Module 3: Harlem

Harlem

Harlem was an unusual choice to emerge as the center of African-American intellectual and artistic life.  The vast majority of African-Americans still lived in the rural South, with only a relatively small number of black Americans living in the North.  However, Harlem would have some advntages that would propel it to the top of civic life for African-Americans.  

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Harlem became a bustling working-class neighborhood. In the decades following the Civil War, the area began to attract a more diverse population, with many Irish, German, and Italian immigrants settling in the neighborhood. However, Harlem's most significant demographic shift occurred during the Great Migration, which began in the early 20th century. As African Americans from the South fled the oppressive conditions of Jim Crow segregation, lynching, and economic hardship, they were drawn to Harlem by the promise of better job opportunities and a less discriminatory social environment. The rapid influx of African American migrants transformed Harlem into a vibrant center of Black culture, and the neighborhood's population quickly grew.

The North had another large advantage over the South: the relative lack of violence.  While the North was mired in white supremacy, the centrality of racism in the South meant that the use of racist violence was much more common there.  In the North, while African-Americans were largely pushed into their own communities, the types of pogroms wages against those communities that were common in the South were much less common in the North.  

By the 1920s, Harlem had become the heart of African American life in New York City, setting the stage for the Harlem Renaissance. This cultural, artistic, and intellectual explosion was fueled by the creative energy of African American writers, musicians, artists, and performers who made Harlem their home. With the support of the Great Migration, Harlem became a cultural haven, where African Americans could express their identity, experiment with new forms of art, and assert their rights in a society that had long marginalized them. The neighborhood's transformation from a working-class neighborhood to a cultural mecca marked a significant moment in both the history of New York City and the broader African American experience, paving the way for a new era of artistic and social progress.