On the Streets Where They Live

摘要

When African-Americans in New YorkrnCity were displaced from the area around Union Square in the first two decades of the 20th century, they went north to Harlem. A real estate boom had produced an oversupply of apartments, and owners were desperate for tenants. From that moment, Harlem and black America became inseparable in the American psyche. And because the stigma of being black trumped the positive attributes of the neighborhood and its residents, Harlem was devalued in the eyes of the white majority. Briefly celebrated during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, after World War II it became the country's quintessential ghetto. Poverty deepened, unemployment soared, racial tensions surfaced, real estate values fell, and buildings were abandoned, demolished, poorly maintained, or over-crowded.