Misplaced Pages

#659340

172-736: Louis Everett Burnham was born in Harlem , in New York City , although some sources have him born in Barbados . His parents were Charles Breechford Burnham and Louise St. Clair Williams Burnham, immigrants from Barbados. Louis was a cousin of future Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham . He grew up in a household with a strong racial consciousness, as his mother was a follower of the black nationalist and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey , and owned stock in Garvey's Black Star Line . She worked as

344-481: A Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem's history has been defined by a series of economic boom-and-bust cycles, with significant population shifts accompanying each cycle. Harlem was predominantly occupied by Jewish and Italian Americans in the late 19th century, while African-American residents began to arrive in large numbers during

516-796: A Jamaican poet, and Otto Huiswoud , born in Suriname , persuaded the Comintern to set up a multinational Negro Commission that sought to unite all movements of blacks fighting colonialism. Harry Haywood , an American communist drawn out of the ranks of the ABB, also played a leading role. McKay persuaded the founders of the Brotherhood to affiliate with the Communist Party in the early 1920s. The African Blood Brotherhood claimed to have almost 3,500 members; relatively few of them, however, joined

688-458: A Paul Robeson project, the monthly newspaper Freedom , as its managing editor. He was responsible for getting the monthly started. According to Burnham's wife Dorothy, Burnham's intent was to publicize "the story of the people who were active in the movement and who were being persecuted during the McCarthy period.". The newspaper ran monthly from November 1950 through August 1955, although it

860-665: A Black literary and political quarterly. Burnam and Strong worked for "two or three years" on this project. Burnham was to be the editor. But he had a heart attack and died on February 12, 1960, while he was giving a lecture on "Emerging Africa and the Negro People's Fight for Freedom" to young artists and writers for Negro History Week , at the Intercultural Society in midtown Manhattan in New York City. In this final speech, he said, "I know you get tired of

1032-718: A Black organization than one from a predominantly white one. SNYC encouraged the black Communist couples among its members, the Burnhams among them, to consider the politics of personal life, thereby anticipating a later feminism's " the personal is political ." In response, Burnham and other SNYC men shared household chores and child-rearing. In October 1941, Burnham became co-editor of the SNYC magazine Cavalcade: The March of Southern Negro Youth , with its original editor, Augusta Jackson, later Augusta Strong after her marriage to one of SNYC'S founders, Edward Strong. The October issue reversed

1204-567: A SNYC flyer promoting the event, challenging the descriptions of the conditions that Blacks faced there: "Young Southerners oppressed and beaten... Young Southerners burned and hung... Young Southerners suffering the daily injustices of Klansmen's law." Connor, himself a Klan supporter, denied the presence of the Klan in Birmingham to Burnham, but threatened its arrival if the convention proceeded. Connor threatened Burnham personally: "Why, you’re

1376-919: A caravan through Alabama, occasionally seeing close up the violence with which the crowd targeted the candidate. Burnham could influence Wallace's views, as shown by Burnham's objection to a Wallace speech in Decatur, Alabama . Wallace had spoken approvingly of some Alabama favorites: the Bankhead family ( William and Tallulah ), the TVA , the University of Alabama football team ; but without mentioning either Alabama's famous Black agricultural scientist George Washington Carver , or impoverished rural conditions. Wallace accepted Burnham's criticism. (Also in 1948, in reaction to President Truman's efforts on behalf of Black Americans, Southern segregationists temporarily left

1548-562: A chapel on 128th Street in 2005. Many of the area's churches are " storefront churches ", which operate in an empty store, or a basement, or a converted brownstone townhouse. These congregations may have fewer than 30–50 members each, but there are hundreds of them. Others are old, large, and designated landmarks. Especially in the years before World War II, Harlem produced popular Christian charismatic "cult" leaders, including George Wilson Becton and Father Divine . Mosques in Harlem include

1720-400: A circular letter "to the great numbers of people whose love and respect he had well earned." The National Guardian, which had published Burnham's last column on February 15, 1960, as "Not New Ground, But Rights Once Dearly Won," reprinted it a year after his death, as "Louis E. Burnham's last written work: The cry is still how long, O Lord, how long?" This reprint concluded with a note concerning

1892-595: A hairdresser, and ran a rotating credit association , a system known as "partners," or "partnerhand" in the Caribbean, during the interwar period . She raised Louis in a brownstone at 253 West 139th Street on Harlem's Strivers' Row that she bought with her savings. His father worked as a building superintendent. Both parents were churchgoers. Burnham's daughter recalled growing up with her parents and grandparents as being in "a close family." In 1932, Burnham graduated from Townsend High School . By his college years, he

SECTION 10

#1732801890660

2064-529: A letter from the activist James E. Jackson , a brief history of Black people in the United States, a penultimate section on both the progress and the oppression that Black people are in the midst of, and a brief interview by Orson Welles with the grieving parents of a Black World War II hero. The back page includes an exhortation to join and contribute to SNYC: You cannot afford to sit this one out. In urban centers, rural areas and on college campuses,

2236-776: A memorial for an aviator, a former newsman, killed in the Spanish Civil War . Although he is listed in these news articles as a member of the class of 1937, he spoke on campus on April 16, 1940, in support of an anti-lynching bill. Burnham organized the first chapters of the ASU and the Harlem Youth Congress. Burnham was the Youth Secretary of the National Negro Congress , an umbrella organization of civic, labor and religious groups. As

2408-692: A mixed record. The Transport Workers Union of America , which denounced segregation but took only halting efforts to oppose it during its early years, formed coalitions with Adam Clayton Powell Jr. , the NAACP and the Negro National Congress in the early 1940s to eliminate occupational segregation and to require ambitious affirmative action goals in New York City public transit. The TWU also fought against employment discrimination in public transit in Philadelphia in 1944, during which time

2580-417: A nearby camp... He may talk to the soldiers... In all of this he finds himself drawn closer to the war effort, he finds added stimulation for the purchase of war stamps and bonds.” Burnham said that Black youth who weren't in the military, by buying war stamps and bonds , “unusual sacrifices and small acts of self-denial,” could participate in the war effort. In 1944, Burnham was the provisional secretary of

2752-551: A number of distinguished southern representatives of the professions and labor as a founding board member of the Southern Conference Educational Fund . Burnham got into trouble with the authorities in Birmingham, where the police commissioner was "Bull" Connor , who became internationally notorious in 1963 for turning dogs and fire hoses on Black children protesting racial segregation . In one incident, Connor arrested Burnham for sitting down with

2924-563: A photograph where he addresses a right to vote rally in New Orleans, in 1943. A sample of SNYC's aims and projects can be found in Burnham's organizational report at the 1942 Atlanta joint meeting of SNYC's Advisory Board and National Council. The proposals were: All the proposals in Burnham's report passed. As a result of SNYC's efforts during this period, Birmingham opened their first municipal swimming pool for Blacks, which of course

3096-550: A segregated hotel along with Virginia Foster Durr , Mary McLeod Bethune , Jim Dombrowski, Charles S. Johnson and Eleanor Roosevelt ; at the hotel, Burnham evaded segregationist strictures by putting a towel around his head and telling the hotel staff that he was from India. Among other efforts, the Alabama Committee for Human Welfare worked on the case of Recy Taylor , who had been kidnapped and raped by white men. In another example of his activities, in 1947 he joined

3268-581: A sign of its new approach, the CPUSA folded up the League of Struggle for Negro Rights and joined with other non-communist groups to create a new organization, the National Negro Congress . A. Philip Randolph , a longtime member of the Socialist Party, served as its head. The NNC functioned as an umbrella organization, bringing together black fraternal, church and civic groups. It supported the efforts of

3440-411: A start at the school. By the 2010s, new dining hotspots were opening in Harlem around Frederick Douglass Boulevard. At the same time, some residents fought back against the powerful waves of gentrification the neighborhood is experiencing. In 2013, residents staged a sidewalk sit-in to protest a five-days-a-week farmers market that would shut down Macombs Place at 150th Street. Uptown Night Market

3612-578: A student, he had also been Vice President of the student council. His prominence in these various organizations was due to both his congeniality and his magnetism as a speaker on racial injustice, the danger of fascism to world peace, and the problems of American young people and the many unemployed during the Great Depression . Following graduation, Burnham took a year of law school at St. John's University School of Law in Queens, New York . In

SECTION 20

#1732801890660

3784-455: A white colleague in a racially segregated, Blacks-only restaurant. In 1947, Burnham was part of a SNYC delegation to Washington, D.C. that met with U. S. Senator Glen Taylor . Senator Taylor later joined SNYC's 1948 annual convention, where he skirmished with police over entering through the "Blacks only" entrance. In 1948, as SNYC prepared for that convention, Birmingham police escorted Burnham to Connor's office. Connor read to Burnham from

3956-599: A white man. But during this period, SNYC lost the support of the Black community and organized labor, due to political repression. The Burnhams remained in Birmingham until the SNYC office closed in 1949. The Burnhams had two daughters in Birmingham: Claudia in 1943 and Margaret in 1944. Another, Linda , was born in Brooklyn in 1948. She lived with them in Birmingham until they all moved back to New York City

4128-417: A youth arrested for shoplifting had been killed by the police, Communist Party activists joined with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and NAACP leader Walter White to try to avert further violence. On the other hand, the party continued to emphasize issues pertaining to black workers. It also denounced lynching and similar violent acts directed at blacks. Communists joined with labor and civil rights groups to form

4300-772: Is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan , New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harlem area encompasses several other neighborhoods and extends west and north to 155th Street, east to the East River , and south to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard , Central Park , and East 96th Street . Originally

4472-501: Is also the birthplace of popular hip-hop dances such as the Harlem shake , toe wop, and Chicken Noodle Soup . Harlem's classical music birthed organizations and chamber ensembles such as Roberta Guaspari 's Opus 118, Harlem Chamber Players, Omnipresent Music Festival BIPOC Musicians Festival , Harlem Quartet , and musicians such as violinist Edward W. Hardy . In the 1920s, African-American pianists who lived in Harlem invented their own style of jazz piano, called stride , which

4644-613: Is bounded by Cathedral Parkway/110th Street on the south; 155th Street on the north; Manhattan/Morningside Ave/St. Nicholas/Bradhurst/Edgecombe Avenues on the east; and Riverside Park/the Hudson River on the west. Manhattanville begins at roughly 123rd Street and extends northward to 135th Street. The northernmost section of West Harlem is Hamilton Heights. A chain of large linear parks includes West Harlem Piers , Riverbank State Park , St. Nicholas Park, and Jackie Robinson Park. East Harlem , also called Spanish Harlem or El Barrio ,

4816-461: Is home to over 400 churches, some of which are official city or national landmarks. Major Christian denominations include Baptists , Pentecostals, Methodists (generally African Methodist Episcopal Zionist , or "AMEZ" and African Methodist Episcopalian , or "AME"), Episcopalians , and Roman Catholic . The Abyssinian Baptist Church has long been influential because of its large congregation. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built

4988-494: Is located in Upper Manhattan . The three neighborhoods comprising the greater Harlem area—West, Central, and East Harlem—stretch from the Harlem River and East River to the east, to the Hudson River to the west; and between 155th Street in the north, where it meets Washington Heights , and an uneven boundary along the south that runs along 96th Street east of Fifth Avenue , 110th Street between Fifth Avenue to Morningside Park , and 125th Street west of Morningside Park to

5160-544: Is located within Manhattan Community District 11, which is bounded by East 96th Street on the south, East 138th Street on the north, Fifth Avenue on the west, and the Harlem River on the east. A chain of parks includes Thomas Jefferson Park and Marcus Garvey Park. In the 2010s some real estate professionals started rebranding south Harlem as "SoHa" (a name standing for "South Harlem" in

5332-497: Is now predominantly Hispanic / Latino, with a significant African-American presence. Communist Party USA and African Americans The Communist Party USA , ideologically committed to foster a socialist revolution in the United States, played a significant role in defending the civil rights of African Americans during its most influential years of the 1930s and 1940s. In that period, the African-American population

Louis E. Burnham - Misplaced Pages Continue

5504-711: Is one of the shameful consequences of the Cold War that the American most honored abroad is most cruelly persecuted at home." And he prepared a collection of Robeson's songs and messages, for peace conferences in Europe, Asia and Africa. The writer that Burnham hired who became the best known of Freedom's staff was Lorraine Hansberry , who eight years later won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. He hired her in 1951 when she

5676-830: Is served by the New York City Subway and local bus routes. It contains several public elementary, middle, and high schools, and is close to several colleges, including Columbia University , Manhattan School of Music , and the City College of New York . Central Harlem is part of Manhattan Community District 10 . It is patrolled by the 28th and 32nd Precincts of the New York City Police Department . The greater Harlem area also includes Manhattan Community Districts 9 and 11 and several police precincts, while fire services are provided by four New York City Fire Department companies. Harlem

5848-466: The 101st Airborne Division : "Burnham spent a lot of time speaking to people on lunch hours, on the job at the factories there. Talking to the Negro youth there and observing people on the street, sitting in barbershops he got reaction." Apparently skeptical of the likelihood of immediate racial progress, Burnham reportedly told Jackson that "there is an unprecedented, an almost swagger, of new confidence on

6020-527: The CIO to organize in the steel, automobile, tobacco and meat packinghouse industries. The NAACP kept its distance from the NNC, whose leaders accused the organization of ignoring the interests of working-class blacks. As part of its new platform that " Communism is twentieth century Americanism ", it campaigned for the end of racial discrimination. When black residents of Harlem rioted in 1935 after false reports that

6192-594: The Democratic Party and formed the Dixiecrats ; their presidential candidate, Senator Strom Thurmond , won four southern states, an indication of hardening racist sentiment across the South.) The same year Burnham promoted a campaign for federal investigation into the murder of a resident of Akron, Ohio , Samuel Bacon, arrested and killed by a Mississippi Town Marshal for refusing to give up his bus seat to

6364-603: The Great Migration in the early 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the center of the Harlem Renaissance , a major African-American cultural movement. With job losses during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the deindustrialization of New York City after World War II , rates of crime and poverty increased significantly. In the 21st century, crime rates decreased significantly, and Harlem started to gentrify . The area

6536-479: The Interborough Rapid Transit and elevated railway lines, helped Harlem's economic growth, as they connected Harlem to lower and midtown Manhattan. The Jewish and Italian demographic decreased, while the black and Puerto Rican population increased in this time. The early-20th century Great Migration of black people to northern industrial cities was fueled by their desire to leave behind

6708-500: The 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. In 1910, Central Harlem population was about 10% black people. By 1930, it had reached 70%. Starting around the time of the end of World War I, Harlem became associated with

6880-663: The Masjid Malcolm Shabazz (formerly Mosque No. 7 Nation of Islam , and the location of the 1972 Harlem mosque incident ), the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood and Masjid Aqsa. Judaism, too, maintains a presence in Harlem through the Old Broadway Synagogue . A non-mainstream synagogue of Black Hebrews , known as Commandment Keepers , was based in a synagogue at 1 West 123rd Street until 2008. Many places in Harlem are official city landmarks labeled by

7052-578: 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." 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. However, by

Louis E. Burnham - Misplaced Pages Continue

7224-617: The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission or are listed on the National Register of Historic Places : Other prominent points of interest include: The demographics of Harlem's communities have changed throughout its history. In 1910, black residents formed 10% of Harlem's population, but by 1930, they had become a 70% majority. The period between 1910 and 1930 was marked by the Great Migration of African Americans from

7396-675: The Progressive Party was a vehicle for the unsuccessful Presidential campaign of 1941–1945 Vice President Henry A. Wallace . Burnham co-directed Wallace's southern effort along with Palmer Weber . Burnham appears briefly in Carl Marzani's promotional film of the party's organizing convention in Philadelphia, where he is identified as the Vice Chairman for Alabama. Burnham traveled with Wallace's small entourage on

7568-462: The Section 8 housing that was being placed, many were not able to live there and had to find homes elsewhere or become homeless. These policies are examples of societal racism , also known as structural racism. As public health leaders have named structural racism as a key social determinant of health disparities between racial and ethnic minorities, these 20th century policies have contributed to

7740-514: The Socialist Party of America ; those workers, many of whom were not fluent English-speakers, often had little contact with black Americans or competed with them for jobs and housing. The Socialist Party had not attracted many African-American members during the years before the split when the Communist Party was founded. While its most prominent leaders, including Eugene V. Debs , were committed opponents of racial segregation , many in

7912-472: The Southern Conference for Human Welfare , which campaigned for civil rights and socialism. A New York City school teacher and party member, Abel Meeropol , wrote the song " Strange Fruit " to dramatize the horrors of lynching in the South, which had reached a peak around the turn of the century. The party tailored its campaign for unity against fascism to appeal to the black community, as in

8084-594: The Southern United States . The ILD also demanded retribution from state governments for the families of lynching victims, for their failure to protect blacks. It pushed for due process for criminal defendants. For a period of time in the early and mid-1930s, the ILD was the most active defender of blacks' civil rights in the South; it was the most popular party organization among African Americans. The League of Struggle for Negro Rights , founded in 1930 as

8256-597: The Steel Workers Organizing Committee , in which the CPUSA had a role, but not leadership. The party did not, however, make any consistent progress in recruiting black members through its union organizing efforts. In the SWOC, for example, the Party's organizers suppressed their identity as communists and much of their politics in order to avoid political differences with Philip Murray , who headed

8428-559: The United Nations ambassador from the People's Republic of China , in the second issue, highlighted another focus of Burnham's in the pages of Freedom , the international anti-colonial struggle. He wrote: [emphasis in original] " the colored people everywhere are conducting their struggles for full human equality. " Burnham also assisted Robeson more directly, in support of Robeson's effort to get his passport restored, writing: "It

8600-647: The United Nations in 1949 that condemned the treatment of black citizens in the United States. Patterson was convicted a year later of violating the Smith Act ; in 1954 the Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. declared the CRC to be a subversive organization. The CRC received especially hostile attention from state authorities in the South, where it and related organizations were often raided or banned. The CRC dissolved in 1956, just as

8772-530: The West Indies , who viewed a black worker struggle as being part of the broader campaigns against capitalism and imperialism . The party's first significant move to attract black support was its outreach to Cyril Briggs , founder of both the ABB and the magazine The Crusader . The party had begun to promote The Crusader from early 1921. At the 1922 Fourth Congress of the Comintern , Claude McKay ,

SECTION 50

#1732801890660

8944-582: The redlining policy. This policy rated neighborhoods, such as Central Harlem, as unappealing based on the race, ethnicity, and national origins of the residents. Central Harlem was deemed 'hazardous' and residents living in Central Harlem were refused home loans or other investments. Comparably, wealthy and white residents in New York City neighborhoods were approved more often for housing loans and investment applications. Overall, they were given preferential treatment by city and state institutions. In

9116-524: The "biggest interracial gathering in the history of South Carolina." With World War II having just concluded, the word "war" was often used in speeches, such as Burnham's, urging the attendees to "make war on white supremacy vandals who seek to turn the clock back on progress." Also in 1946, American Youth for Democracy published Burnham's pamphlet, Smash the Chains . It includes a number of anecdotes of instances of discrimination against Southern Black men,

9288-495: The 109,091 counted in 2000 . Covering an area of 926.05 acres (374.76 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 128.1 inhabitants per acre (82,000/sq mi; 31,700/km ). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 9.5% (11,322) White , 63% (74,735) African American , 0.3% (367) Native American , 2.4% (2,839) Asian , 0% (46) Pacific Islander , 0.3% (372) from other races , and 2.2% (2,651) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 22.2% (26,333) of

9460-579: 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 and 1943 . There were major changes following World War II . In

9632-531: The 1950s. In the United Auto Workers , in which the CPUSA once vied for leadership, both the party and its opponents led by Walter Reuther campaigned for the demands of black workers and against "hate strikes" and race riots led by white workers opposed to working with African-Americans, but disagreed as to how the union should respond. Party activists and organizers also played a significant role in organizing black workers in other unions, such as

9804-484: The 1960s, uneducated black people could find jobs more easily than educated ones could, confounding efforts to improve the lives of people who lived in the neighborhood through education. Land owners took advantage of the neighborhood and offered apartments to the lower-class families for cheaper rent but in lower-class conditions. By 1999 there were 179,000 housing units available in Harlem. Housing activists in Harlem state that, even after residents were given vouchers for

9976-465: The American party's leading faction, led by C. E. Ruthenberg , who wrote to the Comintern to argue that they were unhelpful in the United States. He also claimed that the ABB was fomenting scabbing by encouraging blacks to leave the South , and the party's central committee passed a resolution stipulating that neither Briggs nor Huiswold should be involved in the party's work on race issues. However, there

10148-421: The Association of Young Writers and Artists (AYWA), which was affiliated with SNYC. This organization's aim was to involve Black youth in the various fields of the arts, both as individuals and in groups. It hoped to bring their work to the general public; and strengthen the understanding of the relationship between culture, and events and trends in society. Burnham offered a $ 10 cash award, as well AYWA medals, for

10320-421: The Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene Bull Conner, and his officers to deprive our organization of the right to free assemblage in holding our biennial meeting scheduled to open today... [T]he constituted authority of Birmingham offers us no protection." The telegram was unavailing. Despite Clark's other efforts on behalf of civil rights for Black people, there was no help from Washington. That year,

10492-409: The Black population's decrease by 11% (9,544). While the growth of the Hispanic / Latino was predominantly in Central Harlem North, the decrease in the Black population was slightly greater in Central Harlem South, and the drastic increase in the White population was split evenly across the two census tabulation areas. Meanwhile, the Asian population grew by 211% (1,927) but remained a small minority, and

SECTION 60

#1732801890660

10664-570: The CIO and much of the U.S. labor movement, many CPUSA leaders began to view their work among the white working class as a failure and the black working class as the "vanguard of the revolution". In 1954, the CPUSA dropped support for self-determination. The Party directed those unions with CPUSA leadership to take a stance against continued use of seniority systems in those workplaces in which seniority made it more difficult for black workers to break out of segregated job classifications. It advocated "superseniority" for black workers, an early version of

10836-435: The CPUSA still demanded that defense contractors integrate and took steps to combat "hate strikes" and white-led race riots in Detroit . In 1946, the NNC and the ILD merged to form the Civil Rights Congress. The CRC continued its activities during the height of postwar attacks on the Communist Party, denouncing discrimination in the judicial system, segregated housing, and other forms of discrimination that blacks faced in both

11008-457: The Carolinas through central Georgia , Alabama , the delta regions of Mississippi and Louisiana and the coastal areas of Texas . The party leadership was deeply divided into rival factions, with each eager to show its fealty to the Comintern's understanding of conditions in the United States. It promoted the nationalist policy. Other left organizations ridiculed this policy, and it did not receive wide support from African Americans, either in

11180-412: The Chicago area where it was initially headquartered, carrying out solidarity work for a strike by black female garment workers, and organizing the Negro Tenants Protective League in the city in order to stage rent strikes against exploitative landlords. The party subsequently created the American Negro Labor Congress (ANLC) in 1925. That organization was also a failure: although the black press greeted

11352-538: The Comintern held in 1928 changed the party's policy drastically; it adopted theses proposed by Haywood and Charles Nasanov, who claimed that blacks in the United States were a separate national group and that black farmers in the South were an incipient revolutionary force, due to their being oppressed by economic underdevelopment and segregation. Despite this theory dividing the American party, including African American communists – notable opponents included Haywood's brother, Otto Hall, who felt it ignored class differences in

11524-452: The Communist Party; others went to the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), a socialist group with a large number of Jamaican émigrés in its leadership, whose political philosophy was essentially Marxist in nature. The Communist Party at first repeated the economic position of the Socialist Party. Committed from the outset to bringing about world revolution, the party sympathized with anti- colonial and national liberation movements around

11696-405: The Executive Secretary of the organization—Why, that ain’t no job, you should be working in the mills or the mines. I ought to lock you up for vagrancy." The next day, Birmingham police murdered a teenage SNYC member. Burnham's April 30 telegram to President Truman's Attorney General (and later Supreme Court Justice) Tom Clark framed the matter clearly: "Every type of intimidation is being used by

11868-550: The Harlem Youth Congress. Burnham studied social science at CCNY, having matriculated in 1932. As a college student, he became interested in the civil rights movement . He helped organize the American Student Union (ASU), a mostly white youth organization, and was president of the Frederick Douglass Society, the Black student organization. During Burnham's leadership of the Frederick Douglass Society, pressure from that organization pushed CCNY to create its first course in African-American history , whose instructor, Dr. Max Yergan ,

12040-408: The Hudson River. Encyclopædia Britannica references these boundaries, though the Encyclopedia of New York City takes a much more conservative view of Harlem's boundaries, regarding only central Harlem as part of Harlem proper. Central Harlem is the name of Harlem proper; it falls under Manhattan Community District 10. This section is bounded by Fifth Avenue on the east; Central Park on

12212-494: The NAACP, who joined the CPUSA in 1961. Other youth organizations, such as the Che-Lumumba Club in Los Angeles, flourished for a time, then disappeared. The parties’ fortunes appeared to revive for a while in the late 1960s, when party members such as Angela Davis became associated with the most militant wing of the Black Power movement . The party did not, however, reap any long-term benefits from this brief period of renewed exposure: it did not establish any lasting relations with

12384-496: The Navy Frank Knox and Attorney General Francis Biddle , as well as a half dozen other officials. The meetings were designed to advance proposals to integrate southern Black youth into the war effort. The visit typified SNYC's ongoing activism during the war on behalf of desegregation of the military, defense industry jobs for Black workers, and elimination of the poll tax in support of Black voters. Burnham appears in

12556-549: The North and the South. The party had hopes of remaining in the mainstream of American politics in the postwar era. Benjamin J. Davis Jr. ran for and won a seat on the City Council in New York City in 1945, advertising his membership in the Communist Party and drawing on both black and white support. That era did not last. New York City changed the rules for electing members of the City Council after Davis' election. Davis lost

12728-424: The North on their local issues; it was, for example, either the first or one of the most active organizations in campaigning against evictions of tenants, for unemployment benefits, and against police brutality. In Chicago, they formed neighborhood Unemployed Councils. These were leaders against evictions, so that it was not uncommon for a mother receiving an eviction notice to call to her children, "Run quick and find

12900-454: The Party had a more complex relationship with Marcus Garvey 's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA); while the party approved of Garvey's fostering of "race consciousness", it was strongly opposed to his support for a separate black nation. When the party made efforts to recruit members from the UNIA, Garvey expelled the party members and sympathizers in its ranks. The 6th Congress of

13072-718: The Party's support for "godless communism" and the Soviet Union to drive a wedge between the strike leadership and white workers. The Party made more progress in organizing African-American workers in the New Deal era, particularly through unions associated with it, such as Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union , which organized black miners in Alabama, the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee , which created interracial coalitions in

13244-568: The Popular Front era the party attracted support from a number of the brightest lights in African-American literature, including Langston Hughes , Richard Wright , Ralph Ellison , Chester Himes , some of whom joined the party, only to break with it in later years. Paul Robeson , a vocal defender of the Soviet Union , apparently never joined the party, but was loyal to at least a few of its members including Benjamin J. Davis Jr. who

13416-754: The Prohibition era, and was dubbed "Jungle Alley" because of "inter-racial mingling" on the street. Some jazz venues, including the Cotton Club , where Duke Ellington played, and Connie's Inn , were restricted to whites only. Others were integrated, including the Renaissance Ballroom and the Savoy Ballroom. In 1936, Orson Welles produced his black Macbeth at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem. Grand theaters from

13588-457: The Reds!" In other instances during this period, the Communist Party joined in existing campaigns, such as the economic boycott, under the slogan of "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work," launched against Jewish and Italian businesses in Harlem that refused to hire African-American workers. The party's relations with other groups in the black community was volatile during this period. At the outset of

13760-617: The Scottsboro Boys' legal defense. (Burnham had ideological commitments equal to Communism's Marxism and Leninism . He was as much influenced by Mahatma Gandhi , W. E. B. Du Bois , and the international anti-colonial struggle, for instance suggesting in 1944 the formation of a Black political party of "Non-Violence and Non-Cooperation.") In 1939, Burnham joined the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), becoming its organizational secretary in 1941. In

13932-488: The Socialist Party were often lukewarm on the issue of racism . They considered discrimination against black workers to be an extreme form of capitalist worker exploitation. In addition, the party's allegiance with unions that discriminated against minority workers compromised its willingness to attack racism directly; it did not seek out African-American members, nor did it hold recruitment drives where they lived. Some African Americans disaffected by Socialist attitudes joined

14104-481: The South continued during and after World War II, with many going to West Coast cities, where the defense industry had expanded dramatically and offered jobs. When the Communist Party USA was founded in the United States, it had almost no black members. The Communist Party had attracted most of its members from European immigrants and the various foreign language federations formerly associated with

14276-425: The South to northern cities, including New York. Within the city, this era also witnessed an influx of black residents from downtown Manhattan neighborhoods, where black people were feeling less welcome, to the Harlem area. The black population in Harlem peaked in 1950, with a 98% share of the population of 233,000. As of 2000, central Harlem's black residents comprised 77% of the total population of that area; however,

14448-593: The South was its defense, through the International Labor Defense (ILD), of the " Scottsboro Boys ", nine black men arrested in 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama after a fight with some white men also riding the rails. They were convicted and sentenced to death for allegedly raping two white women on the same train. None of the defendants had shared the same boxcar as either of the women they were charged with raping. The International Labor Defense

14620-641: The South. The CPUSA made a point of campaigning against racial segregation, both in the independent unions they were organizing during the Third Period and in the American Federation of Labor unions they were attacking. The party also made a concerted effort to weed out all forms of racism within its own membership, conducting a well-publicized trial of a Finnish member of a foreign-language federation in Harlem, who had acted insensitively toward blacks. The CPUSA organized among African Americans in

14792-734: The Third Period, the rigid communist orthodoxy dictated by the Comintern required the party to attack other, more moderate organizations which also opposed racial discrimination. During the late 1920s, the CPUSA denounced the NAACP and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters as "class enemies" or " class collaborators ". Although local leaders worked to modify this hard line in practice, factional infighting and changes dictated from abroad often undid what progress had been made, both in practical work and in relations with other groups. For example,

14964-634: The ages of 0–17, while 35% are between 25 and 44, and 24% between 45 and 64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 10% and 11% respectively. As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 10 was $ 49,059. In 2018, an estimated 21% of Community District 10 residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. Around 12% of residents were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or

15136-531: The associate editor for civil rights and national liberties. He reported from the South, Little Rock , Chicago, Detroit and Harlem, and wrote interpretive pieces upon his return from these forays. A friend of Burnham's from SNYC days, and later Brooklyn neighbor, James E. Jackson , reportedly described Burnham's method of gathering material in Little Rock in 1958, the year after nine Black students were escorted into segregated Little Rock Central High School by

15308-415: The best contributions interpreting Howard Fast's novel of the U.S. Reconstruction era , Freedom Road , in such disparate media as poetry, drama and sculpture, among others. In 1945, a Black man from Laurel, Mississippi , Willie McGee , was tried, convicted, and condemned to death by an all-white jury, on dubious rape charges. The attorney in charge of his appeal contacted Burnham. Almost two weeks after

15480-416: The black community and was not appropriate for American conditions, and James W. Ford , who believed that the theoretical debate about whether blacks constituted a distinct nation was a distraction from building black membership – the Comintern ordered the party to press the demand for a separate nation for blacks within a swath of counties with a majority-black population extending from eastern Virginia and

15652-432: The black population has recently declined as many African Americans move out and more immigrants move in. As of 2021, central Harlem's Black residents numbered 56,668, comprising 44% of the total population. In that regard, there are an estimated 27% (34,773) Hispanics, 18% (23,182) White, 4% (5,151) Asian, 6% (7,727) of two or more races and 2% (2,575) Other. Harlem suffers from unemployment rates generally more than twice

15824-565: The case of its opposition to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Black members went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War ; the Lincoln Brigade was the first military force of Americans to include blacks and whites integrated on an equal basis and black officers commanding white troops. The Communist Party made the fight against racism within the labor movement and Jim Crow outside it one of its consistent principles from

15996-665: The case, and highlighted the racial injustices in the region. The ILD overturned the men's convictions on appeal to the United States Supreme Court , which held in Powell v. Alabama , 287 U.S. 45 (1932) that the State's failure to provide the defendants with counsel in a capital case violated their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment . The ILD's battles with the NAACP continued when

16168-554: The cases returned to Alabama for retrial. The NAACP blamed the ILD for the lead defendant's being convicted and sentenced to death in the retrial. The NAACP later agreed to join with the ILD in defending the nine after other black organizations and a number of NAACP branches attacked it for that position, so the tensions never disappeared. The ILD retained control of the second round of appeals. It won reversals of these convictions in Norris v. Alabama , 294 U.S. 587 (1935), on

16340-427: The charges dropped against all of the defendants. The Share Croppers' Union, formed after these events, continued organizing. After leading a strike in 1934 that won higher prices for cotton pickers despite intense hostility from local authorities and businesses, its membership increased to nearly 8,000. The CPUSA's influence went beyond its black members, who did not exceed several hundred. In Alabama and other parts of

16512-419: The citywide average, as well as high poverty rates. and the numbers for men have been consistently worse than the numbers for women. Private and governmental initiatives to ameliorate unemployment and poverty have not been successful. During the Great Depression , unemployment in Harlem went past 20% and people were being evicted from their homes. At the same time, the federal government developed and instituted

16684-559: The civil rights movement in the South was about to become a mass movement. At the same time the internal turmoil brought on by the Cold War , the Smith Act prosecutions, and the ouster of Earl Browder , led to an internal battle. The Party expelled a number of members who were accused of displaying "white chauvinism". In the grim days of 1949 and 1950, as the CP was about to be driven out of

16856-545: The common cause of anti- fascism . This confirmed its policy. The party had mended its relations, at least temporarily, with groups such as the NAACP and had developed relations with church groups, particularly in the North. The party had also started edging toward support of the New Deal by moderating its attacks on the Roosevelt administration, which had promoted programs alleviating the most severe economic problems. As

17028-564: The community has also hosted numerous actors and theater companies, including the New Heritage Repertory Theater, National Black Theater, Lafayette Players, Harlem Suitcase Theater, The Negro Playwrights, American Negro Theater , and the Rose McClendon Players. The Apollo Theater opened on 125th Street on January 26, 1934, in a former burlesque house . The Savoy Ballroom , on Lenox Avenue ,

17200-408: The construction of new projects. 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. In 1964, residents of Harlem staged two school boycotts to call attention to the problem. In central Harlem, 92% of students stayed home. In

17372-467: The continuing struggle sometimes. We all do—and then there are reversals in situations—but we must not despair, we must not rest too long. Tomorrow's new world beckons. Tomorrow belongs to us." He was 44 years old; he was survived by his wife and four children, as well as his mother and brother. His obituary in The New York Times summarized his career: "more than twenty years a leader in

17544-537: The crusade proceeds in the fields of citizenship education, veterans' welfare, cultural expression, vocational training and interracial unity. The aims of the SNYC are the simple aims of the vast majority of American citizens. In one instance of Burnham's activism in Birmingham, he acted with thirty-one local activists to reestablish an Alabama chapter of the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW). In 1942, he attended an integrated SCHW conference in Nashville at

17716-423: The current population health disparities between Central Harlem and other New York City neighborhoods. For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Central Harlem into two neighborhood tabulation areas: Central Harlem North and Central Harlem South, divided by 126th street. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census , the population of Central Harlem was 118,665, a change of 9,574 (8.1%) from

17888-545: The early 1920s forward. While maintaining a position against white supremacy, the Party made special efforts to organize black miners in the strikes its National Miners Union led in western Pennsylvania in 1928 at the same time as leading strikes of (nearly exclusively) white textile workers in the Carolinas and Georgia in 1929 and coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1931. Local authorities used this issue and

18060-586: The establishment of the Louis E. Burnham fund "to provide for the well-being of his family and the education of his four children." Esther Cooper Jackson later described the impact of Burnham's death on the gestation of the planned journal: "After Louis died we were all in such shock that nothing happened for a while. Then Jim [James] Jackson, Shirley Graham Du Bois , Dr. Du Bois , John Oliver Killens , Ruby Dee , Ossie Davis , Lorraine Hansberry and some of us got together. Well we're going to try it out, because this

18232-501: The federal government ordered the private transit company to desegregate its workforce, provoking a wildcat strike of many of the union's newly organized members that was ended only when the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration sent troops to guard the system and arrested the strike's ringleaders. On the other hand, the record of other left unions was not as positive. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union , with its power over

18404-426: The fewest opportunities for success. Though the federal government's Model Cities Program 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. 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

18576-405: The fight for Negro civil rights and the right to vote. He wrote and lectured widely before school and youth groups." Key figures in the anti-colonialism fight spoke at Burnham's April 28 memorial service, among them James Jackson, W. E. B. Du Bois , James Aronson and Alphaeus Hunton . Du Bois helped organize fundraising "to ensure the upbringing and education" of Burnham's children, appealing in

18748-636: The following year, to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, where their son Charles was born in 1950. Others from SNYC in Birmingham relocated to Brooklyn around the same time, including the Strongs (who lived in Brooklyn across the street from the Burnhams) and the Jacksons . This group, all with young children, formed a mutually supportive community amidst the fears engendered by

18920-572: The globe. Its view of the black worker struggle and on civil rights for blacks were based in the broader terms of anti-colonialism. From its early years in the U.S., the party recruited African-American members, with mixed results. Some African Americans preferred competing groups such as the ABB. In its early days, the party had the greatest appeal among black workers with an internationalist bent. From 1920 it began to intensively recruit African Americans as members. The most prominent black Communist Party members at this time were largely immigrants from

19092-436: The ground that the exclusion of blacks from the jury pool had violated the defendants' constitutional rights. In a third retrial, all of the defendants were convicted. The Scottsboro defense was one of the ILD's many cases in the South at that time: it also defended Angelo Herndon , a Communist Party activist sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for treason due to his advocacy of national self-determination for blacks in

19264-406: 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. 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%, then dropping to 54.4% by 2010, and

19436-418: The interventions of McKay and Huiswoud, who cited Lenin 's views on nationalism , which distinguished between the nationalism of "oppressor nations" (which should be opposed) and that of "oppressed nations" (which should be supported), and drew parallels between national liberation movements and the fight against racial segregation in the United States . However, the theses were not received enthusiastically by

19608-562: The jury found McGee guilty, Burnham traveled to Laurel to interview the principals in the case. Subsequently, he sent a report on the case to George Marshall , then the head of the New York-based National Federation for Constitutional Liberties . A study of the McGee case concludes that Burnham's "detailed and accurate [memo]... was one of the most reliable things ever written about the case." In 1946, as SNYC

19780-493: The late 1950s and early 1960s, Harlem was the scene of a series of rent strikes 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 rats and roaches , to provide heat during

19952-549: The late 19th and early 20th centuries were torn down or converted to churches. Harlem lacked any permanent performance space until the creation of the Gatehouse Theater in an old Croton aqueduct building on 135th Street in 2006. From 1965 until 2007, the community was home to the Harlem Boys Choir , a touring choir and education program for young boys, most of whom are black. The Girls Choir of Harlem

20124-738: The later activist Angela , to attend graduate school in New York. These children and their parents socialized with each other in their own homes and those of their fellow Communists, including the intellectual luminary W. E. B. Du Bois . Having a small, closely-knit group in Birmingham, and which persisted during the Red Scare of the McCarthy period , created lasting bonds and valuable mutual support. Besides Angela Davis , other children from their group, including Burnham's own, grew up to become accomplished adults. In 1950, Burnham helped bring to life

20296-695: The leadership of Peter Stuyvesant . During the American Revolution , the British burned Harlem to the ground. It took a long time to rebuild, as Harlem grew more slowly than the rest of Manhattan during the late 18th century. 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. The New York and Harlem Railroad , as well as

20468-554: The magazine's previous antiwar stance, coinciding with Germany's sudden wartime attack on the Soviet Union. Issues usually included some art, short fiction or poetry, with a continued focus on the difficulties facing the largely rural southern Black population. In 1942, Burnham joined the SNYC staff in Birmingham , Alabama . In Birmingham, Burnham worked on Black voting rights and planning Black cultural events, in addition to SNYC administrative work. He lectured to local activists on

20640-571: The meatpacking plants in Chicago and elsewhere, and the Food and Tobacco Workers, who established integrated unions with interracial leadership in North Carolina and Kentucky . Those unions established deep roots among the black workers in those industries, who remained supportive of the left leadership of their unions even as the party itself became increasingly unpopular in the late 1940s and

20812-605: The mid-1930s, Burnham became involved with widespread Harlem protests against Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 , and with the injustice being done to the teenage Scottsboro Boys , condemned to death on a false accusation of raping two white women. During this period, he joined the Young Communist League and the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA). CPUSA had become widely known for opposing racism and racial segregation , especially following its organizing

20984-425: The most part, on very concrete issues: organization of miners, steelworkers and tenant farmers, dealing with utility shutoffs, evictions, jobs, and unemployment benefits; trying to raise awareness of and prevent lynchings, and challenging the pervasive system of Jim Crow . It hoped to appeal to both white and black workers, starting in Birmingham the most industrialized city in Alabama. Black workers were attracted to

21156-698: The nation, the International Labor Defense, which focused on civil rights issues, had up to 2,000 members. The Sharecroppers' Union had up to 12,000 members in Alabama. Other related organizations were the International Workers Order, the League of Young Southerners, and the Southern Negro Youth Congress. Through these organizations, the CPUSA could be seen to "touch the lives easily of 20,000 people." The party's most widely reported work in

21328-502: The national party repudiated much of the work done in Harlem in opposing evictions because the party leader most associated with that work had been expelled, along with Jay Lovestone . The latter ha sided with Bukharin in his conflict with Joseph Stalin , an issue that few residents of Harlem cared about. In 1935, the Comintern abandoned the militancy of the Third Period in favor of a Popular Front , which sought to unite socialist and non-socialist organizations of similar politics around

21500-427: The next race in 1949 by a landslide to an anti-communist candidate. He was under indictment for advocating the overthrow of the United States government, and this did not help his candidacy. The CRC became increasingly isolated in this new climate as former allies refused to have anything to do with it. Represented by William Patterson and Paul Robeson , it attempted to file a petition entitled "We Charge Genocide" with

21672-458: The organisation enthusiastically, the labor movement generally ignored it, aside from a few party-controlled unions that had few black members. The Congress' efforts were also stymied by the party's chaotic organization in the mid-1920s. The ANLC, for its part, became isolated from other leading black organizations. It attacked the NAACP and related organizations as "middle-class accommodationists" controlled by white philanthropists. The ANLC and

21844-414: The organizing the campaign, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations , which was financing it. Those organizers rarely were able, in any case, to stay in an area long enough to allow them to cultivate the relationships that would have allowed them to bring individual workers into the party. In other industries from which blacks were excluded or made up a small part of the workforce, CPUSA-led unions had

22016-679: The other about Black participation in the Civil War , in Burnham's car. Burnham arranged for Aptheker to lecture about Black resistance to slavery at organizing meetings in the cities and towns on their route. Ultimately they sold all of Aptheker's booklets. In 1940, Burnham ran unsuccessfully on the American Labor Party ticket for the New York State Assembly , where he was defeated by the four-term Democratic Assemblyman William T. Andrews , getting about 9.5% of

22188-689: The part of the Negroes. And part of that is compounded by naive effect [ sic ] that the government is on their side, the law is on their side, and the reactionaries, the Southerners have got to give in sooner or later and the time will be sooner." During this period, in 1959, Burnham was elected to the National Committee of CPUSA . Near the end of his life, SNYC veterans Burnham, Esther Cooper Jackson , and Edward Strong, who had participated in its creation in 1937, conceived of

22360-524: The party significantly in the black community. A. Philip Randolph resigned from the Negro National Congress in protest and black newspapers throughout the North condemned the party for its rapid volte face . The CPUSA attacked its opponents as warmongers. When Adolf Hitler 's forces invaded the Soviet Union , the party switched to an all-out support for the war effort. It denounced Randolph's proposed March on Washington against employment discrimination in war industries, arguing that it might harm production. But

22532-420: The party, but whites stayed away. The party also worked in rural areas to organize sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who worked under an oppressive system. In Camp Hill, Alabama in 1931 white vigilantes responded by murdering one leader, and local authorities charged and prosecuted black farmers for murder who had tried to fight off the mob. Attorneys with the International Labor Defense succeeded in having

22704-559: The party. The Fourth Comintern Congress passed a set of "Theses on the Negro Question", which guided the party's stance on race issues, contextualizing the African-American struggle for civil rights as part a broader wave of anti-colonial activity which was growing internationally, and stressing the need to link the black civil rights or liberation struggle to the fight against capitalism. The theses were influenced by

22876-491: The percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 48% in Community District 10, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018 , Community District 10 is considered to be gentrifying : according to the Community Health Profile, the district was low-income in 1990 and has seen above-median rent growth up to 2010. In 2010,

23048-512: The percentage of whites increasing from 1.5% to 6.6% by 2006, and to "almost 10%" by 2010. A renovation of 125th Street and new properties along the thoroughfare also helped to revitalize Harlem. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem was the focus of the " Harlem Renaissance ", an outpouring of artistic work without precedent in the American Black community. Though Harlem musicians and writers are particularly well remembered,

23220-448: The persecutions of the McCarthy period. In Brooklyn, the small circle of African-American Communists (and the white Communist, Herbert Aptheker as well, with his daughter Bettina ) mostly avoided speaking to their children about this party tie, but took these young children to meetings and rallies. During summers they were joined by Sallye Davis, another former SNYC leader, who would drive from her Birmingham home with her young daughter,

23392-739: The population of West Harlem was 110,193. West Harlem, consisting of Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights , is predominately Hispanic / Latino, while African Americans make up about a quarter of the West Harlem population. In 2010, the population of East Harlem was 120,000. East Harlem originally formed as a predominantly Italian American neighborhood. The area began its transition from Italian Harlem to Spanish Harlem when Puerto Rican migration began after World War II, though in recent decades, many Dominican , Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants have also settled in East Harlem. East Harlem

23564-680: The population. Harlem's Black population was more concentrated in Central Harlem North, and its White population more concentrated in Central Harlem South, while the Hispanic / Latino population was evenly split. The most significant shifts in the racial composition of Central Harlem between 2000 and 2010 were the White population's increase by 402% (9,067), the Hispanic / Latino population's increase by 43% (7,982), and

23736-412: The post-World War II era, Harlem ceased to be home to a majority of the city's black people, but it remained the cultural and political capital of black New York, and possibly black America. 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

23908-631: The practice of rebranding historically recognized neighborhoods illegal. Politically, central Harlem is in New York's 13th congressional district . It is in the New York State Senate 's 30th district, the New York State Assembly 's 68th and 70th districts, and the New York City Council 's 7th, 8th, and 9th districts. Before the arrival of European settlers, the area that would become Harlem (originally Haarlem)

24080-630: The promotion of racial and economic equality. After her husband's death, she was an active leader in the national organization Women for Racial and Economic Equality, as well as with the Sisters Against South African Apartheid, Genes and Gender, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom ; in addition, she served on the board of Freedomways and wrote for it. She became a faculty member at Hostos Community College and later taught biology and related subjects at City University of New York . Her 107th birthday

24252-450: The right to vote, which Blacks were largely denied throughout the South . In 1943, Burnham spoke about the role of Black youth during the ongoing world war , on the CBS sponsored Black radio program “ Wings over Jordan .” He discussed the widespread view of war in the South, saying that any student was “likely to witness in front of his school building an Army jeep populated with soldiers from

24424-424: The small population of all other races increased by 4% (142). The entirety of Community District 10, which comprises Central Harlem, had 116,345 inhabitants as of NYC Health 's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 76.2 years. This is lower than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are children and middle-aged adults: 21% are between

24596-648: The south; Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Avenue and Edgecombe Avenue on the west; and the Harlem River on the north. A chain of large linear parks includes Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park , Jackie Robinson Park , as well as Marcus Garvey Park (also known as Mount Morris Park) which separates this area from East Harlem to the east. Central Harlem includes the Mount Morris Park Historic District . West Harlem ( Manhattanville , Hamilton Heights , and Sugar Hill ) comprises Manhattan Community district 9. The three neighborhoods' area

24768-667: The spring and summer of 1939, Burnham brought the historian Herbert Aptheker with him on an organizing trip to the south. Aptheker had published about Black slave revolts and taught at the New York Workers School , where he had met Burnham. Burnham aimed to bring tobacco field workers into the Tobacco Workers International Union . The pair traveled to Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. They carried hundreds of copies of two Aphtheker pamphlets, one about Black slave revolts,

24940-1211: The style of SoHo or NoHo ) in an attempt to accelerate gentrification of the neighborhoods. "SoHa", applied to the area between West 110th and 125th Streets, has become a controversial name. Residents and other critics seeking to prevent this renaming of the area have labelled the SoHa brand as "insulting and another sign of gentrification run amok" and have said that "the rebranding not only places their neighborhood's rich history under erasure but also appears to be intent on attracting new tenants, including students from nearby Columbia University". Multiple New York City politicians have initiated legislative efforts to curtail this practice of neighborhood rebranding, which when successfully introduced in other New York City neighborhoods, have led to increases in rents and real estate values, as well as "shifting demographics". In 2011, U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries attempted but failed to implement legislation "that would punish real estate agents for inventing false neighborhoods and redrawing neighborhood boundaries without city approval." By 2017, New York State Senator Brian Benjamin also worked to render

25112-540: The successor to the ANLC, was particularly active in organizing support for the Scottsboro defendants. It also campaigned for a separate black nation in the South and against police brutality and Jim Crow laws . In addition, it advocated a more general policy of opposition to international fascism and support for the Soviet Union . The party was also active in campaigning on issues concerning black Americans outside of

25284-403: The type of measures that came to be known as " affirmative action " twenty years later. Many left-led unions, such as the UE, simply ignored the Party's directive. The Communist Party continued, even after splits and defections left it much smaller, into the 1960s. It made efforts to reestablish itself among students through the W. E. B. Du Bois Clubs, named after one of the original founders of

25456-426: The urban north or in the South. They had more immediate, pressing problems and the CPUSA had little foothold. While the party continued to give lip service to the goal of national self-determination for blacks, particularly in its theoretical writings, it largely ignored that demand in its practical work. The party sent organizers to the Deep South for the first time in the late 1920s. The party focused its efforts, for

25628-591: The votes (i.e., over 3100) in the Harlem district where President Franklin D. Roosevelt was getting the votes of five of every six voters. In 1941, he married Dorothy Challenor, a Black youth activist leader who had studied biology at Brooklyn College . Their move to Birmingham, which had become the headquarters of SNYC, was part of their effort to oppose racial segregation and to organize Black youth. Burnham's efforts to organize southern Black youth through SNYC were far more effective than they had been via ASU, as those youth were much more inclined to trust an organizer from

25800-470: The winter, and to keep prices in line with existing rent control regulations. The largest public works projects in Harlem in these years were public housing, with the largest concentration built in East Harlem. 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

25972-412: The words and phrases from the dictionary. He released several editions until 1944, the last being The New Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive . Poet Lemn Sissay observed that "Cab Calloway was taking ownership of language for a people who, just a few generations before, had their own languages taken away." Religious life has historically had a strong presence in Black Harlem. The area

26144-508: The workplace exercised through its hiring hall, eliminated formal barriers to black employment, although a degree of informal segregation returned through the institution of casual employment. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (or UE) ignored party directives to confront the issue in its industry, calculating that any challenge to the principle of seniority by pursuing affirmative action remedies for black workers would prove immensely unpopular among white workers. During

26316-503: The world's anti-colonial movement and considered that the Second World War opened doors to revolutionary consciousness for people of color globally. With Birmingham as his base, Burnham helped to establish several SNYC chapters at southern black college campuses. With Esther Cooper (later Esther Cooper Jackson after her marriage to James E. Jackson ), Burnham co-led a six-member SNYC delegation in May 1942 that visited federal offices in Washington, D.C. They conferred with Secretary of

26488-443: Was racially segregated . Immediately following the Second World War , they worked intensively on voter registration of returning veterans and eliminating the poll tax that Alabama and other Southern states used to prevent Blacks from voting. Burnham helped organize voter registration campaigns, lunch counter sit-ins and non-violent marches. In 1946, Burnham led Black veterans of the Second World War on marches in Birmingham to demand

26660-450: Was 20, shortly after her arrival in New York. At the newspaper, she worked initially, in her own words, "typing (eh?) receptionist and writer." Burnham nurtured her sense of herself as a writer, one of several who were published in the pages of his newspaper. In 1951, Burnham, with numerous other prominent Black activists, writers and professionals, as well as families of the documented injured or murdered Black people, and white sympathizers,

26832-399: Was Louis Burnham's dream." This circle of activists and writers brought the idea of the new periodical to fruition: the quarterly journal Freedomways . Burnham's wife, Dorothy Burnham, was already actively advocating for social justice at the time of their marriage, and has continued this throughout her life, making notable contributions to public education, civil rights, women's rights and

27004-485: 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 venues were in operation, including speakeasies , cellars, lounges, cafes, taverns, supper clubs, rib joints, theaters, dance halls, and bars and grills. 133rd Street , known as "Swing Street", became known for its cabarets, speakeasies and jazz scene during

27176-415: Was an accomplished violinist, and some ten years later was credited with the lyrics for a song on which his brother, Charles St. Clair Burnham, one year older, held the copyright. He was regularly on the Dean's List at City College of New York (CCNY), where he was able to stay solvent by writing papers for middle-class white students on a variety of subjects. During this period he was executive director of

27348-426: Was bimonthly for the last two issues because it was running out of funds. In its initial issue, Burnham wrote an article defending anyone "who is courageous enough to open their mouths, join an organization, sign a petition, or participate in a delegation or attend a meeting to fight for peace in the world, good jobs, decent wages at home, and full equality for Negroes. They are American progressives." An interview with

27520-401: Was celebrated in the New York Amsterdam News . Claudia Burnham was their oldest daughter. Their daughter Margaret Burnham is a law professor and racial justice activist, and a former judge in Massachusetts. Their daughter Linda Burnham is a journalist and women's rights activist, particularly regarding women of color. Their son Charles Burnham is a violinist. Harlem Harlem

27692-424: Was founded in 1989, and closed with the Boys Choir. From 1967 to 1969, the Harlem Cultural Festival took place in Mount Morris Park . Another name for this festival is "Black Woodstock". Artists like Stevie Wonder , The 5th Dimension , and Gladys Knight performed here. Harlem is also home to the largest African American Day Parade , which celebrates the culture of African diaspora in America. The parade

27864-674: Was founded in 2021 to celebrate cuisine, community, and culture. It is one of the largest night markets in Manhattan . The main attractions include musical performances, arts and crafts shows, and food. Many R&B/Soul groups and artists formed in Harlem. The Main Ingredient , Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers , Black Ivory , Cameo , Keith Sweat , Freddie Jackson , Alyson Williams , Johnny Kemp , Teddy Riley , Dave Wooley , and others got their start in Harlem. Manhattan's contributions to hip-hop stems largely from artists with Harlem roots such as Doug E. Fresh , Big L , Kurtis Blow , The Diplomats , Mase or Immortal Technique . Harlem

28036-498: Was heavily influenced by ragtime . This style played a very important role in early jazz piano In 1938, jazz bandleader and singer Cab Calloway published the first dictionary by an African-American, Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A "Hepster's" Dictionary , which became the official jive language reference book of the New York Public Library . In 1939, Calloway published an accompanying book titled Professor Cab Calloway's Swingformation Bureau , which instructed readers how to apply

28208-411: Was inhabited by a Native American band , the Wecquaesgeek , dubbed Manhattans or Manhattoe by Dutch settlers, who along with other Native Americans, most likely Lenape , occupied the area on a semi-nomadic basis. As many as several hundred farmed the Harlem flatlands. Between 1637 and 1639, a few settlements were established. The settlement of Harlem was formally incorporated in 1660 under

28380-416: Was jailed under The Smith Act . The Communist Party also took up benign issues. The party's newspaper, The Daily Worker , started agitating for integration of major league baseball in the mid-1930s. The party also made a point of integrating its dances and other social events and continued to ostracize and expel members accused of "white chauvinism". The signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact damaged

28552-411: Was one of the signers of We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People . Burnham's activities in 1951 also included organizing an event to honor the publication of the first volume of Aptheker's Documentary History of the Negro People . From 1957 to 1960, Burnham wrote for the National Guardian as

28724-427: Was organizing a Southern Youth Legislature in Columbia, South Carolina , Burnham joined with activists from South Carolina to create a Leadership Training School in nearby Irmo . Participants included union-affiliated workers, teachers, and college students from throughout the south, many intending to start their own local SNYC chapters. The Southern Youth Legislature drew more than 1500 delegates and some 5000 visitors,

28896-417: Was started up in the spring of 1969 with Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as the Grand Marshal of the first celebration. Arthur Mitchell , a former dancer with the New York City Ballet , established Dance Theatre of Harlem as a school and company of classical ballet and theater training in the late 1960s. The company has toured nationally and internationally. Generations of theater artists have gotten

29068-568: Was still concentrated in the South, where it was largely disenfranchised , excluded from the political system, and oppressed under Jim Crow laws. By 1940, nearly 1.5 million African Americans had migrated out of the South to northern and midwestern cities and become urbanized, but they were often met with discrimination, especially among working-class ethnic whites with whom they competed for jobs and housing. The labor struggle continued, and many unions discriminated against black people. Additional migration of another 5 million African Americans out of

29240-421: Was support for the Comintern line within the party: Robert Minor , who had been appointed to lead the party's Negro Committee, wrote a series of articles in the party magazine The Liberator which were consistent with the analysis contained in the theses. The Comintern directed the American party in 1924 to redouble its efforts to organize African Americans. The party's earliest efforts focused on struggles in

29412-431: Was the first Black faculty member ever to teach at CCNY. Traces of Burnham's student activism survive in the archives of CCNY, including in their "official student newspaper," The Campus . The newspaper lists him as part of a committee preparing an anti-war strike. A leaflet lists him as a speaker at the rally indicated by the newspaper article. Later he was chairman of the Anti-war and Anti-Fascist Committee, preparing

29584-468: Was the first to offer its assistance. William L. Patterson , a black attorney who had left a successful practice to join the Communist Party, returned from training in the Soviet Union to run the ILD. After fierce disputes with the NAACP, with the ILD seeking to mount a broad-based political campaign to free the nine while the NAACP followed a more legalistic strategy, the ILD took control of the defendants' appeals. The ILD attracted national press attention to

#659340