Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem
Encyclopedia
Harlem
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...
(often called "Sylvia's Soul Food" or just "Sylvia's") is a soul food
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...
restaurant in New York City. It was founded in 1962 by Sylvia Woods
Sylvia Woods
Sylvia Woods opened the African American restaurant Sylvia's in Harlem on Lenox Avenue, New York, NY. The soul food eatery is a popular gathering place not far from the Apollo Theater....
. It has since expanded to a much larger space at 328 Lenox Avenue (Lenox and 127th Street), and an adjacent building. The restaurant also sells a line of prepared foods, beauty and skin care items, cookbooks, and a children's book written by Woods.
Woods purchased the original luncheonette by borrowing money from her mother, who had to mortgage her farm to provide it. "I know I had to make it or else my mama was gonna lose her farm. So I gave it all that I had to give," Woods later explained.
The restaurant attracts a clientele that ranges from Harlem locals to visiting celebrities. 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...
, Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
, Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is a member of the influential Kennedy family and the only surviving child of U.S. President John F...
, Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
and 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...
are among those who have dined there.
On September 19, 2007, commentator Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
spoke about having lunch at Sylvia's with Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
on his syndicated radio show
The Radio Factor
The Radio Factor was a nationally syndicated talk radio program, which aired from 2002–2009 and was hosted mainly by Bill O'Reilly. The program, which featured host commentary with a mix of listener call-in and guest segments was broadcast live every weekday from the Fox News Channel studios in...
. O'Reilly generated controversy with his comments on the restaurant, expressing that the predominantly African-American clientele acted friendly, polite, and did not use obscenities in their speech. O' Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's Restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." These remarks were considered by some to be evidence of latent racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, something O'Reilly had been accused of in the past. O'Reilly responded that his remarks were taken out of context and that he had told listeners how his grandmother – and many other white Americans – feared blacks because they didn't know any and were swayed by violent images in black culture. O'Reilly responded, saying, "It was an attempt to tell the radio audience that there is no difference black, white, we’re all Americans. The stereotypes they see on television are not true." O'Reilly said, "Media Matters
Media Matters
Media Matters can refer to:* Media Matters for America, progressive media watchdog group founded by author David Brock* The radio program Media Matters hosted by communications professor Robert W. McChesney...
distorted the entire conversation and implied I was racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
for condemning racism." National Public Radio host and fellow Fox News commentator Juan Williams
Juan Williams
Juan Williams is an American journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel, he was born in Panama on April 10, 1954. He also writes for several newspapers including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and has been published in magazines such as The Atlantic...
said the criticism of O'Reilly was “rank dishonesty” and that the original comments "had nothing to do with racist ranting by anybody except by these idiots at CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
," whose commentator Roland S. Martin
Roland S. Martin
Roland Sebastian Martin is an American journalist and syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate and author of Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America, Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith and The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally...
accused O'Reilly of racism because of the incident. Williams went on to say it was frustrating that the media try to criticize anyone who wanted to have an honest discussion about race.