History of Harlem

In 1628, the Dutch seized Manhattan Island from the Indians. In 1658, the Dutch ruler Pitt named it "New Harlem" after his hometown. Harlem, like the city around it, was an immigrant area, and in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a number of celebrities, including Alexander Hamilton, built mansions in Harlem that still stand today. In the late 19th century, due to the improvement of railway transportation, people could take a train from City Hall at the southernmost tip of Manhattan to Harlem, so many office workers chose to live here. At the same time, Protestant aristocrats built townhouses in Mount Morris Park. After that, most of the people who moved to Harlem were related to politics and religion, including Roman Catholics and typical Jewish families. Sulzberger, the grandfather of the publisher of the New York Times, also lived in Harlem at that time. But since African-American immigrants began to move into Harlem, white people began to move out in large numbers.

In the 1920s, the main symbols of the Harlem Renaissance were jazz and literature, and some full-time black doctors, lawyers and architects gradually emerged. Despite this, African Americans were still restricted in Harlem, and black people generally worked for white people to please them.

The Apollo Theater, built in 1913, did not open to black audiences until 1934. The Cotton Club is another famous music venue. There is a mural there depicting black slaves working on the farm. The reason why this mural was hung was to give the white audience a sense of superiority and make them feel that the black people were pleasing them.

Blacks in Harlem also had no choice in their jobs. They worked in white grocery stores. These unequal treatment were not alleviated until Adam Powell launched a boycott movement in the 1930s, with signs saying "If you can't work there, don't buy there." It was not until 1944, when Powell was elected, that blacks from Harlem gained representation in Congress. In 1992, Clinton signed an authorization bill that invested $300 million in Harlem to develop business, education and cultural projects.