USA > New York > New York City > New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis > Part 14
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bor At the same time, extensive relief work is carried on by New York Jews lesfor Jewish communities and institutions abroad. The Joint Distribution na Committee, organized in 1914 for war relief work, is still actively func- on ioning as a distributor of millions of dollars, collected from Jews all over enthe country, to needy Jews in Germany, Poland, Rumania and elsewhere, ewfor the settlement of German Jewish refugees in Palestine and South To.America, and for colonization in the Crimea of Jews from the old Russian ghettos. The Icor, an association to aid the colonization of Jews in the nesSoviet Union, including Biro-Bidjan in the Far East, was organized in in 1 924.
off Zionist organizations active in New York for the establishment of a .homeland in Palestine are the conservative Zionist Organization of Amer-
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ica, the labor Poalei Zion and Zirei Zion Federation, the ultra-orthodo Mizrachi Zionist Organization, the Hadassah, which provides hospital ar medical service to Jewish settlements in Palestine, the Junior Hadassa and Avukah, the intercollegiate Zionist Society.
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The various schisms that divide all religious sects also exist among tl E Jews. But, in general, religious Jews may be divided into two maj groups. Those from western, eastern, and central Europe are usual described as Ashkenazim; and those from the Mediterranean countrie North Africa and Asia are called Sephardim. These two appellation actually refer only to the kind of liturgies customary among the Jews ( these countries. The Jews of New York are preponderantly Ashkenazin By and large the Sephardim are ultra-orthodox. But the Ashkenazim al divided into four camps: the orthodox, the chassidic, the conservative an the reformed. Each has its own synagogues, employing different liturgie and ceremonies ; they also differ widely in theology.
The Shearith Israel Synagogue, founded by Spanish-Portuguese Jews to tha ward the end of the 17th century and now situated at Central Park We and Seventieth Street, is the leading orthodox synagogue of the Sephardit in New York. It has an imposing interior, and its ceremonials and liturgy are characterized by great dignity and simplicity. The Jewish Center Syna gogue, at 131 West Eighty-Sixth Street, is a leading center of orthodoxy and the Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, at 270 West Eighty-Ninth Street, one of the outstanding conservative houses of worship. Perhaps the bes known Reform Temples are the Central Synagogue at 652 Lexingto Avenue and the Temple Emanu-El at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-Fifth Stree
Clustering around the hundreds of synagogues and temples in New Yor are various denominational Jewish educational systems. There are 48 Jewish religious schools of all varieties, with an attendance of some 65,00 children. About half of the latter attend the orthodox-conservative Talmu Torahs, in which the Bible, Jewish history and the Hebrew language ar the principal studies. In addition, about 10,000 children attend after reg ular school hours the ultra-orthodox type of religious school-the Cheder in which the verbal translation of the Hebrew Pentateuch into Yiddish i the sole educational activity.
There are six Yeshivas, or orthodox schools of higher Hebrew studies in New York. The best known of these is the Yeshiva College, at 187tl Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Besides the work of its Hebrew Teacher Institute, its principal function is to train orthodox rabbis. Devoted to the same tasks, although on a larger scale, is the Jewish Theological Seminary
NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 13I
Broadway and 122d Street. Most of the younger orthodox rabbis and achers of America are trained in its Seminary and Teachers Institute. he Jewish Institute of Religion, at 40 West Sixty-Eighth Street, is the only form rabbinical seminary in New York.
There are other types of Jewish education, mostly of a non-religious ind, with emphasis on Jewish culture and the Yiddish language and terature. The Jewish National Workers Alliance, a Labor-Zionist organi- ation, has 18 schools, with an attendance of about 1,000; the Sholem leichem schools, supported by progressive nationalistic Jewish workers, re 20 in number and are attended by 1,200 children; the Workmen's ircle Schools, of socialist tendencies, number 50 and have about 3,000 upils; then finally the International Workers Order has a number of ewish schools, with an attendance of about 3,000.
The two foremost Jewish newspapers of New York, the Daily Forward, socialist organ, and the Morning Freiheit, an exponent of communism, ave been prominent forces in the Jewish labor movement. The former as a circulation of approximately 170,000, the latter of about 50,000. wo other influential Yiddish dailies are the Zionist-nationalistic Day and ne orthodox-conservative Morning Journal, each of which has a circula- on of about 83,000. In addition to these dailies, New York is the home f a number of Jewish periodicals, issued weekly, monthly or quarterly nd published in Yiddish, Hebrew or English, which represent a wide ange of social, political, economic and cultural viewpoints.
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Portrait of Harlen.
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THOUGH always restricted by tradition to certain residential areas, trade and professions, the Negro has lived and labored in New York for mor than three hundred years. He is one of the most vivid figures in the city history; and in terms of progress and chronology, his continuous adjus ment to New York's ever-changing environment, the manner in which } has reacted to the handicaps and penalties imposed upon him because ( class and color, make a record of dramatic interest and social challeng
In 1930, 327,706 Negroes were residents of New York, the large single concentration of Negro population anywhere in the world. Thoug Negroes are to be found in all five boroughs of the city, by far the large: number-some 250,000 in all-live in Harlem, an area of Upper Mar hattan roughly circumscribed by 155th Street on the north, IIoth Stret on the south, the Harlem and East Rivers on the east, and Amsterdar Avenue on the west. In addition, the Manhattan area also contains sma Negro colonies in Greenwich Village, Chelsea, the East Side, San Jua Hill and Yorkville. Brooklyn has the largest Negro population outside c Manhattan, with more than 68,000 residents centered for the most pai in the Stuyvesant Heights and Brownsville sections. Negroes are also scat tered in many small settlements throughout Queens, Bronx and Richmond Before the depression, economic security afforded a few the opportunit to migrate from Harlem to the comparatively luxurious Merrick Park de velopment in Jamaica.
1
The earliest available records show that II Negroes were brought to the settlement of New Amsterdam in 1626 in the capacity of slaves For nearly one hundred years thereafter, the majority of Negroes in the settlement were either indentured servants or slaves. Under the rule of th Dutch colonists, many Negroes were granted freedom, for the Dutch ofter did not know what to do with them and a rigorous system of slavery had not yet been established. Though regarded as slaves, Negroes had the righ to travel, assemble, marry and own property; and they were also afforded
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me degree of legal protection. It was not until 1664, when the English nquered the Dutch, that slavery became a profitable, flourishing and op- essive institution modeled upon the slave system of Virginia. In 1694 e colony possessed about 2,170 slaves, and in 1709 open slave-markets ere operating in New York. Living for the most part in the center of the y, in Greenwich Village near Spring and Broome Streets, and near the tablishments that employed them, most of the Negroes in early New ork labored as domestics, chimney sweeps and ship calkers. A few, who d obtained freedom from their masters through determination and fru- lity, owned small businesses.
The first school for Negroes in New York was opened in 1704 by Elias eau for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. was intended for religious instruction only-as was a school opened in 60 by several clergymen. The first secular educational institution was the frican Free School, organized chiefly by the New York Manumission So- ety and opened in 1787. Forty-seven years later, when Negro children ere transferred to the public school system, there were seven African ee Schools in the city.
An early protest indicating spirit on the part of the Negro population as registered in 1710, when a slave brought suit against his master for ages. Another incident of the Negroes' early struggle for human rights curred in 1712, when a group of slaves, smarting under a sense of in- lerable wrong, met in an orchard in Maiden Lane and planned an insur- ction against the whites. Severely suppressed by the militia, the insurrec- n brought savage retaliation. Out of it, however, grew fear and respect r the Negroes which found expression, on the one hand, in legislation control them, and on the other, in many attempts to abolish the slave ade.
A much more important insurrectionary event in the colonial period was e plot of 1741. It is clear from available records that this insurrection as planned, and Negroes as well as poor whites took part. The popula- on of New York at that time numbered some 10,000, about one-fifth of nom were Negro slaves; there were also several hundred white inden- red servants whose lot was no less harsh. With the outbreak of nine fires different parts of New York, rumor spread that the slaves were trying burn the city and murder the entire population. During the ensuing ter- r, every Negro seen on the streets was arrested. Whites became impli- ted when a search for stolen goods led to the tavern of John Hughson, hose servant girl was arrested and made to confess knowledge of the in-
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surrection under torture. Her story was so fantastic as to involve all the Negro population and a considerable portion of the white. A specif t session of the Grand Jury was held, and the ensuing trial lasted througt out the summer. Public hysteria and panic, intense in New York, sprejo throughout the country. Of 154 Negroes cast into prison, 13 were burnt at the stake, 18 hanged, and 71 transported to the West Indies. Twenpor whites were arrested, John Hughson, his wife, and John Ury, an unfrock s Catholic priest, being later executed.
Between 1741 and 1766, increasing numbers of Negroes succeeded purchasing their freedom. During the Revolution they were accept for military service by both America and England. New York was one the few States to reward Negro soldiers with freedom; and in 1799 an aree was passed conferring gradual emancipation and ending slavery in tim State on July 4, 1827. Free Negroes had the rights of citizens, including the right to vote.
Barred from the professions and most of the trades, Negroes found th whites accepted them more readily as owners of taverns and inns. Samuln Fraunces, a master steward, operated a famous tavern (still standing (sc Broad and Pearl Streets ) where on December 4, 1783, Washington chin livered the "Farewell Address" to his army. "Black Sam," as Fraunces wil called, owned the "Mason's Arms" on Broadway from 1759 to 1762; all he later purchased the Delancy Mansion-on the site of New York's fi. " hotel-where he conducted an inn known as the "Queen Charlotte."
Fraternal lodges, churches and mutual aid societies began early to playles prominent part in the social and educational life of New York's Negrougd Most of the freedmen belonged to the New York African Society faer Mutual Relief, founded in 1808. Negroes made an appeal to the Amelin can Odd Fellows for a charter, which was refused. After a special d'ne pensation granted by the English branch, the Philomathean Lodge of tas Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was formed in 1843. A fusion social welfare work with the operation of the Underground Railroad carlo about through the establishment of the Moral Reform Societies.
One sign of cultural advance manifested itself in 1821 with the esta
P lishment of the first Negro theater, at the corner of Mercer and Bleeckye Streets. The company gave performances of Othello and other Shak spearean dramas. The National Advocate of September 21, 1821, report that James Hewlett was acting his most famous role, that of Richard I The authorities finally enjoined the company from playing Shakespear, doubtless because of growing antagonism toward the Negro.
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After the abolition of slavery in New York State in 1827, the struggle the Negroes to improve their status and to help their enslaved brothers the South changed gradually from intermittent outbursts to a planned 20 eavement. The struggle for human rights, equality and liberty which was neitating the minds of men in the post-Revolutionary period had its effect ent on the Negro. The latter, having made some cultural progress, began ke see his problems in realistic terms and organized accordingly.
A number of New York Negroes were ardent and prominent workers the abolitionist cause. In 1827, nearly four years before the appearance William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator, a group gathered in the home of Boston Crummell and launched the first Negro newspaper in America, akcedom's Journal, under the editorship of John Russwurm and the Rev. muel E. Cornish. This journal not only helped to shape the ideas of th
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lin groes on the burning question of slavery, but also appealed to many ti-slavery whites and influenced the policies of the abolition societies that there organized soon after.
uIn 1830, Peter Williams published an eloquent protest against racial crimination in New York City. Theodore S. Wright, a graduate of d nceton, also wrote on the subject with vigor and logic. David Ruggles blished The Genius of Freedom, a quarterly magazine called The Mir- art. fir of Liberty, and several sardonic anti-slavery pamphlets under such titles "The Extinguisher Extinguished" and "An Antidote for a Poisonous mbination Recently Prepared by a 'Citizen of New York' Alias Dr. ay ese." Ruggles was one of the first promoters of the Underground Rail- oed in New York, officially termed the Vigilance Committee, and he was fder connected with the New York Reform Society. By means of the er inderground," he is said to have aided 600 fugitive slaves to freedom. die of these, destined to become much more famous than his benefactor, this Frederick Douglass, who in 1838 was sheltered in Ruggles' home at 1₲: corner of Church and Lispenard Streets.
anOther Negro leaders in the struggle for human rights were Henry High- d Garnett, preacher, orator and pamphleteer, who issued the first call tal a general strike among the slaves; Samuel Ringgold Ward, son of fugi- cke parents, one of the most effective lecturers for the Anti-Slavery So- ak ty ; J. W. C. Pennington, who in 1841 wrote A Text Book of the Origin ttel History of the Colored People, a pioneer contribution on this subject; II nes McCune Smith and Charles Bennett Ray, who published the weekly arflored American; and Alexander Crummell, son of M. Boston Crum- Il, who became a prominent scholar and agitator against slavery. Well
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known in anti-slavery circles were two Negro women-Harriet Tubman who brought slaves out of the border states and worked as well in weste New York, and Sojourner Truth, who took part not only in the an slavery struggle but in the woman's suffrage movement.
White abolitionists worked side by side with their Negro comrades Underground Railroad service and in propaganda activities. Importa among these were James Birney, who freed his slaves in Kentucky a became secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York; H rt ace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune; Richard Hildreth, histori and author of the first anti-slavery novel; Charles A. Dana, editor of t New York Sun; Sydney Howard Gay, who conducted the Anti-Slavi Standard and was an effective "underground" agent; William and Jour Jay, two jurists who by their anti-slavery services nobly upheld an emind
per name; Theodore Weld, one of the most devoted workers in the Ar Slavery Society; Angelina Grimke of South Carolina, a forceful speaker the women's anti-slavery auxiliaries in New York City; and the Tapp brothers, Arthur and Lewis, prominent merchants and philanthropists.
But the Negroes' economic and educational progress was checked 1850 by the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, and many of the ar LOS slavery leaders fled to Canada and Europe to escape being subjected ag to bondage. Though there existed in New York no definite laws restricti lol Negroes, the general attitude was so strongly pro-southern that prejud acted in place of law. Anti-abolitionist feeling grew rapidly, in spite I F
efforts of the churches and the Anti-Slavery Society.
At a time when slave rescues were common throughout the North, N Yorkers were sending fugitives back to the South. The debts of south planters to New York merchants, the pro-slavery influence of Goverr Horatio Seymour, the increasing antagonism between the slaves and newly arrived immigrants-these factors served to intensify anti-Neg d 0 feeling up to the very brink of the Civil War. As the war progressed, ar abolitionist feeling heightened in New York, and during the early p of the conflict the army refused to enlist Negro troops. When emanci The tion was proclaimed as a war measure in 1863, the bitterness grew. In SE fitt of this, however, Lincoln authorized the recruiting of Negroes. than
The draft law of 1863 created such resentment that a three-day riot fppo lowed the first efforts to enforce it. During the riots hundreds of Negr
Pu were killed or badly beaten. Business stopped, and mobs controlled city. The Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue was burned. Con
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PORTRAIT OF HARLEM
ns became so appalling that the Merchants' Committee had to grant ief to nearly 11,000 Negroes.
After the war, the nation centered its attention upon the ex-slaves of the ith, and the problems of northern freedmen were more or less neg- ted. Many of the New York leaders went South to work among their ed brothers. Frederick Douglass moved to Washington in 1869. The lure of New York State to ratify the 15th Amendment caused many thern Negroes to realize that emancipation was but a first step toward edom.
Business establishments conducted by Negroes became fairly common in w York during the last two decades of the 19th century. Hotels, res- trants, "honky-tonks," saloons, professional clubs and small stores were ened. In 1881, the Nail brothers operated a well-known restaurant and liard parlor at 450 Sixth Avenue. Jockey Isaac Murphy, three times win- r of the Kentucky Derby, Pike Barnes, winner of the 1888 Futurity, the gilist Joe Gans, and many other Negro celebrities of turf and ring were trons of this resort.
The fields of amusement and personal service offered the Negro his ost promising opportunities for advancement. Ford Dabney led the sing- g Clef Club orchestra at Ziegfeld's Roof Garden; Williams and Walker, le and Johnson, and Ada Overton were notable successes in New York d London. Oriental America, with an all-Negro cast, opened at Palmer's 1896, displaying the talents of Sidney Woodward, Inez Clough, William Elkins and J. Rosamond Johnson, all of whom were destined for star- m in the years to come. Will Marion Cook's Clorindy, with lyrics by ul Laurence Dunbar, starred Ernest Hogan at the Casino Roof Garden. Ithough minstrelsy was originated by white actors in the 1830's, it was this field that the Negro distinguished himself most highly and made an dubitable contribution to the American theater.
One of the worst of Manhattan's several race riots occurred in August oo, following a quarrel between a Negro and a white man in which e latter was killed. Negroes were seized and beaten throughout the city, ith policemen often assisting in the assaults. In the following year, more an a hundred Negroes were lynched throughout the United States. The sponse of Negro leadership was immediate and impassioned. W. E. B. u Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk, a sensitive interpretation of the egroes' plight at the beginning of the 20th century. The book proved a rning point in the history of Negro thought, and had a tremendous in-
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fluence upon the Negroes of New York. In it, Du Bois took sharp iss with the philosophy of Booker T. Washington, who at that time was t recognized leader of his race.
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Growth of Negro leadership during the early years of this century w evidenced by the organization of business men's leagues, in New Yo
to B and other large cities, by Fred R. Moore, editor of the weekly Color American. But while the Negro middle class was developing measures organization and self-protection, the larger part of New York's Neg Fic population, numbering some 60,000 in 1901, was excluded from tra ens 00
unions, and Negro workers had to compete for jobs with newly-arriv immigrants at unequal odds.
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SO For several decades after the Civil War, most of New York's well-to- Negroes enjoyed a fairly stable community life in Brooklyn. But on Ma hattan Island, where the poorer class predominated, the Negro populati was scattered and shifting, though with its largest numbers in the blight areas of the lower West Side. Moving slowly northward as the city era panded in that direction, the chief center of Negro population was 1900 in the region of West Fifty-Third Street and the neighboring S. tes Juan Hill district. But it was not long before the region became so co gested that many Negroes were seeking homes still further north.
At this time, scores of modern apartment houses that had been built Harlem for white tenants were largely empty, owing to a lack of adequa
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eve transportation facilities. Philip A. Payton, a shrewd and enterprising N gro realtor, persuaded the owners of one or two buildings on 134th Stre PP
to fill them with Negro tenants. Before long, other buildings were tak over and filled. This invasion, as it was termed by white residents of Ha lem, evoked an organized social and economic war. As though they we fighting plague carriers, the Hudson Realty Company, acting for whi
HE property owners, purchased all West Side property owned or rented I Negroes and evicted the tenants. Payton, with J. B. Nail, Sr., in retaliatic organized the Afro-American Realty Company, which purchased buildin, occupied by white tenants and in turn evicted them. Also St. Philip's Epi copal Church, one of the oldest and wealthiest Negro churches in Ne York, purchased 13 apartment houses on West 135th Street, and rente them to Negroes.
The white tenants gave way, and block after block of apartment hous stood deserted. Reluctantly, the landlords leased them to Negroes. F the years passed, the "black blocks" spread and the present "city withi a city" took form. The migration to Harlem was immensely augmented }
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PORTRAIT OF HARLEM
large-scale influx of southern Negroes who came North during the orld War in search of higher wages. At the end of the war, the Negro pulation of New York was estimated to be four times greater than when : movement`to Harlem began.
But after the larger part of New York's Negro population had settled Harlem, owners of apartments elsewhere refused to rent them to Ne- oes ; consequently, rents in the highly congested Harlem area are often ice as much as in other comparable sections of the city. This district's nsity of population and the extremely high rentals have created alarm- g conditions. In 1935 it was found that as many as 3,871 Negroes lived a single city block, and that many families were paying half or more their incomes for shelter. Eighty-four percent of the residential build- gs are from 20 to 34 years old. These conditions account in some part r a death-rate that has reached 15.5 per thousand. Early in 1934, exas- rated tenants organized the Consolidated Tenants' League to combat gh rents and improve living conditions. The Federal-built Harlem River puses, a Public Works Administration project accommodating 527 fam- es, has shown the way to better things although it has accomplished little relieving the congestion of Harlem's wide-spread slums.
But not all of Harlem is slum area. Scattered throughout the district are any well-built homes. The section on 138th and 139th Streets between venth and Eighth Avenues is known locally as "Strivers' Row," because many middle-class Negroes desire to live there; and "Sugar Hill," on per Edgecombe and St. Nicholas Avenues, possesses the newest and tall- t apartment buildings in Harlem, as well as many fine private homes.
The Negro's restriction to certain trades and professions has made him rticularly vulnerable to suffering during times of depression. As early 1910, when Negroes comprised less than two percent of the city's popu- tion, the majority were employed in domestic service. The labor shortage used by the World War, however, enabled a few to enter the fields of insportation, mechanics and manufacture. When the depression struck in 29, many actors, musicians, messengers, porters and domestic servants ere thrown out of work. The extent to which Negro income depends on domestic employment is evidenced by the fact that more than 85 per- nt of employed Negro women are in domestic and personal service. hough today they account for only a little more than five percent of the ty's population, Negroes comprise more than 20 percent of the total imber of persons on relief rolls.
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