The Black Capital of America
"We don't windsurf in Harlem."
-Charles Rangel
-Charles Rangel
Harlem is a neigborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It takes its name from the Dutch village of Haarlem and it was the center of the Harlem Renaissance.
"THE year was 1919. It was a new beginning. The Great War was over, and 1,300 black soldiers received a heroes' welcome as they marched victoriously up Fifth Avenue and home to Harlem. Life was going to be different for black people in New York and everywhere. It was time for the black intelligentsia to be received in the parlors of New York's power brokers." (New York Times)
After the Civil War ended with the Emancipation Proclamation that gave slaves liberty, Southern African-Americans tried to start living better, but the South remained racist and refused to give any black person a job in business or provide a good education. As a result, they were forced to stay on their plantations as sharecroppers. However, after World War I, many African-Americans left the South and moved north for a better life. Thousands of them chose to settle in Harlem, where they began to hope for change as the African-American population in Harlem skyrocketed. For this reason, Harlem was known as the Black Capital of America. They began to become more educated and began to write and paint. These new arts caught the attention of white New Yorkers and the Harlem Renaissance began.
"A few years later, in 1925, the curtain rose on the Harlem Renaissance. The explosion of cultural life on a small strip of upper Manhattan -- the Langston Hughes readings at the Harlem Y.M.C.A., the burlesque and jazz clubs shooting stars into the night sky, the novels of Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston, the glamorous evening walks along the wide boulevards -- were just around the corner." (New York Times)
However, when the Great Depression hit, many Harlemites were forced out of their homes and onto the streets. Crime began to rise and several riots occured, giving Harlem a shady reputation. Even so, after the Depression, Harlem began to recover and in recent years has undergone gentrification.
"THE year was 1919. It was a new beginning. The Great War was over, and 1,300 black soldiers received a heroes' welcome as they marched victoriously up Fifth Avenue and home to Harlem. Life was going to be different for black people in New York and everywhere. It was time for the black intelligentsia to be received in the parlors of New York's power brokers." (New York Times)
After the Civil War ended with the Emancipation Proclamation that gave slaves liberty, Southern African-Americans tried to start living better, but the South remained racist and refused to give any black person a job in business or provide a good education. As a result, they were forced to stay on their plantations as sharecroppers. However, after World War I, many African-Americans left the South and moved north for a better life. Thousands of them chose to settle in Harlem, where they began to hope for change as the African-American population in Harlem skyrocketed. For this reason, Harlem was known as the Black Capital of America. They began to become more educated and began to write and paint. These new arts caught the attention of white New Yorkers and the Harlem Renaissance began.
"A few years later, in 1925, the curtain rose on the Harlem Renaissance. The explosion of cultural life on a small strip of upper Manhattan -- the Langston Hughes readings at the Harlem Y.M.C.A., the burlesque and jazz clubs shooting stars into the night sky, the novels of Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston, the glamorous evening walks along the wide boulevards -- were just around the corner." (New York Times)
However, when the Great Depression hit, many Harlemites were forced out of their homes and onto the streets. Crime began to rise and several riots occured, giving Harlem a shady reputation. Even so, after the Depression, Harlem began to recover and in recent years has undergone gentrification.
"This was the Harlem of the promised land, an intellectual and cultural mecca that lured black Americans from the Jim Crow South in the 1920's, 30's and 40's. To these freshly minted citizens, this ''city within the city'' held the hope of a life fully integrated into American life." (New York Times)