The Apollo Theater on 125th Street; the Hotel Theresa is visible in the background.

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major of black cultural and business center. After being associated for much of the twentieth century with black culture, but also crime and poverty, it is now experiencing a social and economic renaissance. The most common referent is Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and the adjacent Harlem River. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Apollo_Theater. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Apollo_Theater. ... Apollo Theater marquee, c. ... 125th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Christmas shopping on 125th Street 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. ... The Hotel Theresa sits at the intersection of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. ... A neighbourhood or neighborhood (see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community located within a larger city or suburb. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... The Five Boroughs redirects here. ... For other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation). ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows what he found. ...

Location and boundaries

The boundaries of Tyshawn Spenser n Zenda modern Harlem. Click to see in larger size; some landmarks are noted.

Harlem stretches from the East River 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 extends east Harlem's boundaries south to 96th Street, while in the west it begins north of Morningside Heights, which gives an irregular border west of Morningside Avenue. Harlem's boundaries have changed over the years; as Ralph Ellison observed: "Wherever Negroes live uptown is considered Harlem." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1816x2200, 957 KB) Summary Note: This file version is reduced in file size/dimensions from the original. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1816x2200, 957 KB) Summary Note: This file version is reduced in file size/dimensions from the original. ... Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. ... 110th street is a street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. ... 125th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Spanish Harlem, also known as El Barrio, is a neighborhood in the East Harlem area of New York City, in the north-eastern part of the borough of Manhattan. ... 96th Street is a major two-way street in the Upper East Side and Upper West Side 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. ... This article is about the neighbourhood in New York City. ... Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1914[1] – April 16, 1994) was a scholar and writer. ...

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 Heights, around the Hamilton Grange
  • Manhattanville, north of Morningside Heights
• Central Harlem
  • Mount Morris, extending west from Marcus Garvey Park
  • Strivers' Row, centered on 139th Street
  • Sugar Hill
  • Astor Row, centered on 130th Street
• East Harlem (east of Fifth Avenue)
  • Spanish Harlem, south of 116th Street

Saint Nicholas Avenue is a major New York City street. ... Hamilton Heights is a neighborhood in Northern Manhattan in New York City. ... Hamilton Grange National Memorial, at 287 Convent Avenue in New York City, preserves the home of Alexander Hamilton, American statesman and first United States Secretary of the Treasury. ... 125th Street station at Broadway and 125th Street, one of Manhattanvilles primary landmarks Manhattanville is the part of Manhattan in New York City 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... Marcus Garvey Park is located in Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... Entrance to Strivers Row alleyway, Walk Your Horses! The term Strivers Row refers to three rows of townhouses in western Harlem, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... Sugar Hill is an neighborhood in the northern part of Harlem, Manhattan, New York City defined by 155th St. ... Astor Row is the name given to 130th Street between 5th Avenue and Lennox in Harlem, New York City. ... Street sign at Fifth Avenue and East 57th street Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New York City. ... 125th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Spanish Harlem, also known as El Barrio, is a neighborhood in the East Harlem area of New York City, in the north-eastern part of the borough of Manhattan. ...

History

Before the black migration

The first European settlement in what is now Harlem was by Hendrick de Forest and Dutch settlers in 1637.^[1] The area was repeatedly savaged by Native Americans, leading many Dutch to abandon it.^[1] The settlement was formalized in 1658 as Nieuw Haarlem (New Haarlem), after the Dutch city of Haarlem, under leadership of Peter Stuyvesant.^[2] The Indian trail to Harlem's lush bottomland meadows was rebuilt by eleven black laborers on behalf of the Dutch West India Company,^[3] and eventually developed into the Boston Post Road. In 1664, the English took control of the New Netherland colony and anglicized the name of the town to Harlem. 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. Coordinates: Country Netherlands Province North Holland Area (2006)  - Municipality 32. ... Pieter Stuyvesant is also the name of a Dutch cigarette brand from Imperial Tobacco. ... Dutch West India Company (Dutch: West-Indische Compagnie or WIC) was a company of Dutch merchants. ... The Boston Post Road was a system of roads from New York City to Boston, Massachusetts, containing some of the first major highways in the United States. ... Events March 12 - New Jersey becomes a colony of England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Map based on Adriaen Blocks 1614 expedition to New Netherland, featuring the first use of the name. ... // 1400 - Owain Glyndŵr declared Prince of Wales by his followers. ... Year 1776 (MDCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Battle of Harlem Heights was a skirmish in the New York Campaign of the American Revolutionary War. ... Morningside Heights is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City and is bound by the Upper West Side, Morningside Park, Harlem, and Riverside Park (some now consider it part of the Upper West Side). ...

In 1765, Harlem was a small agricultural town not far from New York City.

Harlem was "a synonym for elegant living through a good part of the nineteenth century."^[4] In the early years of that century, Harlem remained a place of farms, such as James Roosevelt's, east of Fifth Avenue between 110th and 125th Streets. As late as 1820, the community had only 91 families, one church, one school, and one library.^[4] Wealthy farmers, called "patroons,"^[4] maintained country estates largely on the heights overlooking the Hudson River. Service connecting the suburb of Harlem with New York was by steamboat on the East River, an hour and a half's 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. An 1811 New York City planning commission opined that Harlem would not be developed for over a hundred years.^[4] The New York and Harlem Railroad (now Metro North) was incorporated in 1831, to better link the city with the suburb, starting at a depot at East 23rd Street. It was extended 127 miles north to a railroad junction in Columbia County at Chatham, New York by 1851. In the years between about 1850 and 1870, the village of Harlem declined. Many large estates, including the Hamilton Grange of Alexander Hamilton, were auctioned off as the soil was depleted and crop yields fell. The land became occupied by Irish squatters, whose presence further depressed property values.^[4] The impoverished village was taken over by the city of New York in 1873.^[2] Image File history File linksMetadata Smallharlem1765. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Smallharlem1765. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Street sign at Fifth Avenue and East 57th street Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New York City. ... The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and possibly the first street railway, running north from Lower Manhattan to and beyond Harlem. ... The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company, or MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by an authority of New York State, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or, more simply, the MTA. Metro-North runs service between New York... Housing subdivision near Union, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. ... 23rd Street runs from river to river across Manhattan, carrying two-way traffic. ... Location in the state of New York Formed 1786 Seat Hudson Area  - Total  - Water 1,679 km² (648 mi²) 32 km² (13 mi²) 1. ... Chatham (village), New York, Village in New York, USA Chatham (town), New York, Town in New York, USA Chatham (town), Massachusetts, town in Massachusetts This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Hamilton Grange National Memorial, at 287 Convent Avenue in New York City, preserves the home of Alexander Hamilton, American statesman and first United States Secretary of the Treasury. ... Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757–July 12, 1804) was an Army officer, lawyer, Founding Father, American politician, leading statesman, financier and political theorist. ...

125th Street station on the 7th Av. IRT Line

Recovery came when elevated railroads were extended to Harlem in 1880. With the construction of the els, urbanized development occurred very rapidly, with townhouses, apartments, and tenements springing up practically overnight. Developers anticipated that the planned Lexington Avenue subway would ease transportation to lower Manhattan, and feared that new housing regulations would be enacted in 1901, so they rushed to complete as many new buildings as possible before these came into force.^[5] Early entrepreneurs had grandiose schemes for Harlem: Polo was actually played at the original Polo Grounds, later to become home of the New York Giants baseball team, and Oscar Hammerstein I opened the Harlem Opera House on East 125th Street in 1889. In 1893, 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, the construction glut and a delay in the building of the subway led to a fall in real estate prices which attracted Eastern European Jews to Harlem in large numbers, reaching a peak of 150,000 in 1917. Presaging their later response to the arrival of black Harlemites, 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).^[6] They needn't have bothered; Jewish Harlem was an ephemeral entity, and by 1930, only 5,000 Jews remained. The area now known as Spanish Harlem became occupied by Italians. Italian Harlem is now gone as well, though traces lasted into the 1970s, in the area around Pleasant Avenue. In the early 20th century, Harlem was also home to a significant Irish population, and a large group of Finns.^[2] Download high resolution version (1590x1193, 578 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1590x1193, 578 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... 125th Street is a station of the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line, located at 125th Street and Broadway. ... The Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line, also known as the IRT West Side Line, is one of the lines of the IRT division of the New York City Subway. ... Subway redirects here; for the restaurant named Subway, see Subway (restaurant). ... A game of polo. ... The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in New York City used by baseballs New York Giants from 1883 until 1957, New York Metropolitans from 1883 until 1885, the New York Yankees from 1912 until 1922, and by the New York Mets in their first... San Francisco Giants AAA Fresno Grizzlies AA Norwich Navigators A San Jose Giants Augusta GreenJackets Salem-Keizer Volcanoes R Arizona Giants Edit this box The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California. ... This article is about the sport. ... Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 1847-1 August 1919) was a theater impresario in New York City. ... 125th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Spanish Harlem, also known as El Barrio, is a neighborhood in the East Harlem area of New York City, in the north-eastern part of the borough of Manhattan. ...

The arrival of African Americans

Marcus Garvey Park

Small groups of black people lived in Harlem as early as 1880, especially in the area around 125th Street and "Negro tenements" on West 130th Street. The mass migration of blacks into the area began in 1904, thanks to another real estate crash, the worsening of conditions for blacks elsewhere in the city, and the leadership of a black real estate entrepreneur named Phillip Payton, Jr. Harlem experienced another real estate bust in 1904-1905; 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 that eclipsed the late-19th century slowdown.^[5] Landlords could not find white renters for their properties, so Philip Payton stepped in to bring blacks. His company, the Afro-American Realty Company, was almost single-handedly responsible for migration of blacks from their previous neighborhoods,^[7] the Tenderloin, San Juan Hill (now the site of Lincoln Center), and Hell's Kitchen in the west 40s and 50s.^[8][9] 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^[10] and in San Juan Hill in 1905^[4] 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 852 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Harlem Marcus Garvey Park Metadata This... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 852 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Harlem Marcus Garvey Park Metadata This... Marcus Garvey Park is located in Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... Tenderloin was a neighborhood of the West Side of Manhattan north and east of Chelsea on the far West Side, which stretched south to West 14th Street and up to West 57th Street, from the mid 1800s to the 1920s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. ... View from between 47th and 48th street on Ninth Avenue looking north toward Time Warner Center and Hearst Tower Hells Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City that includes roughly the area between 34th Street and 57th Street, from... Pennsylvania Station (commonly known as Penn Station) is the major intercity rail station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. ...

In 1907, black churches began to move uptown. St. Philip's Episcopal Church, for one, purchased a block of buildings on West 135th Street to rent to members of its congregation.^[11] During World War I, black laborers were actively recruited to leave the southern United States and work in northern factories, thinly staffed because of the war.^[7] So many came that it "threaten[ed] the very existence of some of the leading industries of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama."^[12] Many came to Harlem. By 1920, central Harlem was predominantly black and by 1930, blacks lived as far south as Central Park, at 110th Street. The expansion was fueled primarily by an influx of blacks from the West Indies and the southern U.S. states, especially Virginia, South and North Carolina, and Georgia. As blacks moved in, white residents left; between 1920 and 1930, 118,792 white people left the neighborhood and 87,417 blacks arrived. “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres, 3. ... The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston(1670-1789) Columbia(1790-present) Largest city Columbia Largest metro area Columbia Area  Ranked 40th  - Total 34,726 sq mi (82,965 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 260 miles (420 km)  - % water 6  - Latitude 32° 2′ N to 35° 13′ N  - Longitude... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... White flight is a term for the demographic trend where working- and middle-class white people move away from increasingly racially mixed inner-city neighborhoods to predominantly white suburbs and exurbs. ...

Between 1907 and 1915,^[13] 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.^[7] Some made pacts not to sell to or rent to blacks.^[14] 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.^[15] Lenox Avenue runs north-south in Upper Manhattan. ... 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. ...

These buildings on West 135 Street were among the first in Harlem to be occupied entirely by blacks; in 1921, #135 became home to Young's Book Exchange, the first "Afrocentric" bookstore in Harlem.^[11]

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 2621 KB) Summary Buildings along West 135 Street in Harlem (New York City). ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 2621 KB) Summary Buildings along West 135 Street in Harlem (New York City). ...

"Ghettoization"

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, or the industries in question left New York City altogether. The entertainment industry was a major employer in Harlem but relied on income from wealthier whites,^[2] whose numbers dropped significantly after Harlemites rioted in 1935, and who stopped coming to Harlem almost altogether after a second round of riots in 1943. Many Harlemites found work in the military or in the Brooklyn shipyards during World War II,^[16] but the neighborhood declined rapidly once the war ended. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

There was little investment in private homes or businesses 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.^[17] 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.^[18] The worse the accommodations and more desperate the renter, the higher the rents would be.^[19] This pattern would persist 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.^[20] 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.^[21] These houses could then be rented profitably to blacks.^[22] It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with rental agreement. ... This article needs to be expanded. ...

One of the few condemned buildings that last in Harlem, photographed on May 14, 2005.

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, Manhattan as a whole had a population density under 70,000 per square mile in 2000.^[23] 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. The 1960 census showed only 51% of housing in Harlem to be "sound," as opposed to 85% elsewhere in New York City.^[24] 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.^[4] Tenants were sometimes to blame; some would strip wiring and fixtures from their buildings to sell, throw garbage in hallways and airshafts, or otherwise deteriorate the properties which they lived in or visited.^[25] Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 291 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 291 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... For other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation). ...

Harlem has many townhouses, such as these in the Mount Morris Historic District.

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. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 442 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1179 × 1600 pixel, file size: 771 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Harlem Architecture in New York City... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 442 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1179 × 1600 pixel, file size: 771 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Harlem Architecture in New York City... McKim, Mead, and White was a prominent architectural firm in the eastern United States at the turn of the twentieth century. ... James Alexander Renwick (died 1984) was a Canadian politician. ... An American architect best known for his work on Carnegie Hall. ... Charles Buek was a developer and architect in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ... Francis Hatch Kimball (1845-1919) was an American architect best known for his work on skyscrapers in lower Manhattan, including the still extant Corbin Building on John Street. ...

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.^[26] By 1987, 65% of the buildings in Harlem were owned by the City of New York,^[27][28] and many had become empty shells, convenient centers for drug dealing and other antisocial activity. The lack of habitable buildings and falling population reduced tax rolls and made the neighborhood even less attractive to residential and retail investment. The expression single room occupancy or, more commonly SRO, refers to a building that houses people in single rooms. ...

The doorframe of a brownstone designed by William Tuthill in the Mount Morris Historical District in Harlem.

Image File history File linksMetadata Mount_morris_doorframe. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Mount_morris_doorframe. ... An American architect best known for his work on Carnegie Hall. ...

Recent history

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. Starting in 1994, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone funneled money into new developments.^[28] Finally, wealthier New Yorkers, having gentrified every other part of Manhattan and much of Brooklyn, had nowhere else to go. The number of housing units in Harlem increased 14% between 1990 and 2000^[28] 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 the City saw only a 12% increase.^[28] Even empty shells of buildings in the neighborhood were, as of 2007, routinely selling for nearly $1,000,000 each.^[29] Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has rented office space at 55 West 125th Street since completing his second term in the White House in 2001.^[30] The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... For other uses, see White House (disambiguation). ...

Culture and Environment

As a center of black life

125th Street between Park and Madison Avenue

In the 1920s, Harlem was the center of a flowering of black culture that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of amazing artistic production, but ironically, blacks were sometimes excluded from viewing what their peers were creating. Some jazz venues, including most famously the Cotton Club, where Duke Ellington played, were restricted to whites only. Others, including the Renaissance Ballroom and the Savoy Ballroom, were integrated. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 412 KB) Summary 125th Street in Harlem NYC, between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 412 KB) Summary 125th Street in Harlem NYC, between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free... 125th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Christmas shopping on 125th Street 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. ... Park Avenue in the Upper East Side (2004) Park Avenue, looking north toward the Metlife building from the Union Square Area Park Avenue (formerly Fourth Avenue) is a wide boulevard that carries traffic north and south in Manhattan in New York City. ... Madison Avenue, looking north from 40th Street Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries northbound one-way traffic. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... For the 1984 film of the same name, see The Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a famous night club in New York City that operated during and after Prohibition. ... This article is about the American Jazz composer and performer. ... The Savoy Ballroom located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from 1926 to 1958. ...

This period of Harlem's history has been highly romanticized since the 1920s, though it was the time when the neighborhood began to become 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, who sometimes brought bad habits or even crime that disrupted the lives of respectable families. Urban reformers campaigned to eliminate the "lodger evil" but the problem got worse before it got better; in 1940, 40% of black families in Harlem were taking in lodgers.^[31] A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ...

The high rents and poor maintenance that Harlem residents suffered through much of the 20th century was not merely the product of racism by white landlords; though precise statistics are not available, wealthier blacks purchased land in Harlem,^[7] and even by 1920, a significant portion of the neighborhood was owned by blacks.^[5][32] By the late 1960s, 60% of the businesses in Harlem responded to surveys reporting to be owned by blacks, and an overwhelming fraction of new businesses were black-owned after that time.^[33]

In 1928, the first effort at housing reform was attempted in Harlem with the construction of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Houses, backed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. These were intended to give 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.^[5] And by 1964, nine giant public housing projects had been constructed in the neighborhood, housing over 41,000 people.^[24] Constructed in 1926, the Dunbar Apartments are a set of buildings in Harlem in New York City, built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. ... John D. Rockefeller Jr. ... For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ... Harlem River Houses The Harlem River Houses are located at 151st street and Harlem River Drive and covers 9 acres. ...

Stately Harlem apartment buildings adjacent to Morningside Park.

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.^[34] Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 789 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Harlem Metadata This file contains additional... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 789 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Harlem Metadata This file contains additional... Morningside Park is a New York City public park located at the east edge of Morningside Heights. ... Apollo Theater marquee, c. ... is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Photograph of Sally Rand, 1934. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Swing Dancing The term swing dance is commonly used to refer either to a group of dances developing in response to swing music in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, or to lindy hop, a popular partner dance today. ...

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,^[2] National Black Theater, Lafayette Players, Harlem Suitcase Theater, The Negro Playwrights, American Negro Theater, and the Rose McClendon Players.^[35] In 1936, Orson Welles produced his famous black Macbeth at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem.^[36] Grand theaters from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were torn down or converted to churches, and Harlem lacked any permanent performance space until the creation of the Gatehouse Theater in an old pumping station on 135th Street in 2006.^[37] This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath by Théodore Chassériau. ...

In the post-World War II era, Harlem ceased to be home to a majority of NYC's blacks,^[38] but it remained the cultural and political capital of black New York, and possibly black America.^[39][40] 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%.^[41] Thereafter, Hispanics and, more recently, white residents have increased their share. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article is about the New York City borough. ... This article is about the borough of New York City. ...

Church of Nazareth, 144th Street and Hamilton Terrace. The building is currently a burned-out shell.

Black Harlem has always been religious, and the area is home to over 400 churches.^[42] Major sects represented include Baptists, Methodists (generally operating under the name African Methodist Episcopalian, or "AME"), Episcopalians, and Roman Catholic. The Nation of Islam and splinter Black Muslim groups maintain mosques in Harlem, and the Mormon church established a chapel at 128th Street in 2005. Many of the area's churches are "storefront churches", which operate out of an empty store, or a building's basement, or a converted brownstone townhouse. These smaller organizations may have congregations of 15 or 20 people, but there are hundreds of them.^[43] Judaism, too, maintains a presence in Harlem, including The Old Broadway Synagogue, Temple Healing from Heaven, and Temple of Joy. There is also a non-mainstream synagogue of black Jews known as Commandment Keepers, based in a synagogue at 1 West 123rd Street. 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Church_of_the_nazareth. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Church_of_the_nazareth. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Coptic Orthodox Pope · Roman Catholic Pope Archbishop of Canterbury · Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Baptist... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      For school of ancient Greek medicine... The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church, is a Christian denomination founded by Bishop Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816. ... This article is about the Episcopal Church in the United States. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic... The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious and social/political organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930 with the self-proclaimed goal of resurrecting the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of the black men and women of America and the rest of the... The phrase black Muslim is a term used mostly in the United States. ... For other uses, see Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (disambiguation). ... The Commandment Keepers: Holy Church of the Living God are a non-mainstream sect of Jews, founded in 1919 by Nigerian-born Rabbi Arthur Wentworth Matthew[1], who believe that people of Ethiopian descent represent one of the lost tribes of Israel. ... The Abyssinian Baptist Church is among the most famous of the many churches in Harlem, New York City. ...

Especially in the years before World War II, Harlem produced popular Christian "cult" leaders, including George Wilson Becton and Father Divine.^[44] George Wilson Becton was the first of the colorful cult leaders in Harlem. ... Father Divine (c. ...

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. Manhattan's contribution to hip-hop stems largely from the artists who have Harlem roots, including Kurtis Blow and P. Diddy. Harlem is also the birthplace of popular hip-hop dances such as the Harlem shake, toe wap, and Chicken Noodle Soup. The Boys Choir of Harlem (also known as the Harlem Boys Choir) is a choir located in Harlem, New York City, United States. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Hip hop (disambiguation). ... Curtis Kurtis Blow Walker, (born on August 9, 1959, in Harlem, New York) is one of the pioneer rappers in the recording industry, and hip hops first mainstream star. ... Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969)[1] is an American record producer, mogul, CEO, clothing designer, and a rapper. ... The Harlem shake, originally called the albee, became mainstream in 2001 when G-Dep featured the Harlem shake in his music video Special Delivery. ... Chicken Noodle Soup is a song by DJ Webstar and Young B. It has an associated dance as well. ...

Since the arrival of blacks in Harlem, the neighborhood has suffered from unemployment rates higher than the New York average (generally more than twice as high),^[45] 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.^[46] Infant mortality was 124 per thousand in 1928 (twice the rate for whites).^[47] By 1940, infant mortality in Harlem was 5% (one black infant in twenty 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.^[47] 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.^[48] Infectious diseases and diseases of the circulatory system were to blame, with a variety of contributing factors including the deep-fried foods traditional to the neighborhood, which may contribute to heart disease. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Harlem has one of the highest asthma rates in the United States. Increased risk of asthma may be brought about by high particulate matter from the diesel emissions of buses and trucks, which levels are higher in Harlem than elsewhere in New York City.^[49] Particulates, alternately referred to as Particulate Matter (PM) , aerosols or fine particles are tiny particles of solid or liquid suspended in the air. ...

Crime

Not surprisingly, as a neighborhood with a long history of marginalization and economic deprivation, Harlem has long been associated with crime.

In the 1920s, the Jewish and Italian mafia played a major role in running the whites-only nightclubs in the neighborhood and the speakeasies that catered to a white audience. Mobster Dutch Schultz controlled all liquor production and distribution in Harlem in the 1920s. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Rather than compete with the established mobs, black gangsters concentrated on the "policy racket," also called the Numbers game, or "bolita" in Spanish Harlem. This was 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."^[50] The numbers game, or policy racket, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in U.S. cities, wherein the bettor attempts to pick three or four digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. ... 125th Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue Spanish Harlem, also known as El Barrio, is a neighborhood in the East Harlem area of New York City, in the north-eastern part of the borough of Manhattan. ...

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.^[51] 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. Remarkably, one of the powerful early numbers bosses was a woman, Madame Stephanie St. Clair. Stephanie St. ...

The popularity of playing the numbers waned with the introduction of the New York State lottery, which has higher payouts and is legal, but 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.