Editing Harlem (section)

== History ==
[[File:Harlem, from the old fort in the Central Park (NYPL b13512822-424264).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|''Harlem, from the old fort in the Central Park'', New York Public Library]]
[[File:Three Harlem Women, ca. 1925.png|thumb|upright=0.9|Three Harlem Women, ca. 1930]]
{{Main|History of Harlem}}

Before the arrival of European settlers, the area that would become Harlem (originally Haarlem) was inhabited by a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] [[Tribe (Native American)|band]], the ''[[Wecquaesgeek]]'', dubbed ''Manhattans'' or ''[[Manhattoe]]'' by Dutch settlers, who along with other Native Americans, most likely [[Lenape]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Epic of New York City |author=Ellis, Edward Robb |publisher=Old Town Books |year=1966 |page=52}}</ref> occupied the area on a semi-nomadic basis. As many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands.<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|2011|p=6}}</ref> Between 1637 and 1639, a few colonial settlements were established.<ref>{{citation |last=Riker |first=James |title=Harlem: Its Origins and Early Annals |place=Elizabeth, New Jersey |publisher=New Harlem Publishing Company |year=1904 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uAAmEO_WshUC&q=Harlem:+Its+Origins+and+Early+Annals |access-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-date=October 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027210519/https://books.google.com/books?id=uAAmEO_WshUC&q=Harlem:+Its+Origins+and+Early+Annals#v=snippet&q=Harlem%3A%20Its%20Origins%20and%20Early%20Annals&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Harlem in the Old Times |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 11, 1880 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1880/01/11/98876947.pdf |access-date=December 30, 2012 |archive-date=November 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105031649/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1880/01/11/98876947.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The settlement of Harlem was formally incorporated in 1660<ref name="Gill 2011 33"/> under the leadership of [[Peter Stuyvesant]].<ref name="ng1977">"To Live In Harlem", Frank Hercules, ''National Geographic'', February 1977, p. 178-</ref>

During the [[American Revolution]], the British burned Harlem to the ground.<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|2011|p=61}}</ref> It took a long time to rebuild, as Harlem grew more slowly than the rest of Manhattan during the late 18th century.<ref>"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> After the [[American Civil War]], Harlem experienced an economic boom starting in 1868. The neighborhood continued to serve as a refuge for New Yorkers, but increasingly those coming north were poor and Jewish or Italian.<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|2011|pp=100 & 109}}</ref> The [[New York and Harlem Railroad]],<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|2011|p=86}}</ref> as well as the [[Interborough Rapid Transit]] and [[elevated railway]] lines,<ref>"The Growth and Decline of Harlem's Housing", Thorin Tritter, ''Afro-Americans in New York Life and History'', January 31, 1998</ref> helped Harlem's economic growth, as they connected Harlem to lower and midtown Manhattan.

[[File:Harlem 135 street buildings.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|Apartment building in Central Harlem]]
[[File:Harlem condemned building.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|A condemned building in Harlem after the 1970s]]

The Jewish and Italian demographic decreased, while the black and Puerto Rican population increased in this time.<ref>{{harvnb|Gill|2011|pp=175 & 210}}</ref> The early-20th century [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of black people to northern industrial cities was fueled by their desire to leave behind the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] South, seek better jobs and education for their children, and escape a culture of [[lynching]] violence; during [[World War I]], expanding industries recruited black laborers to fill new jobs, thinly staffed after the draft began to take young men.<ref name="sg1925">[http://etext.virginia.edu/harlem/JohMakiF.html "The Making of Harlem"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615081628/http://etext.virginia.edu/harlem/JohMakiF.html |date=June 15, 2006}}, James Weldon Johnson, The Survey Graphic, March 1925</ref> In 1910, Central Harlem population was about 10% black people. By 1930, it had reached 70%.<ref>[http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/demographics/20080827/5/2635 Gotham Gazette, 2008] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117064019/http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/demographics/20080827/5/2635 |date=January 17, 2012}}</ref>

Starting around the time of the end of World War I, Harlem became associated with the [[New Negro]] movement, and then the artistic outpouring known as the [[Harlem Renaissance]], which extended to poetry, novels, theater, and the visual arts. So many black people 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 settled in Harlem. By 1920, central Harlem was 32.43% black. The 1930 census revealed that 70.18% of central Harlem's residents were black and lived as far south as [[Central Park]], at 110th Street.<ref name="gothamgazette.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20080827/255/2635 |title=Harlem's Shifting Population |date=August 27, 2008 |work=Gotham Gazette |publisher=The Citizens Union Foundation |access-date=June 9, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212141227/http://gothamgazette.com/article//20080827/255/2635 |archive-date=February 12, 2010}}</ref>

However, by the 1930s, the neighborhood was hit hard by job losses in the [[Great Depression]]. In the early 1930s, 25% of Harlemites were out of work, and employment prospects for Harlemites stayed poor for decades. 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. Major industries left New York City altogether, especially after 1950. Several riots happened in this period, including in [[1935 Harlem riot|1935]] and [[Harlem riot of 1943|1943]].

There were major changes following [[World War II]]. 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 existing rent control regulations.<ref>{{harvnb|Killens|Halstead|1966|p=27}}</ref>

The largest public works projects in Harlem in these years were public housing, with the largest concentration built in East Harlem.<ref>[http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/112103.htm "A Landmark Struggle"], Lisa Davis, ''Preservation Online'', November 21, 2003 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080204130305/http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arch_story/112103.htm |date=February 4, 2008}}</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">[http://www.east-harlem.com/cb11_197A_history.htm East Harlem's History] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904040230/http://www.east-harlem.com/cb11_197A_history.htm |date=September 4, 2019 }}, New Directions: A 197-A Plan for Manhattan Community district 11 (Revised 1999)</ref>

From the mid-20th century, the low quality of [[education in Harlem]] has been a source of distress. In the 1960s, about 75% of Harlem students tested under grade levels in reading skills, and 80% tested under grade level in math.<ref>Pinkney & Woock, ''Poverty and Politics in Harlem'' (1970), p. 33.</ref> In 1964, residents of Harlem staged two school boycotts to call attention to the problem. In central Harlem, 92% of students stayed home.<ref>{{harvnb|Killens|Halstead|1966|p=104}}</ref> In the post-World War II era, Harlem ceased to be home to a majority of the city's black people,<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. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30280-2005Mar12?language=printer "Harlem's New Rush: Booming Real Estate"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050410163113/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30280-2005Mar12?language=printer |date=April 10, 2005}}, ''[[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. [https://web.archive.org/web/20050420171049/http://www.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>

By the 1970s, many of those Harlemites who were able to escape from poverty left the neighborhood in search of better schools and homes, and safer streets. Those who remained were the poorest and least skilled, with the fewest opportunities for success. Though the federal government's [[Model Cities Program]] spent $100&nbsp;million on job training, health care, education, public safety, sanitation, housing, and other projects over a ten-year period, Harlem showed no improvement.<ref>"Harlem's Dreams Have Died in Last Decade, Leaders Say", ''The New York Times'', March 1, 1978, p. A1.</ref> The city began auctioning its enormous portfolio of Harlem properties to the public in 1985. This 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>Stern, Fishman & Tilove, ''New York 2000'' (2006), p. 1016</ref>

After the 1990s, Harlem began to grow again. Between 1990 and 2006 the neighborhood's population grew by 16.9%, with the percentage of black people decreasing from 87.6% to 69.3%,<ref name="gothamgazette.com"/> then dropping to 54.4% by 2010,<ref name="dailyNews201012">[http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-12-26/local/27085558_1_whites-million-dollar-homes-black-harlem-residents "Census trends: Young, white Harlem newcomers aren't always welcomed"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622022201/http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-12-26/local/27085558_1_whites-million-dollar-homes-black-harlem-residents |date=June 22, 2012 }}, ''New York Daily News'', December 26, 2010</ref> and the percentage of whites increasing from 1.5% to 6.6% by 2006,<ref name="gothamgazette.com"/> and to "almost 10%" by 2010.<ref name="dailyNews201012"/> A renovation of 125th Street and new properties along the thoroughfare<ref>Stern, Fishman & Tilove, ''New York 2000'' (2006), p. 1013.</ref><ref>[http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2001/aug/05/newyork.unitedstates.observerescapesection "New boy in the 'hood'{{-"}}], ''The Observer'', August 5, 2001 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070227142720/http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2001/aug/05/newyork.unitedstates.observerescapesection |date=February 27, 2007}}</ref> also helped to revitalize Harlem.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040912110224/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>