor RowAstor RowAstor Row is the name given to 130th Street between Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. More specifically, it refers to the semi-attached row houses on the south side of the street. These were among the first speculative townhouses built in Harlem,...
, centered on 130th Street
- Mount Morris, extending west from Marcus Garvey Park
- East or Spanish HarlemSpanish HarlemEast Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
, also known as El BarrioSpanish HarlemEast Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
formerly Italian HarlemItalian HarlemItalian Harlem was the name that was given to East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, when it was largely inhabited by an Italian American population....
(east of Fifth Avenue, above East 96th Street)
The New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
patrols five precincts located within Harlem. The areas of West Harlem are served by the 30th Precinct, the areas of Central Harlem are served by the 28th and 32nd Precincts, and the areas of East Harlem are served by the 23rd and 25th Precincts.
Harlem is represented by New York's 15th congressional district
New York's 15th congressional district
New York's 15th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in New York City. It is composed of Upper Manhattan, Rikers Island and a largely non-residential section of northwestern Queens on the shore of the East River mostly occupied...
, the New York State Senate
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...
's 30th district, the New York State Assembly
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
's 68th and 70th districts, and the New York City Council
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
's 7th, 8th, and 9th districts.
1637–1865
Prior to the arrival of European settlers, the area that would become Harlem was inhabited by the Manhattans, a native tribe, who along with other Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, most likely Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
occupied the area on a semi-nomadic basis. As many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. The first European settlement in the area was by Hendrick (Henry) de Forest, Isaac de Forest, his brother, and their sister Rachel de Forest, French – Dutch immigrants in 1637. Early European settlers were forced to flee to New Amsterdam in lower Manhattan whenever hostilities with the natives heated up, and the native population gradually decreased amidst conflict with the Dutch. The settlement was named Nieuw Haarlem, after the Dutch city of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
, and was formally incorporated in 1660 under leadership of Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
. The Indian trail to Harlem's lush bottomland meadows was rebuilt by black laborers of the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
, and eventually developed into the Boston Post Road
Boston Post Road
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States.The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York...
. In 1664, the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
took control of the New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
colony and tried to change the name of the community to "Lancaster," but the name never stuck, and eventually settled down to the anglicized Harlem. The Dutch took control of the area again for one year in 1673. The village grew very slowly until the mid 1700s, and it became a resort of sorts for the rich of New York City. Only the Morris-Jumel Mansion
Morris-Jumel Mansion
The Morris-Jumel Mansion , located in Washington Heights, is the oldest house in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It served as a headquarters for both sides in the American Revolution....
survives from this period. Harlem played an important role in the American Revolution. The British had established their base of operations in lower Manhattan, and George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
fortified the area around Harlem to oppose them. From Harlem, he could control the land routes to the north, as well as traffic on the Harlem River
Harlem River
The Harlem River is a navigable tidal strait in New York City, USA that flows 8 miles between the Hudson River and the East River, separating the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx...
. The Provincial Congress met there, as did the convention drafting the constitution for New York State. On September 16, 1776, the Battle of Harlem Heights
Battle of Harlem Heights
The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The action took place in what is now the Morningside Heights and west Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City on September 16, 1776....
, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Harlem or Battle of Harlem Plain, was fought in western Harlem around the Hollow Way (now West 125th St.), with conflicts on Morningside Heights to the south and Harlem Heights to the north. The American troops were outnumbered, 5000 to 2000, and were ill-equipped compared to their opponents, but outflanked the British and forced them to retreat to the area around what is now West 106th Street. It was Washington's first American victory. Later that year, the British would avenge this defeat by chasing Washington and his troops north, then turning back and burning Harlem to the ground.
Though undeveloped, the area was not poor. Harlem was "a synonym for elegant living through a good part of the nineteenth century." The village remained largely farmland estates, such as [Conrad] Van Keulen's Hook, orig. Otterspoor, bordered north of the Mill Creek (now 108th St., orig. Montagne Creek at 109th St.), which flowed into Harlem Lake, to the farm of Morris Randall, northwest on the Harlem River
Harlem River
The Harlem River is a navigable tidal strait in New York City, USA that flows 8 miles between the Hudson River and the East River, separating the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx...
, and westward to the Peter Benson, or Mill Farm. This former bowery [of land] was subdivided into twenty-two equal plots, of about 6 to 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) each, of which portions later owned by Abraham Storm, including thirty-one acres (east of Fifth Avenue between 110th & 125th St.) were sold by Storm's widow Catherine in 1795 to James Roosevelt (great grandfather of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, 1760–1847). This branch of the Roosevelt family subsequently moved to the town of Hyde Park
Hyde Park, New York
Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....
, but several of Roosevelt's children remain interred in Harlem.
As late as 1820, the community had dwindled to 91 families, one church, a school, and a library. Wealthy farmers, known as "patroons", maintained these country estates largely on the heights overlooking the Hudson River. Service connecting the outlays of Harlem with the rest of the City of New York (on the southern tip of the island of Manhattan) was done via steamboat on the East River, an hour-and-a-half passage, sometimes interrupted when the river froze in winter, or else by stagecoach along the Boston Post Road, which descended from McGown's Pass (now in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
) and skirted the salt marshes around 110th Street, to pass through Harlem.
The New York and Harlem Railroad
New York and Harlem Railroad
The New York and Harlem Railroad was one of the first railroads in the United States, and possibly also the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and 1852 between Lower Manhattan to and beyond Harlem...
(now Metro North
Metro-North Railroad
The Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
) was incorporated in 1831 to better link the city with Harlem and Westchester Co., starting at a depot at East 23rd Street
23rd Street (Manhattan)
23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
, and extending 127 miles (204.4 km) north to a railroad junction in Columbia County
Columbia County, New York
Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,096. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the time of the formation of the county a popular proposal...
at Chatham, New York by 1851. Charles Henry Hall
Charles Henry Hall
Charles Henry Hall was an English churchman and academic, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and then Dean of Durham.-Life:He was the son of Charles Hall, dean of Bocking, Essex, and uncle of watercolour artist John Frederick Tayler. He was admitted to Westminster School in 1775, was elected Christ...
, a wealthy lawyer and land speculator, recognized the changes that this railroad would make possible in Harlem and began a successful program of infrastructure development, building out streets, gas lines, sewer lines, and other facilities needed for urban life. Piers were also built, enabling Harlem to become a center of industry serving New York City. The rapid development of infrastructure enabled some to become wealthy, and the area became important to politicians, many of whom lived in Harlem. New York mayors Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence
Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence
Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence was a politician from New York. He became the first popularly elected Mayor of New York City after the law was changed in 1834.-Biography:...
and Daniel Tiemann both lived in Harlem in this period. For many in New York City, Harlem was at this time regarded as a sort of country retreat. The village had a population of poorer residents as well, including blacks, who came north to work in factories or to take advantage of relatively low rents.
In the years between roughly 1850 to 1870, many large estates, including Hamilton Grange, the estate of Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
, were auctioned off as the fertile soil was depleted and crop yields fell. Some of the land became occupied by Irish squatters, whose presence further depressed property values.
1866-1920: Reconstruction & Renaissance
During the Civil WarCivil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
, Harlem saw draft riots, along with the rest of the city, but the neighborhood was a significant beneficiary of the economic boom that followed the end of the war, starting in 1868. The neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian. Factories, homes, churches, and retail buildings were built at great speed. The Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
caused Harlem property values to drop 80%, and gave the City of New York the opportunity to annex the troubled community as far north as 155th Street.
Recovery came soon, and row houses (as distinct from the previous generation's free-standing houses) were being constructed in large numbers by 1876. Development accelerated in part in anticipation of elevated railroads, which were extended to Harlem in 1880. With the construction of the "els," urbanized development occurred very rapidly. Developers anticipated that the planned Lexington Avenue subway
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
The Lexington Avenue Line is one of the lines of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East Harlem. The portion in Lower and Midtown Manhattan was part of the first subway line in New York...
would ease transportation to lower Manhattan. Fearing that new housing regulations would be enacted in 1901, they rushed to complete as many new buildings as possible before these came into force. Early entrepreneurs had grandiose schemes for Harlem: Polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
was played at the original Polo Grounds
Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963...
, later to become home of the New York Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team. Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
opened the Harlem Opera House on East 125th Street in 1889. By 1893, even row houses did not suffice to meet the growing population, and large scale apartment buildings were the norm. In that year, Harlem Monthly Magazine wrote that "it is evident to the most superficial observer that the centre of fashion, wealth, culture, and intelligence, must, in the near future, be found in the ancient and honorable village of Harlem."
However, also in that year, the construction glut and a delay in the building of the subway led to a fall in real estate prices which attracted immigrant Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
Jews and Italians to Harlem in accelerating numbers. There had been a Jewish community of 12 in Harlem in 1869 which grew to a peak of almost 200,000 in about 1915. Presaging their resistance to the arrival of blacks, existing landowners tried to stop Jews from moving into the neighborhood. At least one rental sign declared “Keine Juden und Keine Hunde” (No Jews and no dogs). Italians began to arrive in Harlem only a few years after the Jews did. By 1900 there were three times as many Italians in Harlem as there were in Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, peaking at 150,000. Both groups moved particularly into East Harlem.
The Jewish population of Harlem embraced the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, which moved to Harlem in 1907. In the years after the move, 90% of the school's students were Jewish, and many of the schools's most distinguished graduates date from this period. Both the Jewish and Italian Mafia emerged in East Harlem and soon expanded their operations to the entire neighborhood. West 116th Street between Lenox and 8th Avenue became a vice district. The neighborhood also became a major center for more conventional entertainment, with 125th Street as a particular center for musical theater, vaudeville, and moving pictures.
The Jewish presence in Harlem was ephemeral, and by 1930 only 5,000 Jews remained. As they left, their apartments in East Harlem were increasing filled by Puerto Ricans, who were arriving in large numbers by 1913. Italian Harlem lasted longer, and traces of the community lasted into the 1970s in the area around Pleasant Avenue.
Black population increase
After the collapse of the 1890s, new speculation and construction started up again in 1903 and the resulting glut of housing led to a crash in values in 1904 and 1905 that eclipsed the late-19th century slowdown. Landlords could not find white renters for their properties, so Philip Payton stepped in to bring blacks. His company, the Afro-American Realty Company, has been credited with the migration of blacks from their previous neighborhoods, the Tenderloin
Tenderloin, Manhattan
The Tenderloin was an entertainment and red-light district in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, San Juan Hill
San Juan Hill, Manhattan
San Juan Hill was a predominantly African American neighborhood of tenements on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, which was largely razed as part of urban renewal to make way for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts....
(now the site of Lincoln Center), Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
and Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
in the west 40s and 50s. The move to northern Manhattan was driven in part by fears that anti-black riots such as those that had occurred in the Tenderloin in 1900 and in San Juan Hill in 1905 might recur. In addition, a number of tenements that had been occupied by blacks in the west 30s were destroyed at this time to make way for the construction of the original Penn Station
Pennsylvania Station (New York City)
Pennsylvania Station—commonly known as Penn Station—is the major intercity train station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. It is one of the busiest rail stations in the world, and a hub for inbound and outbound railroad traffic in New York City. The New York City Subway system also...
.
In 1907, black churches began to move uptown. Several congregations built grand new church buildings, including St Philip's Protestant Episcopal Church on West 134th Street just west of Seventh Avenue (the wealthiest church in Harlem), the Abyssinian Baptist Church on West 138th Street and St Mark's Methodist Church on Edgecombe Avenue. More often churches purchased buildings from white congregations of Christians and Jews whose members had left the neighborhood, including Metropolitan Baptist Church on West 128th and Seventh Avenue, St James Presbyterian Church on West 141st Street, and Mt Olivet Baptist Church on Lenox Avenue. Only the Catholic Church retained its churches in Harlem, with white priests presiding over parishes that retained significant numbers of whites until the 1930s.
The early 20th-century Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
of blacks to northern industrial cities was fueled by their desire to leave behind the Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
South, seek better jobs and education for their children, and escape a culture of lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
violence. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, expanding industries recruited black laborers to fill new jobs, thinly staffed after the draft began to take young men. So many blacks came that it "threaten[ed] the very existence of some of the leading industries of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama." Many settled in Harlem. By 1920, central Harlem was 32.43% black. The 1930 census revealed that 70.18% of Central Harlem's residents were black and lived as far south as Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, at 110th Street. The expansion was fueled primarily by an influx of blacks from the southern U.S. states, especially Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, North
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, who took trains up the East Coast. There were also numerous immigrants from the West Indies. As blacks moved in, white residents left
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
; between 1920 and 1930, 118,792 white people left the neighborhood and 87,417 blacks arrived.
Between 1907 and 1915, some white residents of Harlem resisted the neighborhood's change, especially once the swelling black population pressed west of Lenox Avenue
Lenox Avenue (Manhattan)
Lenox Avenue / Malcolm X Boulevard is the primary north-south route through Harlem in the upper portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. This two-way street runs from Farmers' Gate at Central Park North to 147th Street. It is also considered the heartbeat of Harlem by Langston Hughes in...
, which served as an informal color line until the early 1920s. Some made pacts not to sell to or rent to blacks. Others tried to buy property and evict black tenants, but the Afro-American Realty Company retaliated by buying other property and evicting whites. They also attempted to convince banks to deny mortgages
Mortgage discrimination
Mortgage discrimination or mortgage lending discrimination is the practice of banks, governments or other lending institutions denying loans to one or more groups of people primarily on the basis of race, ethnic origin, sex or religion...
to black buyers, but soon gave up.
In 1910, Central Harlem was about 10% black. By 1930, it had reached 70%.
The 1920s: Harlem as a center of black life
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Harlem became associated with the New Negro
New Negro
New Negro is a term popularized during the Harlem Renaissance implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation...
movement, and then the artistic outpouring known as the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
, which extended to poetry, novels, theater, and the visual arts.
The growing population also supported a rich fabric of organizations and activities in the 1920s. Fraternal orders such as the Prince Hall Masons
Prince Hall Freemasonry
Prince Hall Freemasonry derives from historical events which led to a tradition of separate predominantly African-American Freemasonry in North America...
and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868...
set up lodges in Harlem, with elaborate buildings including auditoriums, and large bands. Parades of lodge members, decked out in uniforms and accompanied by band music, were a common sight on Harlem's streets, on public holidays, lodge anniversaries, church festivities and funerals. The neighborhood's churches housed a range of groups, including athletic clubs, choirs and social clubs. A similar range of activities could be found at the YMCA on 135th Street and the YWCA on 137th Street. The social pages of Harlem's two African American newspapers, the New York Age
New York Age
The New York Age was a black newspaper from 1887 to 1953, and was one of the most influential black newspapers of its time.The paper had it origins as the weekly New York Globe , an African-American newspaper, that was published weekly from at least 1880 to November 8, 1884...
and the New York Amsterdam News recorded the meetings, dinners and dances of hundreds of small clubs. Soapbox speakers drew crowds on Seventh and Lenox Avenues until the 1960s, some offering political oratory, with Hubert Harrison
Hubert Harrison
Hubert Henry Harrison was a West Indian-American writer, orator, educator, critic, and radical socialist political activist based in Harlem, New York. He was described by activist A. Philip Randolph as “the father of Harlem radicalism” and by the historian Joel Augustus Rogers as “the foremost...
the most famous, while others, particularly in the late 1920s, sold medicine. Harlem also offered a wealth of sporting events: the Lincoln Giants
Lincoln Giants
The Lincoln Giants were a Negro League baseball team based in New York City from 1911 through 1930.- Founding :Jess McMahon, a white promoter, hired Sol White, former manager of the Philadelphia Giants, to put together a club...
played baseball at Olympic Field at 136th and Fifth Avenue until 1920, after which residents had to travel to the Catholic Protectory Oval in the Bronx; men's and women's basketball teams from local athletic clubs played in church gymnasiums, and, as they became more popular, at the Manhattan Casino on 155th Street, before giving way to professional teams, most famously the Rens
New York Renaissance
The New York Renaissance, also known as the Renaissance Big Five and as the Rens, was an all-black professional basketball team established February 13, 1923, by Robert "Bob" Douglas in agreement with the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom...
, based at the Renaissance Ballroom on Seventh Avenue; and boxing bouts took place at the Commonwealth Casino on East 135th Street (run by white promoters the McMahon brothers
Roderick McMahon
Roderick James "Jess" McMahon was a professional wrestling and professional boxing promoter, and the patriarch of the McMahon wrestling family. McMahon was the founder of the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, along with Toots Mondt.-Early life:Roderick James McMahon was born May 26, 1882, to hotel...
). The biggest crowds, including many whites, came to see black athletes compete against whites.
Marginalized in the legitimate economy, a small group of blacks found success outside the law, running gambling on number
Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....
s. Invented in 1920 or 1921, numbers had by 1924 exploded into a racket turning over tens of millions of dollars every year. That year the New York Age reported that there were at least thirty bankers (the name given to someone running a numbers game) in Harlem, with many employing between twelve and twenty people to collect bets, and Marcellino, the largest banker, employing over one hundred. By the late 1920s, Wallace Thurman
Wallace Thurman
Wallace Henry Thurman was an American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life, which explores discrimination among black people based on skin color.-Early life:...
guessed there were over a thousand collectors taking bets from 100,000 clients a day. The most successful bankers, who could earn enormous sums of money, were known as Kings and Queens. The wealthiest numbers king of all was almost certainly the reputed inventor of the game, Casper Holstein
Casper Holstein
Casper Holstein was a prominent New York mobster involved in the Harlem "numbers rackets" during the Harlem Renaissance. He, along with his occasional rival Stephanie St. Clair, was responsible for bringing back illegal gambling to the neighborhood after an eight-year absence following the...
. He owned a fleet of cars, apartment buildings in Harlem and a home on Long Island, but did not have the ostentatious style and life style of many other kings. He, and other bankers, gave money to charities and loans to aspiring businessmen and needy residents. Holstein's role in the community extended further than most of his colleagues, included membership in the Monarch Lodge of the Elks, support for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association
Unia
Unia , released on May 25, 2007, is the fifth full-length studio album by the power metal band Sonata Arctica, following the album Reckoning Night. The first single from the album was "Paid in Full", released on April 27, 2007. The album has more progressive metal styles than their previous work...
, philanthropy in his native Virgin Islands, and patronage of the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
.
Harlem adapted rapidly to the coming of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, and its theaters, nightclubs, and speakeasies became major entertainment destinations. Claude McKay
Claude McKay
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance and wrote three novels: Home to Harlem , a best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo , and Banana Bottom...
would write that Harlem had become "an all white picnic ground," and in 1927 Rudolph Fisher
Rudolph Fisher
Rudolph Fisher was an African-American physician, radiologist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator. Fisher's parents were John Wesley Fisher, a clergyman, and Glendora Williamson. Fisher had three children.His first published work, "City of Refuge", appeared in the...
published an article titled "The Caucasian Storms Harlem." Langston Hughes described this period at length, including this passage from his 1940 autobiography,
In response to the white influx, some blacks operated alternative venues in their homes. Called buffet flats, they offered alcohol, music, dancing, prostitutes, and, commonly, gambling, and, less often, rooms to which a couple could go. Their location in residential buildings, typically on cross streets above 140th Street, away from the nightclubs and speakeasies on the avenues, offered a degree of privacy from police, and from whites: you could only find a buffet flat if you knew the address and apartment number, which hosts did not advertise.
Since the 1920s, this period of Harlem's history has been highly romanticized. With the increase in a poor population, it was also the time when the neighborhood began to deteriorate to a slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
, and some of the storied traditions of the Harlem Renaissance were driven by poverty, crime, or other social ills. For example, in this period, Harlem became known for "rent parties", informal gatherings in which bootleg alcohol was served and music played. Neighbors paid to attend, and thus enabled the host to make his or her monthly rent. Though picturesque, these parties were thrown out of necessity. Further, over a quarter of black households in Harlem made their monthly rent by taking in lodgers, many of who were family members, but who sometimes brought bad habits or even crime that disrupted the lives of respectable families. Lodgers also experienced disruption, with many having to move frequently when households relocated, roommates quarreled or they could not pay rent. Urban reformers campaigned to eliminate the "lodger evil" but the problem got worse before it got better; in 1940, still affected by the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, 40% of black families in Harlem were taking in lodgers.
The high rents and poor maintenance of housing stock, which Harlem residents suffered through much of the 20th century, was not merely the product of racism by white landlords. By 1914, 40% of Harlem's private houses and 10% of its tenements were owned by blacks. Wealthier blacks continued to purchase land in Harlem, and by 1920, a significant portion of the neighborhood was owned by blacks. By the late 1960s, 60% of the businesses in Harlem responding to surveys reported ownership by blacks, and an overwhelming fraction of new businesses were black owned after that time.
In 1928, the first effort at housing reform was attempted in Harlem with the construction of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Houses
Dunbar Apartments
Constructed in 1926, the Dunbar Apartments are a set of buildings in North-Central Harlem in New York City, built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to provide housing for African Americans. The apartments were designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas, noted for his designs in the community of Jackson...
, backed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. was a major philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. He was the sole son among the five children of businessman and Standard Oil industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the father of the five famous Rockefeller brothers...
These were intended to give working people of modest means the opportunity to live in and, over time, purchase houses of their own. The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit shortly after the buildings opened, and the experiment failed. They were followed in 1936 by the Harlem River Houses
Harlem River Houses
The Harlem River Houses are located at 151st street and the Harlem River Drive in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and covers in Harlem. They were built in 1937 for African Americans.-Building:...
, a more modest experiment in housing projects. And by 1964, nine giant public housing projects had been constructed in the neighborhood, housing over 41,000 people.
1930-1995, "Ghettoization"
The neighborhood was hit hard by job losses in the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. In the early 1930s, 25% of Harlemites were out of work, and employment prospects for Harlemites stayed bad for decades. Employment among black New Yorkers fell as some traditionally black businesses, including domestic service and some types of manual labor, were taken over by other ethnic groups. Major industries left New York City altogether, especially after 1950.
The job losses of the Depression were exacerbated by the end of Prohibition in 1933 and by the Harlem Riot of 1935
Harlem Riot of 1935
The Harlem Riot of 1935 was Harlem's first race riot, sparked off by rumors of the beating of a teenage shoplifter. Three died, hundreds were wounded and an estimated $2 million in damages were sustained to properties throughout the district, with African-American owned homes and businesses spared...
, which scared away the wealthier whites who had long supported Harlem's entertainment industry. White audiences decreased almost totally after a second round of riots in 1943
Harlem Riot of 1943
The Harlem Riot of 1943 took place in the borough of Harlem on August 1, after an African American soldier was shot and wounded by a white New York policeman.-Cause:...
. Many Harlemites found work in the military or in the Brooklyn shipyards during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but the neighborhood declined rapidly once the war ended. Some middle-class blacks moved north or west to suburbs, a trend that increased after the 1960s Civil Rights Movement decreased discrimination in housing.
The neighborhood enjoyed few benefits from the massive public works projects in New York under Robert Moses
Robert Moses
Robert Moses was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of...
in the 1930s, and as a result had fewer parks and public recreational sites than other New York neighborhoods. Of the 255 playgrounds Moses built in New York City, he placed only one in Harlem.
Little investment in private homes or businesses took place in the neighborhood between 1911 and the 1990s. However, the unwillingness of landlords elsewhere in the city to rent to black tenants, together with a significant increase in the black population of New York, meant that rents
Renting
Renting is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for all property charges regularly incurred by the ownership from landowners...
in Harlem were for many years higher than rents elsewhere in the city, even as the housing stock decayed. In 1920, one-room apartments in central Harlem rented for $40 to whites or $100–$125 to blacks. In the late 1920s, a typical white working-class family in New York paid $6.67 per month per room, while blacks in Harlem paid $9.50 for the same space. The worse the accommodations and more desperate the renter, the higher the rents would be.
This pattern persisted through the 1960s; in 1965, CERGE reported that a one-room apartment in Harlem rented for $50–$74, while comparable apartments rented for $30–$49 in white slums. The high rents encouraged some property speculators to engage in block busting
Blockbusting
Blockbusting is a business practice of U.S. real estate agents and building developers meant to encourage white property owners to sell their houses at a loss, by implying that racial, ethnic, or religious minorities — Blacks, Hispanics, Jews et al. — were moving into their previously racially...
, a practice whereby they would acquire a single property on a block and sell or rent it to blacks with great publicity. Other landowners would panic, and the speculators would then buy additional houses relatively cheaply. These houses could then be rented profitably to blacks.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era, Harlem ceased to be home to a majority of NYC's blacks, but it remained the cultural and political capital of black New York, and possibly black America. The character of the community changed in the years after the war, as middle-class blacks left for the outer boroughs (primarily the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
) and suburbs. The percentage of Harlem that was black peaked in 1950, at 98.2%. Thereafter, Hispanics and, more recently, white residents have increased their share.
The high cost of space forced people to live in close quarters, and the population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
of Harlem in these years was stunning—over 215,000 per square mile in the 1920s. By comparison, in 2000, Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
as a whole had a population density under 70,000 per square mile. The same forces that allowed landlords to charge more for Harlem space also enabled them to maintain it less, and many of the residential buildings in Harlem fell into disrepair.
In 1937, the Harlem River Houses
Harlem River Houses
The Harlem River Houses are located at 151st street and the Harlem River Drive in the New York City borough of Manhattan, and covers in Harlem. They were built in 1937 for African Americans.-Building:...
, America's first federally subsidized housing project, were opened. Other massive housing projects would follow, with tens of thousands of units constructed over the next twenty years.
The 1960 census showed only 51% of housing in Harlem to be "sound," as opposed to 85% elsewhere in New York City. In 1968, the New York City Buildings Department received 500 complaints daily of rats in Harlem buildings, falling plaster, lack of heat, and unsanitary plumbing. Tenants were sometimes to blame; some would strip wiring and fixtures from their buildings to sell, throw garbage in hallways and airshafts, or otherwise damage the properties which they lived in or visited.
Single Room Occupancy
A single room occupancy is a multiple-tenant building that houses one or two people in individual rooms , or to the single room dwelling itself...
", or SROs, essentially private homeless shelters. In many cases, the income from these buildings could not support the fines and city taxes charged to their owners, or the houses suffered damage that would have been expensive to fix, and the buildings were abandoned. In the 1970s, this process accelerated to the point that Harlem, for the first time since before WWI, had a lower population density than the rest of Manhattan. Between 1970 and 1980, for example, Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 110th Street and 125th Street in central Harlem lost 42% of its population and 23% of its remaining housing stock. By 1987, 65% of the buildings in Harlem were owned by the City of New York, and many had become empty shells, convenient centers for drug dealing and other illegal activity. The lack of habitable buildings and falling population reduced tax rolls and made the neighborhood even less attractive to residential and retail investment.
McKim, Mead, and White
McKim, Mead & White was a prominent American architectural firm at the turn of the twentieth century and in the history of American architecture. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim , William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White...
; James Renwick
James Renwick, Jr.
James Renwick, Jr. , was a prominent American architect in the 19th-century. The Encyclopedia of American Architecture calls him "one of the most successful American architects of his time".-Life and work:Renwick was born into a wealthy and well-educated family...
; William Tuthill
William Tuthill
William Burnet Tuthill was an American architect celebrated for designing New York City's Carnegie Hall.- Early life, education and family :...
; Charles Buek
Charles Buek
Charles Buek was a developer and architect in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He worked mostly on the east side of Manhattan, in the years between 1880 and 1914. Buek was known primarily for the large, elaborate private homes and apartments he designed for wealthy clients....
; and Francis Kimball
Francis Kimball
Francis Hatch Kimball was an American architect practicing in New York City, best known for his work on skyscrapers in lower Manhattan and terra-cotta ornamentation. He was an associate with the firm Kimball & Thompson.-Life:...
.
By some measures, the 1970s were the worst period in Harlem's history. Many of those Harlemites who were able to escape from poverty left the neighborhood in search of safer streets, better schools and homes. Those who remained were the poorest and least skilled, with the fewest opportunities for success. Though the federal government's Model Cities Program
Model Cities Program
The Model Cities Program was an element of United States President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. The ambitious federal urban aid program ultimately fell short of its goals....
spent $100 million on job training, health care, education, public safety, sanitation, housing, and other projects over a ten-year period, Harlem showed no improvement.
The deterioration shows up starkly in the statistics of the period. In 1968, Harlem's infant mortality rate had been 37 for each 1000 live births, as compared to 23.1 in the city as a whole. Over the next eight years, infant mortality for the city as whole improved to 19, while the rate in Harlem increased to 42.8, more than double. Statistics describing illness, drug addiction, housing quality, and education are similarly grim and typically show rapid deterioration in the 1970s. The wholesale abandonment of housing was so pronounced that between 1976 and 1978 alone, central Harlem lost almost a third of its total population, and east Harlem lost about 27%. The neighborhood no longer had a functioning economy; stores were shuttered and by estimates published in 1971, 60% of the area's economic life depended on the cash flow from the illegal "Numbers game
Numbers game
Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day...
" alone.
The worst part of Harlem was the "Bradhurst section" between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Edgecombe, from 139th Street through 155th. In 1991, this region was described in the New York Times as follows: "Since 1970, an exodus of residents has left behind the poor, the uneducated, the unemployed. Nearly two-thirds of the households have incomes below $10,000 a year. In a community with one of the highest crime rates in the city, garbage-strewn vacant lots and tumbledown tenements, many of them abandoned and sealed, contribute to the sense of danger and desolation that pervades much of the area."
The city began auctioning its enormous portfolio of Harlem properties to the public in 1985. This was intended to improve the community by placing property in the hands of people who would live in them and maintain them. In many cases, the city would even pay to completely renovate a property before selling it (by lottery) below market value. The program was soon beset by scandal—buyers were acquiring houses from the city, then making deals with churches or other charities in which they would inflate the appraised values of the properties and the church or charity would take out federally guaranteed 203(k) mortgage and buy it. The original buyer would realize a profit and the church or charity would default on the mortgage (presumably getting some kind of kickback from the developer). Abandoned shells were left to further deteriorate, and about a third of the properties sold by the city were tenements which still had tenants, who were left in particularly miserable conditions. These properties, and new restrictions on Harlem mortgages, bedeviled the area's residential real estate market for years.
Recent history
After four decades of decline, Central Harlem's population bottomed out in the 1990 census, at 101,026. It had decreased by 57% from its peak of 237,468 in 1950. Between 1990 and 2006 the neighborhood's population grew by 16.9%, with the percentage of blacks decreasing from 87.6% to 69.3%, then dropping to 54.4% by 2010, and the percentage of whites increasing from 1.5% to 6.6% by 2006, and to "almost 10%" by 2010.From 1987 through 1990, the city removed long-unused trolley tracks from 125th Street, laid new water mains and sewers, installed new sidewalks, curbs, traffic lights, street lights, and planted trees. Two years later, national chains opened branches on 125th Street for the first time – The Body Shop
The Body Shop
The Body Shop International plc, known as The Body Shop, has 2,400 stores in 61 countries, and is the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world, following O Boticario, a Brazilian company...
opened a store at 125th street and 5th Avenue (still extant as of 2010), and a Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream company, a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United...
ice cream franchise employing formerly homeless people opened across the street. The development of the region would leap forward a few years later with the 1994 introduction of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, which brought $300 million in development funds and $250 million in tax breaks.
After years of false starts, Harlem began to see rapid gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
in the late 1990s. This was driven by changing federal and city policies, including fierce crime-fighting and a concerted effort to develop the retail corridor on 125th Street. The number of housing units in Harlem increased 14% between 1990 and 2000, and the rate of increase has been much more rapid in recent years. Property values in Central Harlem increased nearly 300% during the 1990s, while the rest of New York City saw only a 12% increase. Even empty shells of buildings in the neighborhood were, as of 2007, routinely selling for nearly $1,000,000 each. Since completing his second term in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in 2001, former U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
has maintained his office at 55 West 125th Street.
In January 2010, The New York Times reported that in "Greater Harlem," which they defined as running from the East River to the Hudson River, from 96th Street to 155th Street, blacks ceased to be a majority of the population in 1998, with the change largely attributable to the rapid arrival of new white and Hispanic residents. The paper reported that the population of the area had grown more since 2000 than in any decade since the 1940s.
Religious life
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
(generally African Methodist Episcopalian
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
, or "AME"), Episcopalians, and Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. The Abyssinian Baptist Church
Abyssinian Baptist Church
The Abyssinian Baptist Church is among the most famous of the many prominent and activist churches in the Harlem section of New York City.- History :...
has been a particularly potent organization, long influential because of its large congregation, and recently wealthy as a result of its extensive real estate holdings.
Mosque No. 7
Mosque No. 7 was the mosque in Harlem where Malcolm X preached until he left the Nation of Islam in 1964.Opened as Temple No. 7 of the Nation of Islam at the Harlem YMCA in 1946, it "was just a storefront in 1954 when Malcolm was named minister by Elijah Muhammad." When Malcolm X split from Elijah...
Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
), the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood and Masjid Aqsa. The LDS Church established a chapel at 128th Street in 2005. Many of the area's churches are "storefront church
Storefront church
A storefront church is a church housed in a storefront building. Many African American Christians used to hold their worship services in such churches in the early years of the African American Christian experience in post-slavery America. Many African American congregations at that time did not...
es", which operate out of an empty store, or a building's basement, or a converted brownstone townhouse. These congregations may have fewer than 30–50 members each, but there are hundreds of them. Judaism, too, maintains a presence in Harlem, including The Old Broadway Synagogue, Temple Healing from Heaven, and Temple of Joy. A non-mainstream synagogue of black Jews known as Commandment Keepers
Commandment Keepers
The "Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of the Living God Pillar & Ground of Truth, Inc.: " are a sect of Black Jews, founded in 1919 by Nigerian-born Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew, who believe that people of Ethiopian descent represent one of the lost tribes of Israel...
, was based in a synagogue at 1 West 123rd Street until 2008. Especially in the years before World War II, Harlem produced popular Christian charismatic "cult" leaders, including George Wilson Becton
George Wilson Becton
George Wilson Becton was the "first of the colorful cult leaders in Harlem." He began charismatic preaching in about 1930, after the decline of Marcus Garvey, and continued until he was mysteriously murdered in 1933....
and Father Divine
Father Divine
Father Divine , also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death. His full self-given name was Reverend Major Jealous Divine, and he was also known as "the Messenger" early in his life...
.
Culture
Though Harlem musicians and writers are particularly well remembered, the community has also hosted numerous actors and theater companies, including the New Heritage Repertory Theater, National Black Theater, Lafayette Players, Harlem Suitcase Theater, The Negro Playwrights, American Negro Theater, and the Rose McClendon Players.The Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
opened on 125th Street on January 26, 1934, in a former burlesque house. The Savoy Ballroom, on Lenox Avenue, was a renowned venue for swing
Swing (dance)
"Swing dance" is a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s-1950s, although the earliest of these dances predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem and is still danced today...
dancing, and was immortalized in a popular song of the era, "Stompin' At The Savoy". In the 1920s and 1930s, between Lenox and Seventh avenues in central Harlem, over 125 entertainment places operated, including speakeasies, cellars, lounges, cafes, taverns, supper clubs, rib joints, theaters, dance halls, and bars and grills. Some jazz venues, including most famously the Cotton Club
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem, New York City that operated during Prohibition that included jazz music. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith,...
, where Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
played, and Connie's Inn
Connie's Inn
Connie's Inn was a Harlem, New York City nightclub established in 1923 by Connie Immerman, a white bootlegger. It was located in the basement at 2221 Seventh Avenue at 131st Street....
, were restricted to whites only. Others were integrated, including the Renaissance Ballroom and the Savoy Ballroom
Savoy Ballroom
The Savoy Ballroom, located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue....
.
In 1936, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
produced his famous black Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem. Grand theaters from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were torn down or converted to churches. Harlem lacked any permanent performance space until the creation of the Gatehouse Theater in an old pumping station on 135th Street in 2006.
Since 1965, the community has been home to the Harlem Boys Choir
Boys Choir of Harlem
The Boys Choir of Harlem was a choir located in Harlem, New York City, United States. Its last performance was in 2007 and the group folded shortly thereafter due to several controversies, a large budget deficit, and the death of its founder.Founded in 1968 by Dr...
, a famous touring choir and education program for young boys, most of whom are black. The Girls Choir of Harlem was founded in 1988.
Harlem is also home to the largest African American Day Parade which celebrates the culture of African diaspora in America. The parade was started up in the spring of 1969 with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives . He was the first person of African-American descent elected to Congress from New York and became a powerful national politician...
as the Grand Marshal of the first celebration.
Arthur Mitchell
Arthur Mitchell (dancer)
Arthur Mitchell is an African-American dancer and choreographer who created a training school and the first African-American classical ballet company, Dance Theatre of Harlem...
, a former dancer with the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
, established Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance Theatre of Harlem
Dance Theatre of Harlem is a ballet company and school of the allied arts founded in Harlem, New York City, USA in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook...
as a school and company of classical ballet and theater training in the late 1960s. The company has toured nationally and internationally. Generations of theater artists have gotten a start at the school.
Manhattan's contribution to hip-hop stems largely from artists with Harlem roots such as Kurtis Blow
Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker , better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major record label...
, and P. Diddy
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
. Harlem is also the birthplace of popular hip-hop dances such as the Harlem shake
Harlemshake
The Harlem shake, originally called the albee in Harlem, is a dance that started in 1981. The dance became mainstream in 2001 when G-Dep featured the Harlem shake in his music video Let's Get It. It has its history from an East African or Ethiopian dance called "Eskista" and was allegedly started...
, toe wop, and Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Noodle Soup (song)
"Chicken Noodle Soup" is a song by producer DJ Webstar from his debut album Webstar Presents: Caught in the Web . It features rappers Young B. and The Voice of Harlem...
.
Poverty and health
The neighborhood suffers from unemploymentUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
rates higher than the New York average (generally more than twice as high), and high mortality rates as well. In both cases, the numbers for men have been consistently worse than the numbers for women. Unemployment and poverty in the neighborhood resisted private and governmental initiatives to ameliorate them. In the 1960s, uneducated blacks could find jobs more easily than educated ones could, confounding efforts to improve the lives of people who lived in the neighborhood through education. Infant mortality was 124 per thousand in 1928 (twice the rate for whites). By 1940, infant mortality in Harlem was 5% (one black infant in 20 would die), still much higher than white, and the death rate from disease generally was twice that of the rest of New York. Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
was the main killer, and four times as prevalent among Harlem blacks than among New York's white population.
A 1990 study reported that 15-year-old black women in Harlem had a 65% chance of surviving to age 65, about the same as women in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Black men in Harlem, on the other hand, had a 37% chance of surviving to age 65, about the same as men in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. Infectious diseases and diseases of the circulatory system were to blame, with a variety of contributing factors, including consumption of the deep-fried foods
Soul food
Soul food cuisine consists of a selection of foods traditional in the cuisine of African Americans. It is closely related to the cuisine of the Southern United States...
traditional to the South and neighborhood, which may contribute to heart disease.
The neighborhood remains a predominantly African-American area, with census data revealing about 72% of the population in 2005 to have been black. The number of white residents has increased from only 672 people in 1980, about 0.5% of the population, to some 5000 people, or 4.3% of the population, in 2005. As of September 2008, their number was estimated to have tripled from 2005 levels.
Crime
Rather than compete with the established mobs, black gangsters concentrated on the "policy racket," also called the Numbers gameNumbers game
Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day...
, or bolita in Spanish Harlem
Spanish Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem and El Barrio, is a section of Harlem in the northeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East Harlem is one of the largest predominantly Latino communities in New York City. It includes the area formerly known as Italian Harlem, in which...
. This was a gambling scheme similar to a lottery that could be played, illegally, from countless locations around Harlem. According to Francis Ianni, "By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in Harlem, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues."
By the early 1950s, the total money at play amounted to billions of dollars, and the police force had been thoroughly corrupted by bribes from numbers bosses. These bosses became financial powerhouses, providing capital for loans for those who could not qualify for them from traditional financial institutions, and investing in legitimate businesses and real estate. One of the powerful early numbers bosses was a woman, Madame Stephanie St. Clair
Stephanie St. Clair
Stephanie St. Clair was a bookmaker in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood.-Early life:Madam St. Clair was born of mixed French and African descent on Martinique. She immigrated to the United States via Marseilles in 1912 and ten years later took $10,000 of her own money and set up a numbers bank in...
.
The popularity of playing the numbers waned with the introduction of the state lottery
Lotteries in the United States
Lotteries in the United States are run by 46 jurisdictions; 43 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.In the US, the lottery is subject to the laws of each jurisdiction; there is no national lottery.- History :...
, which has higher payouts and is legal. The practice continues on a smaller scale among those who prefer the numbers tradition or who prefer to trust their local numbers bank over the state.
1940 statistics show about 100 murders per year in Harlem, "but rape is very rare." By 1950, essentially all of the whites had left Harlem and by 1960, much of the black middle class had departed. At the same time, control of organized crime shifted from Jewish and Italian syndicates to local black, Puerto Rican, and Cuban groups that were somewhat less formally organized. At the time of the 1964 riots, the drug addiction rate in Harlem was ten times higher than the New York City average, and twelve times higher than the United States as a whole. Of the 30,000 drug addicts then estimated to live in New York City, 15,000 to 20,000 lived in Harlem. Property crime was pervasive, and the murder rate was six times higher than New York's average. Half of the children in Harlem grew up with one parent, or none, and lack of supervision contributed to juvenile delinquency; between 1953 and 1962, the crime rate among young people increased throughout New York City, but was consistently 50% higher in Harlem than in New York City as a whole.
Injecting heroin grew in popularity in Harlem through the 1950s and 1960s, though the use of this drug then leveled off. In the 1980s, use of crack cocaine
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
became widespread, which produced collateral crime as addicts stole to finance their purchasing of additional drugs, and as dealers fought for the right to sell in particular regions, or over deals gone bad.
With the end of the "crack wars
Crack Epidemic
The United States crack epidemic refers to the surge of crack houses and crack cocaine use in major cities in the United States between 1984 and 1990...
" in the mid 90s and with the initiation of aggressive policing under mayor Rudolph Giuliani, crime in Harlem plummeted. In 1981, 6,500 robberies were reported in Harlem. The number dropped to 4,800 in 1990, perhaps due to an increase in the number of police assigned to the neighborhood. By 2000, only 1,700 robberies were reported. There have been similar changes in all categories of crimes tracked by the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
. In the 32nd Precinct, which services Central Harlem above 127th Street, for example, between 1990 and 2008, the murder rate dropped 80%, the rape rate dropped 58%, the robbery rate dropped 73%, burglary dropped 86%, and the total number of crime complaints dropped 73%.
Politics and activism in Harlem
1910–1945, as Harlem became the capital of black America
Soon after blacks began to move into Harlem, the community became known as "the spiritual home of the Negro protest movement." The NAACPNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
became active in Harlem in 1910 and Marcus Garvey's
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1916. The NAACP chapter there soon grew to be the largest in the country. Activist A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African American civil-rights movement and the American labor movement. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Negro labor union. In the early civil-rights movement, Randolph led the March on Washington...
lived in Harlem and published the radical magazine The Messenger starting in 1917. It was from Harlem that he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was, in 1925, the first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor . It merged in 1978 with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks , now known as the Transportation Communications International Union.The...
. W. E. B. Du Bois lived and published in Harlem in the 1920s, as did James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his leadership within the NAACP, as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and...
and Marcus Garvey.
The earliest activism by blacks to change the situation in Harlem itself grew out of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, with the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" movement. This was the ultimately successful campaign to force retail shops on 125th Street to hire black employees. Boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s were originally organized by the Citizens' League for Fair Play in June 1934 against Blumstein's Department Store on 125th Street. The store soon agreed to more fully integrate its staff. This success emboldened Harlem residents, and protests continued under other leadership, including that of preacher and later congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives . He was the first person of African-American descent elected to Congress from New York and became a powerful national politician...
, seeking to change hiring practices at other stores, to effect the hiring of more black workers, or the hiring of members of particular protesting groups.
Communism gained a following in Harlem in the 1930s, and continued to play a role through the 1940s. 1935 saw the first of Harlem's five riots
Harlem Riot of 1935
The Harlem Riot of 1935 was Harlem's first race riot, sparked off by rumors of the beating of a teenage shoplifter. Three died, hundreds were wounded and an estimated $2 million in damages were sustained to properties throughout the district, with African-American owned homes and businesses spared...
. The incident started with a (false) rumor that a boy caught stealing from a store on 125th Street had been killed by the police. By the time it was over, 600 stores had been looted and three men were dead. The same year saw internationalism in Harlem politics, as Harlemites responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
by holding giant rallies, signing petitions and sending an appeal to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. Such internationalism continued intermittently, including broad demonstrations in favor of Egyptian president Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
after the Suez invasion of 1956.
Benjamin J. Davis
Benjamin J. "Ben" Davis , was an African-American lawyer and communist who was elected to the city council of New York City, representing Harlem, in 1943...
. Ironically, Harlem's political strength soon deteriorated, as Clayton Powell, Jr. spent his time in Washington or his vacation home in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and Davis was jailed in 1951 for violations of the Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...
.
The year 1943 saw the second Harlem riot. A black soldier knocked down a policeman who then shot him. An onlooker shouted that the soldier had been killed, and this news spread throughout the black community and provoked rioting. A force of 6,600, made up of city police, military police and civil patrolmen, in addition to 8,000 State Guardsmen and 1,500 civilian volunteers was required to end the violence. Hundreds of businesses were destroyed and looted, the property damage approaching $225,000. Overall, six people died and 185 were injured. Five hundred people were arrested in connection with the riot.
1946–1969, the Civil Rights Movement
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Harlem was the scene of a series of rent strikeRent strike
A rent strike is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants come together and agree to refuse to pay their rent en masse until a specific list of demands is met by the landlord...
s by neighborhood tenants, led by local activist Jesse Gray
Jesse Gray
Jesse Gray was a leader of rent strikes in Harlem in the 1960s and served as a New York State Assemblyman from 1972 to 1974.-Biography:...
, together with the Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
, Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited
Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited
Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited, more commonly called HARYOU, was a social activism organization founded by Dr. Kenneth Clark in 1962 and directed by Cyril DeGrasse Tyson . The group worked to increase opportunities in education and employment for young blacks in Harlem...
(HARYOU), and other groups. These groups wanted the city to force landlords to improve the quality of housing by bringing them up to code, to take action against rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s and roaches
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...
, to provide heat during the winter, and to keep prices in line with existing rent control regulations. According to the Metropolitan Council on Housing, in the mid-1960s, about 25% of the city's landlords charged more for rent than allowed by law.
Many groups mobilized in Harlem in the 1960s, fighting for better schools, jobs, and housing. Some were peaceful and others advocated violence. By the early 1960s, the Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
(CORE) had offices on 125th street, and acted as negotiator for the community with the city, especially in times of racial unrest. They pressed for civilian review boards to hear complaints of police abuse, a demand that was ultimately met. As chairman of the House Committee of Education and Labor at the start of the 1960s, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used this position to direct federal funds to various development projects in Harlem.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
was the black leader most respected in Harlem, but at least two dozen groups of black nationalists also operated in New York. The most important of these was the Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
, whose Temple Number Seven was run by Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
from 1952–1963. Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom
Audubon Ballroom
The Audubon Ballroom was a theatre and ballroom located on Broadway at 165th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, north of Harlem in New York. It is best known as the site of Malcolm X's assassination on February 21, 1965....
in Washington Heights
Washington Heights, Manhattan
Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
in 1965. The neighborhood remains an important center for the Nation of Islam.
The largest public works projects in Harlem in these years were public housing, with the largest concentration built in East Harlem. Typically, existing structures were torn down and replaced with city-designed and managed properties that would, in theory, present a safer and more pleasant environment than those available from private landlords. Ultimately, community objections halted the construction of new projects.
From the mid-20th century, the terrible quality of local schools has been a source of distress. In the 1960s, about 75% of Harlem students tested under grade levels in reading skills, and 80% tested under grade level in math. In 1964, residents of Harlem staged two school boycotts to call attention to the problem. In central Harlem, 92% of students stayed home.
In 1963, Inspector Lloyd Sealy
Lloyd Sealy
Lloyd George Sealy was the NYPD's first African American officer to graduate from the FBI National Academy and the first African American officer in the NYPD to make rank as the commander of a police station in 1963 serving the 28th precinct in Harlem...
became the first African-American officer of the NYPD to command a police station, the 28th precinct in Harlem. Community relations between Harlem residents and the NYPD were strained as civil rights activists requested that the NYPD hire more black police officers, specifically in Harlem. In 1964, across Harlem's three precincts, the ratio was one black police officer for every six white officers. A riot broke in the summer of 1964 following the fatal shooting of an unarmed 15-year-old black teenager by an off-duty white police lieutenant. One person was killed, more than 100 were injured, and hundreds more were arrested. Property damage and looting were extensive. The riot would later spread out of Manhattan and into the borough of Brooklyn and neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the heart of Brooklyn's African-American community. In the aftermath of the riots, the federal government funded a pilot program called Project Uplift
Project Uplift
Project Uplift was a major short-term program of the Great Society. It was an experimental anti-poverty program in Harlem, New York in the summer of 1965, intended to prevent the recurrence of the riots that hit the community the summer before...
, in which thousands of young people in Harlem were given jobs during the summer of 1965. The project was inspired by a report generated by HARYOU called Youth in the Ghetto. HARYOU was given a major role in organizing the project, along with the National Urban League
National Urban League
The National Urban League , formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. It is the oldest and largest...
and nearly 100 smaller community organizations.
In 1966, the Black Panthers
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
organized a group in Harlem, agitating for violence in pursuit of change. Speaking at a rally of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC), Max Stanford, a Black Panther, declared that the United States "could be brought down to its knees with a rag and some gasoline and a bottle
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
."
In 1968, Harlemites rioted after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., as did black residents in other U.S. cities. Two people died—one stabbed to death in a crowd and another trapped in a burning building. Mayor John Lindsay
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer and broadcaster who was a U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, candidate for U.S...
helped to quell the rioting by marching up Lenox Avenue in a "hail of bricks" to confront the angry crowds.
1970–1989
Harlem reached its lowest in this period. Plans for rectifying the situation often started with the restoration of 125th Street, long the economic heart of black Harlem. By the late 1970s, only marginalized and poor retail remained. Plans were drafted for a "Harlem International Trade Center," which would have filled the entire block between 125th Street and 126th, from Lenox to Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, with a center for trade with the third worldThird World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
. A related retail complex was planned to the west, between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and St. Nicholas. However, this plan depended on $30 million in financing from the federal government, and with the election of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
to the presidency of the United States, it had no hope of being completed.
The city did provide one large construction project, though not so favored by residents. Starting in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s, Harlemites fought the introduction of an immense sewage treatment plant, the North River Water Pollution Control Plant, on the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
in West Harlem
West Harlem Environmental Action
West Harlem Environmental Action is a Harlem, New York City based non-profit environmental justice organization focusing on sustainability, public health, pollution, and other urban quality of life issues...
. A compromise was ultimately reached in which the plant was built with a state park, including extensive recreational facilities, on top. The park, called Riverbank State Park
Riverbank State Park
Riverbank State Park is a park built on the top of a sewage treatment facility on the Hudson River, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....
, was opened in 1993 (the sewage plant having been completed some years earlier).
1990–present
Development of Harlem restarted around 1990, thanks in part to the institution of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. Plans were laid for shopping malls, movie theaters, and museums. However, these plans were nearly derailed in 1995 by the "Freddy's Fashion Mart" riot, which culminated in political arson and eight deaths. These riots did not resemble their predecessors, and were organized by black activists against Jewish shop owners on 125th street.Five years later, the revitalization of 125th Street resumed, with the construction of a Starbucks outlet backed in part by Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson
Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers...
(1999), the first supermarket in Harlem in 30 years, the Harlem USA retail complex, which included the first first-run movie theater in many years (2000), and a new home for the Studio Museum in Harlem
Studio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American contemporary art museum in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. It was founded in 1968 as the first such museum in the U.S. devoted to the art of African-Americans, specializing in 19th and 20th century work as well work of artists of...
(2001). In the same year, former president Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
took office space in Harlem. In 2002, a large retail and office complex called Harlem Center was completed at the corner of Lenox and 125th. There has been extensive new construction and rehabilitation of older buildings in the years since.
The neighborhood's changes have provoked some discontent. James David Manning
James David Manning
James David Manning is chief pastor at the ATLAH World Missionary Church on 123rd Street in New York City. Manning grew up in Red Springs, North Carolina, born to an African American family, and has been at ATLAH since 1981. ATLAH stands for All The Land Anointed Holy, which is Manning's name...
, pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary church on Lenox Avenue, has received press for declaring a boycott on all Harlem shops, restaurants, other businesses, and churches other than his own. He believes that this will cause an economic crash that will drive out white residents and drop property values to a level his supporters can afford. There have been rallies against gentrification.
Harlem landmarks
- 125th Street125th Street (Manhattan)125th Street is a two-way street that runs east-west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, considered the "Main Street" of Harlem; It is also called Martin Luther King, Jr...
- 155th St Viaduct land bridge leading to Macombs Dam BridgeMacombs Dam BridgeMacombs Dam Bridge is a swing bridge that spans the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx near Yankee Stadium. It is the third-oldest bridge in New York City and was designated an official landmark in January 1992...
- Abyssinian Baptist ChurchAbyssinian Baptist ChurchThe Abyssinian Baptist Church is among the most famous of the many prominent and activist churches in the Harlem section of New York City.- History :...
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office BuildingAdam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office BuildingThe Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building is a nineteen story high-rise office building located at the intersection of 125th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard the Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan...
- Apollo TheaterApollo TheaterThe Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
- Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- Astor RowAstor RowAstor Row is the name given to 130th Street between Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. More specifically, it refers to the semi-attached row houses on the south side of the street. These were among the first speculative townhouses built in Harlem,...
- BlockhouseBlockhouse (Central Park)The Blockhouse is a small fort in the northern part of Central Park, in New York City, New York, and is the oldest structure standing in the park. It is located on an overlook of Manhattan schist, with a clear view of the flat surrounding areas north of Central Park...
- Bushman StepsBushman StepsThe Bushman steps in New York City are an almost lost artifact from baseball history. Circa 1912, this stairwell took people from the subway to the ticket booths of The Polo Grounds. Just west of Coogan's Bluff in Sugar Hill Harlem or modern day Washington Heights, Manhattan. New York Giants...
Stairway that led baseball fans from the subway to The Polo Grounds ticket booth. - City College of New YorkCity College of New YorkThe City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
- Cotton ClubCotton ClubThe Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem, New York City that operated during Prohibition that included jazz music. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith,...
- Duke Ellington CircleDuke Ellington CircleDuke Ellington Circle is a traffic circle located at the Northeast corner of Central Park at the foot of Fifth Avenue and of 110th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The traffic circle is named for the legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington....
- Dunbar ApartmentsDunbar ApartmentsConstructed in 1926, the Dunbar Apartments are a set of buildings in North-Central Harlem in New York City, built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to provide housing for African Americans. The apartments were designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas, noted for his designs in the community of Jackson...
designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas. former home to W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul RobesonPaul RobesonPaul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Asa Philip Randolph, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and explorer Matthew HensonMatthew HensonMatthew Alexander Henson was an African American explorer and associate of Robert Peary during various expeditions, the most famous being a 1909 expedition which it was discovered that he was the the first person to reach the Geographic North Pole.-Life:Henson was born on a farm in Nanjemoy,... - First Corinthian Baptist Church
- Fort Clinton, Central ParkFort Clinton, Central ParkFort Clinton in New York's Central Park was an 1814 stone-and-earthworks fortification on a rocky escarpment near the present line of 107th Street, slightly west of Fifth Avenue...
and Nutter's Battery - Frederick Douglass CircleFrederick Douglass CircleFrederick Douglass Circle is a traffic circle located at the Northwest corner of Central Park at the foot of Frederick Douglass Boulevard and of Cathedral Parkway in the New York City borough of Manhattan...
- Graham CourtGraham CourtGraham Court is a historic Harlem apartment building. It was commissioned by William Waldorf Astor, designed by the architects Clinton and Russell, and constructed in 1899-1901 as part of the great Harlem real-estate boom...
- Hamilton Grange
- Hamilton Heights
- Harbor Conservatory for the Performing ArtsHarbor Conservatory for the Performing ArtsThe Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center in Spanish Harlem, New York, New York. It provides performance space and instruction in the disciplines of theatre, music, and dance...
- Harlem Children's ZoneHarlem Children's ZoneThe Harlem Children's Zone is a non-profit organization for poverty-stricken children and families living in Harlem, providing free support for the children and families in the form of parenting workshops, a pre-school program, three public charter schools, and child-oriented health programs for...
- Harlem Hospital CenterHarlem Hospital CenterHarlem Hospital Center is a 272-bed public, municipally owned teaching hospital in New York City founded in 1887. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue at 135th Street in the Harlem community of Manhattan.-Overview:...
- The Harlem School of the ArtsThe Harlem School of the ArtsThe Harlem School of the Arts is a school in Harlem, New York. It was founded in 1964 by the soprano Dorothy Maynor, and offers its programs to students of all ages. Mezzo-soprano Betty Allen succeeded Maynor as director in 1979. Other directors include Camille Akeju, Kakuna Karina and DeeDee...
- Harlem Stage
- Harlem YMCAHarlem YMCAThe Harlem YMCA on West 135th Street is a significant landmark of black culture in New York City. It opened in 1933 intended primarily for the use of African-American men, and was at the time one of the best equipped YMCAs in the United States. Architect James C. MacKenzie, Jr. designed and...
- Harlem HellfightersHarlem HellfightersThe 369th Infantry Regiment, formerly the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, was an infantry regiment of the United States Army that saw action in World War I and World War II. The 369th Infantry is known for being the first African-American regiment to serve with the American Expeditionary...
Mounument / 369th Infantry Regiment Memorial - Hooper Fountain
- Hotel TheresaHotel TheresaThe Hotel Theresa was a vibrant center of black life in Harlem, New York City, in the mid-20th century. The hotel sits at the intersection of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and West 125th Street . The hotel was built by German-born stockbroker Gustavus Sidenberg , and designed by the firm of...
- James Bailey HouseJames Bailey HouseThe James Bailey House is a large freestanding house which resembles a castle, and which sits at 10 St Nicholas Place in Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York...
- Jumel TerraceJumel Terrace Historic DistrictJumel Terrace Historic District is a national historic district in Washington Heights, New York, New York. It consists of 49 contributing residential rowhouses and apartment buildings between 1882 and 1909. The buildings are primarily wood or brick rowhouses in the Queen Anne and Romanesque styles...
and Morris-Jumel MansionMorris-Jumel MansionThe Morris-Jumel Mansion , located in Washington Heights, is the oldest house in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It served as a headquarters for both sides in the American Revolution....
in modern day Washington Heights. - Langston Hughes HouseLangston Hughes HouseLangston Hughes House is a historic home located in Harlem, New York, New York. It is an Italianate style dwelling built in 1869. It is a three story with basement, rowhouse faced in brownstone and measuring 20 feet wide and 45 feet deep...
- La MarquetaLa Marqueta (East Harlem)La Marqueta is a marketplace under the elevated Metro North railway tracks between 111th Street and 116th Street on Park Avenue in East Harlem. In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, over 500 vendors operated out of La Marqueta, and it was an important social and economic venue for Hispanic New York...
- Lenox LoungeLenox LoungeLenox Lounge is a long-standing bar in Harlem, New York City. It is located in Lenox Avenue, between 124th and 125th. The bar was founded in 1939 and served as venue for performances by many great jazz artists, including Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane...
- Manhattan Avenue-West 120th-123rd Streets Historic DistrictManhattan Avenue-West 120th-123rd Streets Historic DistrictManhattan Avenue-West 120th-123rd Streets Historic District is a national historic district in Harlem, New York, New York. It consists of 113 contributing residential rowhouses built between 1886 and 1896...
- Mink BuildingMink BuildingThe Mink Building, located at 1361 Amsterdam Avenue between 126th and 128th Streets, is a five-story red brick structure in the Harlem/Manhattanville neighborhood of New York City. Towering over most of its neighbors, it is recognizable because of its historical German-American style...
- Minton's PlayhouseMinton's PlayhouseMinton’s Playhouse is a jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Cecil Hotel at 210 West 118th Street in Harlem. Minton’s was founded by tenor saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938...
- Morningside Park
- Mount Morris Park Historic DistrictMount Morris Park Historic DistrictMount Morris Park Historic District was designated to be a historic district by New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1971. It is a large 16-block area in east central Harlem. The boundaries are West 118th and West 124th Streets, Fifth Avenue, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard...
- Mount Sinai School of MedicineMount Sinai School of MedicineMount Sinai School of Medicine is an American medical school in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, currently ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. It was chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963....
and Mount Sinai Hospital, New YorkMount Sinai Hospital, New YorkMount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. In 2011-2012, Mount Sinai Hospital was ranked as one of America's best hospitals by U.S... - El Museo Del BarrioEl Museo del BarrioEl Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino visual arts cultural institution, is located in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City, United States, also known as El Barrio. The museum welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of the Latino, Caribbean, and...
- Museum of the City of New YorkMuseum of the City of New YorkThe Museum of the City of New York is an art gallery and history museum founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City, USA and its people...
- National Black Theater
- New York College of Podiatric MedicineNew York College of Podiatric MedicineThe New York College of Podiatric Medicine is a private specialized college located at 53 East 124th Street, Harlem, in New York City. Founded in 1911, NYCPM was the first Podiatric Medical school established in the United States. NYCPM was founded by Dr. Maurice J. Lewi, a physician who decided a...
- Rucker ParkRucker ParkRucker Park is a basketball court in the Harlem neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard across the street from the former Polo Grounds site...
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
- St. Martin's Episcopal Church (formerly Trinity Church) designed by William Appleton PotterWilliam Appleton PotterWilliam Appleton Potter was an American architect who designed numerous buildings for Princeton University, as well as municipal offices and churches. He served as a Supervising Architect of the Treasury from 1874 to 1877....
- Savoy BallroomSavoy BallroomThe Savoy Ballroom, located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from March 12, 1926 to July 10, 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue....
marked by a plaque on Lenox. - St. Nicholas Historic DistrictSt. Nicholas Historic DistrictSt. Nicholas Historic District is a national historic district in Harlem, New York, New York. It consists of 130 contributing buildings designed in 1891. The buildings consists of four sets of residential rowhouses built of brick and brownstone and three apartment buildings. The noted...
- St. Nicholas HousesSt. Nicholas HousesSt. Nicholas Houses is a public housing project in Central Harlem, in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. The project is located between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, spanning a superblock from 127th Street to 131st Street. The project consists of...
- Strivers' RowStrivers' RowStrivers' Row is three rows of townhouses in western Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan on West 138th and West 139th between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Originally called the "King Model Houses" after developer David King, they were designed...
- Studio Museum in HarlemStudio Museum in HarlemThe Studio Museum in Harlem is an American contemporary art museum in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. It was founded in 1968 as the first such museum in the U.S. devoted to the art of African-Americans, specializing in 19th and 20th century work as well work of artists of...
- Swing Low Harriot Tubman Memorial
- Sylvia's Soul FoodSylvia's Restaurant of HarlemSylvia's Restaurant of Harlem is a soul food restaurant in New York City. It was founded in 1962 by Sylvia Woods. It has since expanded to a much larger space at 328 Lenox Avenue , and an adjacent building...
- West 147th-149th Streets Historic DistrictWest 147th-149th Streets Historic DistrictWest 147th-149th Streets Historic District is a national historic district in Harlem, New York, New York. It consists of 60 contributing buildings; 58 tenements, one school, and one stable built between 1894 and 1905. With the exception of the stable, all of the buildings are five or six stories...
Education
In 1977, Isiah Robinson, president of the New York City Board of Education, was quoted as saying that "the quality of education in Harlem has degenerated to the level of a custodial service."As of May 2006, Harlem was the heart of the charter schools movement in Manhattan; of the 25 charter schools operating in Manhattan, 18 were in Harlem. In 2010, about one in five age-eligible children in Harlem was enrolled in charter schools.
The New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
operates the Harlem Branch Library at 9 West 124th Street, the 115th Street Branch Library at 203 West 115th Street, and the 125th Street Branch Library at 224 East 125th Street, near Third Avenue.
The Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Touro College of Osteopathic medicine is an osteopathic medical school located in the neighborhood of Central Harlem in New York City. The school began classes in September 2007. It currently has a student body of about 322 students...
, City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, and New York College of Podiatric Medicine
New York College of Podiatric Medicine
The New York College of Podiatric Medicine is a private specialized college located at 53 East 124th Street, Harlem, in New York City. Founded in 1911, NYCPM was the first Podiatric Medical school established in the United States. NYCPM was founded by Dr. Maurice J. Lewi, a physician who decided a...
are all located in Harlem.
See also
- List of people from Harlem
- List of films shot in Harlem
Further reading
- WPA Guide to New York City 1939
- "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto. Negro New York, 1890–1930". Gilbert Osofsky, 1963
- TIME Magazine, vol. 84, No.5, July 31, 1964. "Harlem: No Place Like Home"
- Newsweek, August 3, 1964,. "Harlem: Hatred in the Streets"
- Harlem Stirs, John O. Killens, Fred Halstead, 1966
- Francis A. J. Ianni, Black Mafia: Ethnic Succession in Organized Crime, 1974
- "Crack's Decline: Some Surprises from U.S. Cities", National Institute of Justice Research in Brief, July 1997
External links
- New York and Harlem Railroad and the Harlem Valley line.
- Harlem and the Heights – New York Architecture Images
- 13 Gigapixel panorama
- The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
- Harlem riot 1964 Urban riots of the 1960s.
- Portraits of Harlem
- Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930