Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America Book

Harlem And Its Stories

At the same time an American iconic and a deeply tragic community, Harlem has had many characters in its four hundred year history. Yet there may be constants in its rises, falls, and Phoenix-like rebirths. Jonathan Gill's new book, "Harlem" tells the story of this fabled community, in its glories and periods of destruction, in this fascinating new history, "Harlem" (2011). A professor of American history and literature, Gill has taught at Columbia University, City College of New York, Fordham University, and the Manhattan School of Music.

A study of Harlem needs to be directed both internally to the community and externally to the people and places that acted upon it. The Harlemites in Gill's history, for all their diversity, are substantially independent groups with a strong sense of place and a desire to control their destinies for themselves. Harlem's location, uptown and away from the constant bustle of downtown Manhattan, may be partially responsible for a marked independent streak. But Harlem also cannot be understood without considering how the actions of others impinged upon it, from the early Dutch and British through the New York City and State governments to the Federal governments. Then too, Harlem has always been a magnet for newcomers. Most of the people who made Harlem what it became were born elsewhere.

Gill's book shows breadth of research as he covers the community from its original Dutch discovery in 1609 through the first decade of the 21st Century. He writes with love for his subject. The book is lengthy but engrossing. The individual chapters of the book tend to be extended and detailed. They cover a great deal that perhaps could have been broken down more expressly into smaller sections. The early chapter on the Dutch Harlem goes slowly because it will be unfamiliar to most readers, but the pace of the book soon quickens as Gill describes the early days of Harlem during the Revolutionary War and its development by famous characters such as Alexander Hamilton and by infamous people such as Aaron Burr and his wife, the former courtesan, Eliza Jumel, in her day the richest woman in America.

There are interesting chapters on Harlem in the early 19th Century when it was a separate jurisdiction from downtown and the home to many wealthy individuals seeking a respite from the city. The story of the Harlem most people know begins about 1/4 into the book with the period of American immigration in the late 19th Century. Harlem became a densely settled multicultural community with the arrival of Italians and Eastern European Jews. There was also an African American presence which had been in Harlem since the days of the Dutch. Gill captures both the tensions and accomplishments of the multi-ethnic Harlem during its immigrant years.

Harlem will be forever known as the "Capital of Black America". Gill's book is at its strongest when it explores African American Harlem. The book includes beautifully developed sections of Harlem's cultural, literary, artistic and musical attainments with insightful discussions of figures such as W.E.B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Jean Toomer, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Jacob Lawrence, the photographer James Van Der Zee, and others too numerous to name. Gill also discusses Harlem's conflicted political life under which Harlemites frequently spent more energy in internal disagreements than in presenting a united community. Gill pays particular attention to Marcus Garvey, a figure who has fallen into some unfamiliarity but who fought, in Gill's account, for community pride and economic activity and self-sufficiency. Gill stresses the multi-cultural character of Harlem, as Latinos, Jews, and Italians continued to have a large presence during the years of the community's glory.

Besides the achievements of Harlem life, Gill focuses on the many problems, including the overcrowding, exorbitant rents, lack of medical facilities and sanitation, discrimination against African Americans by local businesses, poor schools, high crime, and more. He also points to political divisions some of which were the result of a strong communist presence during the years of the Depression. Harlem teemed with tension which caused serious riots, burnings, and lootings over the years.

In later sections of the book, Gill discusses Harlem during the Civil Rights Era and the uneasy relationship between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harlem. (Dr. King was the subject of an assassination attempt in Harlem and narrowly escaped with his life.) Malcom X and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. are among the political figures examined in detail. Following the Civil Rights Era and the death of Dr. King, Harlem badly deteriorated as African American and other residents continued to flee the area and it became a haven for crime and drugs. The final section of the book describes yet another rise of Harlem in the 1990s and beyond, tempered by some questionable development projects and the financial crisis of 2008.

For all the problems of the community, Gill's book overflows with love for Harlem and for New York City. The book offers the many stories of an American community which remains both unique and yet somehow representative of American life. I came away from the book wanting to revisit some of Harlem's great literary figures and to think about what Gill describes as "the transformative power of [Harlemites] recorded past and their imagined future, both always in the making" (p. 464) in understanding the American dream.

Robin Friedman