Before Harlem The Black Experience in New York City Before World
War I Marcy S. Sacks "Sachs systematically analyzes the extent of
racial prejudice in New York, describing in detail its impact on
African Americans. She examines the breakdown of the city's
commitment to democracy and equality, . . . focusing on residential
and job discrimination, the segregation of schools, and systematic
police brutality. The results were devastating."--"Choice" "An
important contribution to a new approach to African American
history."--"Journal of American History" In the years between 1880
and 1915, New York City and its environs underwent a tremendous
demographic transformation with the arrival of millions of European
immigrants, native whites from the rural countryside, and people of
African descent from both the American South and the Caribbean.
While all groups faced challenges in their adjustment to the city,
hardening racial prejudices set the black experience apart from
that of other newcomers. Through encounters with each other, blacks
and whites, both together and in opposition, forged the contours of
race relations that would affect the city for decades to come.
"Before Harlem" reveals how black migrants and immigrants to New
York entered a world far less welcoming than the one they had
expected to find. White police officers, urban reformers, and
neighbors faced off in a hostile environment that threatened black
families in multiple ways. Unlike European immigrants, who
typically struggled with low-paying jobs but who often saw their
children move up the economic ladder, black people had limited
employment opportunities that left them with almost no prospects of
upward mobility. Their poverty and the vagaries of a restrictive
job market forced unprecedented numbers of black women into the
labor force, fundamentally affecting child-rearing practices and
marital relationships. Despite hostile conditions, black people
nevertheless claimed New York City as their own. Within their
neighborhoods and their churches, their night clubs and their
fraternal organizations, they forged discrete ethnic, regional, and
religious communities. Diverse in their backgrounds, languages, and
customs, black New Yorkers cultivated connections to others similar
to themselves, forming organizations, support networks, and bonds
of friendship with former strangers. In doing so, Marcy S. Sacks
argues, they established a dynamic world that eventually sparked
the Harlem Renaissance. By the 1920s, Harlem had become both a
tragedy and a triumph--undeniably a ghetto replete with problems of
poverty, overcrowding, and crime, but also a refuge and a haven, a
physical place whose very name became legendary. Marcy S. Sacks is
Associate Professor of History at Albion College. Politics and
Culture in Modern America 2006 240 pages 6 x 9 8 illus. ISBN
978-0-8122-3961-4 Cloth $59.95s 39.00 ISBN 978-0-8122-0335-6 Ebook
$59.95s 39.00 World Rights American History,
African-American/African Studies Short copy: The period between
1880 and 1915 marked the first sustained migration of black people
into New York City as blacks and whites, both together and in
opposition, forged the contours of race relations that would affect
the city for decades to come.
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