Harlem
54861
225871388
2008-07-15T20:07:24Z
Shoreranger
985923
/* Before the black migration */
{{otheruses}}
[[Image:Apollo Theater.jpg|thumb|right|375px|The [[Apollo Theater]] on [[125th Street (Manhattan)|125th Street]]; the [[Hotel Theresa]] is visible in the background.]]
'''Harlem''' is a [[Neighbourhood|neighborhood]] in the [[New York City]] [[borough (New York City)|borough]] of [[Manhattan]], long known as a major [[African American]] cultural and business center. After being associated for much of the twentieth century with [[crime]] and [[poverty]], it is now experiencing social and economic [[gentrification]].
==Location and boundaries==
[[Image:Harlem map2.png|thumb|right|250px|The boundaries of modern Harlem; some landmarks are noted.]]
Harlem stretches from the East River to the Hudson River between 155th Street—where it meets [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]]—to a ragged border along the south. Central Harlem begins at [[110th Street (Manhattan)|110th Street]], at the northern boundary of Central Park; [[Spanish Harlem]] extends east Harlem's boundaries south to [[96th Street (Manhattan)|96th Street]], while in the west it begins north of [[Upper West Side]], which gives an irregular border west of [[Morningside Avenue (Manhattan)|Morningside Avenue]]. Harlem's boundaries have changed over the years; as [[Ralph Ellison]] observed: "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 (Manhattan)|St. Nicholas Avenue]] and north of 123rd Street)
**[[Hamilton Heights, Manhattan|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, Manhattan|Sugar Hill]]
**[[Astor Row]], centered on 130th Street
*East Harlem (east of [[Fifth Avenue]])
**[[Spanish Harlem]], south of [[116th Street]]
==History==
{{New Netherland}}
=== Before the black migration ===
The first European settlement in what is now Harlem was by Hendrick de Forest and [[Netherlands|Dutch]] settlers in 1637.<ref name="ellis-p52">{{cite book |title=The Epic of New York City |author=Ellis, Edward Robb |publisher=Old Town Books |year=1966 |pages=p. 52}}</ref> The area was repeatedly ambushed by [[Native Americans]], most likely [[Lenape]], who were previously the only inhabitants of the land, leading many Dutch to abandon it.<ref name="ellis-p52"/> The settlement was formalized in 1658 as ''Nieuw Haarlem'' (New Haarlem), after the Dutch city of [[Haarlem]], under leadership of [[Peter Stuyvesant]].<ref name="ng1977">"To Live In Harlem," Frank Hercules, ''National Geographic,'' February 1977, p.178+</ref> The Indian trail to Harlem's lush bottomland meadows was rebuilt by eleven black laborers on behalf of the [[Dutch West India Company]],<ref>Introduction to ''Harlem USA,'' John Henrick Clarke, 1970</ref> and eventually developed into the [[Boston Post Road]]. In 1664, the [[England|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.
[[Image:Smallharlem1765.jpg|thumb|left|215px|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 [[19th century|nineteenth century]]."<ref name="ah1968">"Harlem, the Village That Became a Ghetto," Martin Duberman, in ''New York, N.Y.: An American Heritage History of the Nation's Greatest City,'' 1968</ref> 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.<ref name="ah1968"/> Wealthy farmers, called "patroons,"<ref name="ah1968"/> 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.<ref name="ah1968"/> The [[New York and Harlem Railroad]] (now [[Metro-North Railroad|Metro North]]) was incorporated in 1831, to better link the city with the [[suburb]], starting at a depot at [[23rd Street (Manhattan)|East 23rd Street]]. It was extended 127 miles north to a railroad junction in [[Columbia County, New York|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.<ref name="ah1968"/> The impoverished village was taken over by the city of New York in 1873.<ref name="ng1977"/>
[[Image:Subway elevated2.jpg|thumb|right|215px|[[125th Street (IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line station)|125th Street station]] on the 7th Av. [[IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line|IRT Line]]]]
Recovery came when [[elevated railroad]]s 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.<ref name="tritter1998">"The Growth and Decline of Harlem's Housing", Thorin Tritter, ''Afro-Americans in New York Life and History,'' January 31, 1998</ref> 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)|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 <!-- when? --> 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).<ref>''Malcolm,'' Bruce Perry, Station Hill, 1991. page 154-155</ref>
Jewish Harlem, however, was an ephemeral entity, and by 1930, only 5,000 Jews remained. The area now known as [[Spanish Harlem]] became occupied by [[Italy|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 American|Irish]] population, and a large group of [[Finnish American|Finns]].<ref name="ng1977"/>
=== Arrival of black people ===<!-- Many of these people were not American, and this headline should *not* be changed to "arrival of african americans". -->
[[Image:Marcus Garvey Memorial Park.jpg|thumb|right|215px|[[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.<ref name="tritter1998"/> 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,<ref name="sg1925">[http://etext.virginia.edu/harlem/JohMakiF.html "The Making of Harlem,"] James Weldon Johnson, The Survey Graphic, March 1925</ref> the [[Tenderloin, Manhattan|Tenderloin]], [[San Juan Hill, Manhattan|San Juan Hill]] (now the site of [[Lincoln Center]]), and [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]] in the west 40s and 50s.<ref>"Negro Districts in Manhattan," ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[November 17]], [[1901]]</ref><ref>"Negroes Move Into Harlem," ''[[New York Herald]]'', [[December 24]], [[1905]]</ref> 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<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.26</ref> and in San Juan Hill in 1905<ref name="ah1968"/> 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 [[Pennsylvania Station (New York City)|Penn Station]].
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.<ref name="HUSA37">"Africa-Conscious Harlem," Richard B. Moore, in ''Harlem U.S.A.,'' 1971 ed. p.37</ref> 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.<ref name="sg1925"/> So many came that it "threaten[ed] the very existence of some of the leading industries of Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama."<ref>"118,000 Negroes Move From The South," The New York World, November 5, 1917</ref> 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 Carolina|South]] and [[North Carolina]], and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. As blacks moved in, [[white flight|white residents left]]; between 1920 and 1930, 118,792 white people left the neighborhood and 87,417 blacks arrived.
Between 1907 and 1915,<ref name>"Harlem, the Making of a Ghetto," Gilbert Osofsky, in ''Harlem U.S.A.,'' 1971 ed. p.13</ref> some white residents of Harlem resisted the neighborhood's change, especially once the swelling black population pressed west of [[Lenox Avenue (Manhattan)|Lenox Avenue]], which served as an informal color line until the early 1920s.<ref name="sg1925"/> Some made pacts not to sell to or rent to blacks.<ref>Osofsky, "Making of a Ghetto", in ''Harlem: A Community in Transition'', 1964, p.20</ref> 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 [[Mortgage Discrimination|deny mortgages]] to black buyers, but soon gave up.<ref>"Loans To White Renegades Who Back Negroes Cut Off," Harlem Home News, [[April 7]], [[1911]]</ref>
[[Image:Harlem 135 street buildings.jpg|thumb|right|250px|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.<ref name="HUSA37"/>]]
<!-- [[Image:HarlemBrownstones.JPG|thumb|250px|Four-story brownstones in Harlem, just south of 126th Street, 2004]] -->
=== "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,<ref name="ng1977"/> 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]],<ref>''The Economic Development of Harlem,'' Thomas Vietorisz and Bennett Harrison, Praeger Special Studies in U.S. Economic and Social Development, 1970, p.6</ref> but the neighborhood declined rapidly once the war ended.
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Img1476mh8.jpg|thumb|right|250px|New Projects are Among the Old Brownstones.]] -->
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 [[Renting|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.<ref>"Landlord Brings in Negroes to Get High Rents," ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[January 27]], [[1920]]</ref> 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.<ref>"Gilbert Osofsky, 1963"</ref> The worse the accommodations and more desperate the renter, the higher the rents would be.<ref>"Powell Says Rent Too High," ''[[New York Post]]'', [[March 28]], [[1935]]</ref> 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.<ref>"Harlem Stirs, 1966, p.17"</ref> The high rents encouraged some property speculators to engage in [[blockbusting|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.<ref name="HUSAosofsky">"Harlem, the Making of a Ghetto," Gilbert Osofsky, in ''Harlem U.S.A.,'' 1971 ed. p.12</ref> These houses could then be rented profitably to blacks.<ref>''Malcolm,'' Bruce Perry, Station Hill, 1991. page 155</ref>
[[Image:Harlem condemned building.jpg|thumb|left|250px|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.<ref>[http://www.demographia.com/db-nyc-wardrank.htm Demographia population density figures]</ref> 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.<ref name="woock29">''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.29</ref> 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.<ref name="ah1968"/> 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.<ref>''Malcolm,'' Bruce Perry, Station Hill, 1991. page 156</ref>
[[Image:Harlem 02.jpg|thumb|215px|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]].
As the building stock decayed, landlords converted many buildings into "[[Single Room Occupancy|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.<ref>''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1021</ref> By 1987, 65% of the buildings in Harlem were owned by the City of New York,<ref>"City Hall Holds The Key. Harlem's renaissance finds lots of friends, and a few foes," ''[[Christian Science Monitor]],'' [[March 12]], [[1987]]</ref><ref name="edad">[http://www.urban.columbia.edu/people/alumni/2004thesis_pdf/EGothelfThesis.pdf ''The Economic Redevelopment of Harlem''], PhD Thesis of Eldad Gothelf, submitted to Columbia University in May 2004</ref> 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.
[[Image:Mount morris doorframe.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The doorframe of a brownstone designed by [[William Tuthill]] in the Mount Morris Historical District in Harlem.]]
=== 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.<ref name="edad"/> 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<ref name="edad"/> 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.<ref name="edad"/> Even empty shells of buildings in the neighborhood were, as of 2007, routinely selling for nearly $1,000,000 each.<ref>"After the Shell Game," S.Jhoanna Robledo, ''New York'' Magazine, March 26, 2007, p.69. The article states that, after rocketing upwards for many years, prices on shells have settled to about the same level in 2007 as they had been in 2005. Examples are given of sales around $800,000.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2001/aug/05/newyork.unitedstates.observerescapesection "New boy in the 'hood,"] ''The Observer,'' August 5 2001</ref>
==Culture and environment ==
===As a center of black life===
[[Image:Harlem - W125st - Madison Avenue.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[125th Street (Manhattan)|125th Street]] between [[Park Avenue (Manhattan)|Park]] and [[Madison Avenue (Manhattan)|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, and [[Connie's Inn]] were restricted to whites only. Others, including the [[Renaissance Ballroom]] and the [[Savoy Ballroom]], were integrated.
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.<ref name="look1940">"244,000 Native Sons," ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' Magazine, [[May 21]], [[1940]], p.8+</ref>
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,<ref name="sg1925"/> and even by 1920, a significant portion of the neighborhood was owned by blacks.<ref name="tritter1998"/><ref>''Inside U.S.A.,'' John Gunther, 1947 specifically cites a black man named "A. A. Austin" who owned many properties.</ref> 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.<ref>''The Economic Development of Harlem,'' Thomas Vietorisz and Bennett Harrison, Praeger Special Studies in U.S. Economic and Social Development, 1970, p.37, p.45, p.238</ref>
In 1928, the first effort at housing reform was attempted in Harlem with the construction of the [[Dunbar Apartments|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.<ref name="tritter1998"/> And by 1964, nine giant public housing projects had been constructed in the neighborhood, housing over 41,000 people.<ref name="woock29"/>
[[Image:Harlem 04.jpg|thumb|right|250px|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 (dance)|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.<ref>[http://nfo.net/usa/harlem.html The Big Bands Database, ''My Harlem Reverie'']</ref>
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,<ref name="ng1977"/> National Black Theater, Lafayette Players, Harlem Suitcase Theater, The Negro Playwrights, American Negro Theater, and the Rose McClendon Players.<ref>"Need for Harlem Theater," by Jim Williams, in ''Harlem: A Community in Transition,'' 1964. p.158</ref> In 1936, [[Orson Welles]] produced his famous black ''[[Macbeth]]'' at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem.<ref>"Jam Streets as 'Macbeth' Opens," ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[April 15]], [[1936]]</ref> 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 (Manhattan)|135th Street]] in 2006.<ref>"Gatehouse Ushers in a Second Act as a Theater," ''[[The New York Times]],'' [[October 17]], [[2006]]</ref><!-- The National Black Theater does have a couple of theaters but they have not produced any plays in years; as far as I can tell, they just rent the space out for social events. -->
In the post-[[World War II]] era, Harlem ceased to be home to a majority of NYC's blacks,<ref>"Harlem Losing Ground as Negro Area," ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'', [[April 6]], [[1952]]</ref> but it remained the cultural and political capital of black New York, and possibly black America.<ref>Powell, Michael. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30280-2005Mar12?language=printer "Harlem's New Rush: Booming Real Estate"], ''[[The Washington Post]]'', [[March 13]], [[2005]]. Accessed [[May 18]], [[2007]]. "The transformation of this historic '''capital of Black America''' has taken an amphetamined step or three beyond a Starbucks, a Body Shop and former president Bill Clinton taking an office on 125th Street."</ref><ref>Brooks, Charles. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HST/is_2_4/ai_83553085 "Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America - nonfiction reviews - book review"], ''Black Issues Book Review.'', March-April, 2002. Accessed [[May 18]], [[2007]]. "There's a mystique that surrounds Harlem --with its rich historical tradition, literature, music, dance, politics and social activism. Consequently, Harlem is referred to as the "Black Mecca" the '''capital of black America''', and arguably the most recognized black community in the country."</ref> 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%.<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.27</ref> Thereafter, Hispanics and, more recently, white residents have increased their share.
[[Image:Church of the nazareth.jpg|thumb|right|250px|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.<ref>"The New Heyday of Harlem," Tessa Souter, The Independent on Sunday, June 8, 1997</ref> Major sects represented include [[Baptist]]s, [[Methodism|Methodists]] (generally operating under the name [[African Methodist Episcopal Church|African Methodist Episcopalian]], or "AME"), [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalians]], and [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]]. The [[Nation of Islam]] and splinter [[Black Muslim]] groups maintain mosques in Harlem, and the [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Mormon]] 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 smaller organizations may have congregations of 15 or 20 people, but there are hundreds of them.<ref>''Fact Not Fiction In Harlem,'' John H. Johnson, St. Martin's Church, 1980. p.69+</ref> 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.
Especially in the years before World War II, Harlem produced popular Christian "cult" leaders, including [[George Wilson Becton]] and [[Father Divine]].<ref name="HUSAintro">''Harlem U.S.A.,'' ed. John Henrick Clarke, introduction to 1971 edition</ref>
Since 1965, the community has been home to the [[Boys Choir of Harlem|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 [[Sean Combs|P. Diddy]]. Harlem is also the birthplace of popular hip-hop dances such as the [[Harlemshake|Harlem shake]], toe wap, and [[Chicken Noodle Soup (Song)|Chicken Noodle Soup]].
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),<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.31</ref> 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.<ref>''The Economic Development of Harlem,'' Thomas Vietorisz and Bennett Harrison, Praeger Special Studies in U.S. Economic and Social Development, 1970, p.19</ref> Infant mortality was 124 per thousand in 1928 (twice the rate for whites).<ref name="NYT19291024">"Congestion Causes High Mortality," The New York Times, October 24, 1929</ref> 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.<ref name="NYT19291024"/> 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]].<ref>[http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/3/173 McCord C and HP Freeman. "Excess Mortality in Harlem."] New England Journal of Medicine 322(1990):173-177</ref> Infectious diseases and diseases of the circulatory system were to blame, with a variety of contributing factors including the [[soul food|deep-fried foods]] traditional to the neighborhood, which may contribute to heart disease.
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.<ref>http://www.weact.org/pressadvisories/2003_Apr_23.html WE ACT press release, April 23, 2003</ref>
=== 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 Mafia|Jewish]] and [[American Mafia|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.
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."<ref name="ianni">Francis A.J. Ianni, ''Black Mafia,'' 1974</ref>
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.<ref>"Inside Story of Numbers Racket," ''[[Amsterdam News]]'', [[August 21]], [[1954]]</ref> 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]].
[[Image:1848942229 2f7750f845 o.jpg|thumb|left|Shoes hanging from a lamppost in Harlem]]
The popularity of playing the numbers waned with the introduction of the [[Lotteries in the United States|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.
1940 statistics show about 100 murders per year in Harlem, "but rape is very rare."<ref name="look1940"/> By 1950, essentially all of the whites had left Harlem and by 1960, the black middle class had gone. 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.<ref name="ianni"/> 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.<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.33</ref>
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.{{Fact|date=February 2008}}
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. With the end of the "[[crack epidemic|crack wars]]" in the mid 90s and with the initiation of aggressive policing under mayor [[Rudolph Giuliani]], crime in Harlem plummeted. In 2000, 1,700 robberies were reported. There have been similar changes in all categories of crimes tracked by the [[New York City Police Department]].<ref>[http://www.reform.co.uk/filestore/pdf/How%20NY%20cut%20crime.pdf "How New York Cut Crime"], Reform Magazine, Autumn 2002 p.11</ref> In the 32nd Precinct, for example, in Central Harlem, between 1993 and 2004, the murder rate dropped 68%, the rape rate dropped 70%, the robbery rate dropped 60%, burglary dropped 81%, and the total number of crime complaints dropped 62%.<ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/chfdept/cs032pct.pdf Policy Department City of New York CompStat, 32nd Precinct, vol. 12 No 38</ref>
== Politics and activism in Harlem ==
[[Image:Flag of the UNIA.svg|thumb|The [[Red, black and green flag]] of the [[Universal Negro Improvement Association]]]]
=== 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."<ref name="nytUnrest">"New York's Racial Unrest: Mounting Negro Anger Swells Protests," Layhmond Robinson, ''The New York Times,'' August 12, 1963, p.1</ref> The [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] became active in Harlem in 1910 and [[Marcus Garvey|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. DuBois]] 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.<ref name="HUSAintro"/> 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.<ref>''Fact Not Fiction In Harlem,'' John H. Johnson, St. Martin's Church, 1980., p.52+</ref>
Communism gained a following in Harlem in the 1930s, and continued to play a role through the 1940s.<ref name="nytUnrest"/> 1935 saw [[Harlem Riot of 1935|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]].<ref>"Africa-Conscious Harlem," in ''Harlem U.S.A.," John Henrick Clarke, ed. 1971, p.50</ref> Such internationalism continued intermittently, including broad demonstrations in favor of Egyptian president [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]] after the Suez invasion of 1956.<ref>"Africa-Conscious Harlem," in ''Harlem U.S.A.," John Henrick Clarke, ed. 1971, p.51</ref>
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.<ref>''The Power Broker,'' Robert Moses, p.252, p.318-319, p.490, p.491, p.509-514, 525-561, 578, 589, 736, 834, 1086, 1101</ref>
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.<ref name="eastharlem1999">[http://www.east-harlem.com/cb11_197A_history.htm East Harlem's History], New Directions: A 197-A Plan for Manhattan Community district 11 (Revised 1999)</ref>
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]].<ref>"Four Men of Harlem -- The Movers and the Shakers," in ''Harlem, U.S.A.,'' John Henrik Clarke, 1971 edition, p.262</ref>
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 strike]]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 [[cockroach|roaches]], to provide heat during the winter, and to keep prices in line with already-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.<ref>"Harlem Stirs, 1966, p.27</ref>
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. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. had become chairman of the House Committee of Education and Labor at the start of the 1960s, and was able to use this position to direct federal funds to various development projects back home.<ref>"Four Men of Harlem -- The Movers and the Shakers," in ''Harlem, U.S.A.,'' John Henrik Clarke, 1971 edition, p.264</ref>
The influence of the southern nonviolent protest movement was muted in Harlem. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] was the black leader most respected in Harlem,<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.41</ref><ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.99</ref> but at least two dozen groups of black nationalists also operated in New York. The most important of these by far was the [[Nation of Islam]], whose Temple Number Seven was run by [[Malcolm X]] from 1952 - 1963.<ref>"The Nationalist Movements of Harlem," by E. U. Essien-Udom in ''Harlem: A Community in Transition'', 1964, p.97</ref> Malcolm was assassinated in the [[Audubon Ballroom]] in [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]] in 1965, and the neighborhood remains an important center for the Nation of Islam.
The largest public works projects in Harlem in these years was the construction of public housing, with the largest concentration in East Harlem.<ref>[http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/112103.htm "A Landmark Struggle,"] Lisa Davis, Preservation Online, November 21, 2003</ref> 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.<ref name="eastharlem1999"/>
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 the grade levels in reading skills, and 80% tested under grade level in math.<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970, p.33</ref> In 1964, residents of Harlem staged two boycotts to call attention to the terrible quality of local schools. In central Harlem, 92% of students stayed home.<ref>"Harlem Stirs, 1966, p.104</ref> 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."<ref name="ng1977"/> As of May 2006, Harlem is the heart of the [[charter schools]] movement in Manhattan; of the 25 charter schools operating in Manhattan, 18 are in Harlem.<ref>[http://nycsa.org/NYCS.asp New York Charter Schools Association]</ref>
In 1963, Inspector [[Lloyd Sealy]] made history becoming the first [[African American]] officer of the NYPD to command a police station, the 28th precinct located in Harlem.<ref> [http://www.nycpolicemuseum.org/html/tour/aah/aahweb.htm New York City Police Museum: A History of African Americans in the NYPD] </ref> At this time however, 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, white police officers outnumbered black police officers 6 to 1.<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873963-6,00.html No Place Like Home] Time Magazine</ref> Police brutality and corruption was often alleged by Harlem residents to have occurred<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873963-6,00.html No Place Like Home] Time Magazine</ref> and with the low percentage of black officers on the NYPD, relations between the black community and the police department remained strained. A [[Harlem Riot|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 and the riot would later spread out of Manhattan and into the borough of Brooklyn into the community 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]],''<ref>''Youth in the Ghetto: A Study of the Consequences of Powerlessness,'' Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Inc., 1964</ref> and HARYOU was given a major role in organizing the project, along with the [[National Urban League]] and nearly 100 smaller community organizations.<ref>''Poverty and Politics in Harlem,'' Alphnso Pinkney & Roger Woock, College & University Press Services, Inc., 1970</ref>
In 1966, the [[Black Panther Party|Black Panthers]] organized a group in Harlem, agitating for violence in pursuit of change. Speaking at a rally of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee|Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee]], Max Stanford, a Black Panther speaker, declared that the United States "could be brought down to its knees with a rag and some gasoline and a bottle," the ingredients of a [[Molotov cocktail]].<ref>"Black Panthers Open Harlem Drive," ''[[Amsterdam News]]'', [[September 3]], [[1966]]</ref>
In 1968, Harlemites rioted after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Two 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.<ref>''The Ungovernable City, John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York,'' Vincent J. Cannato, p.211</ref>
=== 1970–1989 ===
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 Administration]] 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.<ref name="deaddreams">"Harlem's Dreams Have Died in Last Decade, Leaders Say," ''New York Times,'' March 1, 1978, p.A1</ref>
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, described in the "Ghettoization" section above, 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%.<ref name="deaddreams"/> 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.<ref>"The Black Mafia Moves Into the Numbers Racket," Fred J. Cook, ''New York Times,'' April 4, 1971</ref>
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."<ref>"Harlem Battles Over Development Project," Shipp, E. R.. ''New York Times''. New York, N.Y.: Jul 31, 1991. pg. B.1</ref>
Plans for rectifying the situation often started with the restoration of 125th Street, long the economic heart of black Harlem.<ref name="125th1979">"Harlem Pins Revival Hopes on New Plans for 125th Street," ''New York Times,'' May 20, 1979</ref> By the late 1970s, only marginalized and poor retail remained.<ref name="ny2000p1007">''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1007</ref> 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 an center for trade with the [[third world]]. 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<ref name="125th1979"/>, and with the election of [[Ronald Reagan]] to the presidency of the United States, it had no hope of being completed.<ref name="ny2000p1007"/>
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).<ref>''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1039</ref>
By 1980, the City of New York owned 60% of all residential property in Harlem<ref>''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1015</ref>, and began auctioning these properties to the public in 1985. Only a small fraction would be sold at this time, and later scandals would temporarily halt the sales altogether.
=== 1990–present ===
The city's sale of confiscated houses 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.<ref name="ny2kp1016">''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1016</ref> 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 huge profit and the church or charity would default on the mortgage (presumably getting some kind of kickback from the developer).<ref>[http://www.tenant.net/Tengroup/Metcounc/Oct01/harlem.html "Harlem Tenants Fear Displacement After 203(k) Scandal"]</ref><ref>"SRO Limbo: After Arrests in the HUD Scandal, Will Its Victims Lose Their Homes?" Andrew Friedman, ''Village Voice,'' January 16 - 22, 2002</ref> 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 trolly 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 2007), and a [[Ben & Jerry's]] ice cream franchise employing formerly homeless people opened across the street.<ref>''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1009</ref> The development of the region would leap forward a few years later with the introduction of the Upper Manhattan [[Empowerment Zone]], which brought $300 million in development funds and $250 million in tax breaks.<ref name="ny2kp1011">''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1011</ref>
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.<ref>[http://www.villagevoice.com/news/9852,noel,3098,1.html "'Freddy's Not Dead',"] Peter Noel, ''Village Voice,'' December 23, 1998</ref>
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<ref name="ny2kp1011"/>, the [[Harlem USA]] retail complex, which included the first first-run movie theater in many years (2000)<ref name="ny2kp1011"><ref name="ny2kp1013">''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1013</ref>, 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.<ref>''New York 2000: Architecture and Urbanism from the Bicentennial to the Millennium,'' Robert A. M. Stern, David Fishman, Jacob Tilove, 2006. p.1013</ref>
==Harlem landmarks==
[[Image:Hotel theresa.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Hotel Theresa]] building at the corner of [[Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard]] and 125th Street]]
*[[125th Street]]
*[[Abyssinian Baptist Church]]
*[[Apollo Theater]]
*[[Aaron Davis Hall]]
*[[Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture]]
*[[Astor Row]]
*[[City College of New York]]
*[[Dunbar Apartments]]
*[[First Corinthian Baptist Church]]
*[[Graham Court]]
*[[Hamilton Grange]]
*[[Hamilton Heights]]
*[[Harlem YMCA]]
*[[Hotel Theresa]]
*[[James Bailey House]]
*[[La Marqueta (East Harlem)|La Marqueta]]
*[[Lenox Lounge]]
*[[Morningside Park]]
*[[Mount Morris Park Historic District]]
*[[Mount Sinai School of Medicine]] and [[Mount Sinai Hospital, New York]]
*[[El Museo del Barrio|El Museo Del Barrio]]
*[[Museum of the City of New York]]
*[[Rucker Park]]
*[[St. Martin's Church (Harlem)|St. Martin's Church]] (formerly Trinity Church) designed by [[William Appleton Potter]]
*[[Savoy Ballroom]] (no longer open)
*[[Strivers' Row]]
*[[Studio Museum in Harlem]]
*[[Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem|Sylvia's Soul Food]]
==See also==
*[[List of people from Harlem]]
*[[Movies Filmed in Harlem]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}
* ''WPA Guide to New York City'' 1939
* "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto. Negro New York, 1890-1930". Gilbert Osofsky, 1963
* TIME Magaine, 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==
{{Commons|Category:Harlem|Harlem}}
* [http://www.southeastmuseum.org/html/history.html New York and Harlem Railroad and the Harlem Valley line.]
* [http://www.nyc-architecture.com/HAR/HAR.htm Harlem and the Heights] - New York Architecture Images
* [http://nysparks.state.ny.us/heritage/herit_area.asp New York State Heritage Areas]
* [http://www.harlem-13-gigapixels.com 13 Gigapixel panorama]
{{manhattan}}
[[Category:Harlem, New York| ]]
[[Category:United States communities with African American majority populations]]
[[Category:Neighborhoods in Manhattan]]
{{Link FA|fr}}
{{Link FA|ka}}
[[ar:هارلم]]
[[bg:Харлем (Ню Йорк)]]
[[cs:Harlem]]
[[da:Harlem]]
[[de:Harlem]]
[[et:Harlem]]
[[es:Harlem]]
[[eu:Harlem]]
[[fa:هارلم (نیویورک)]]
[[fr:Harlem]]
[[ko:할렘]]
[[it:Harlem]]
[[he:הארלם]]
[[ka:ჰარლემი]]
[[lt:Harlemas (Niujorkas)]]
[[nl:Harlem]]
[[ja:ハーレム (ニューヨーク市)]]
[[no:Harlem]]
[[pl:Harlem (Nowy Jork)]]
[[pt:Harlem]]
[[ru:Гарлем]]
[[sk:Harlem]]
[[fi:Harlem]]
[[sv:Harlem]]
[[tr:Harlem (Kent bölümü)]]
[[uk:Гарлем]]
[[zh:哈莱姆区]]