Posted on : 24-01-2010 | By : admin
On Monday, January 18, 2010, In Political Issues, By Malik Green
The following statement was made in the July, 1911 edition of Harlem Home News, a real estate publication for Harlem at the time.
The Negro invasion must be vigilantly fought, fought until it is permanently checked, or the invaders will slowly but surely drive the whites out of Harlem.
One hundred years later, the script has now been flipped. Today’s headline would read:
The Caucasian invasion must be vigilantly fought, fought until it is permanently checked, or the invaders will slowly, but surely, drive the African American out of Harlem.
Harlem became an African American community beginning in the early 1900’s. It started with the Great Migration – a period where over a million and half African Americans migrated from the southern states to the northern states. This migration was precipitated by African American’s desire to escape the oppression of Jim Crow laws and the promise of better employment opportunities up north.
By the 1920’s African Americans had formed a significant middle class community in many northern cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit. However, Harlem – New York, was the place where African American cultural, political and social consciousness manifested itself on a grand scale. This period of African American development is commonly known as the “Harlem Renaissance”. This period of development came to a crashing halt with the arrival of the “Great Depression”.
Today’s Harlem bears hardly any resemblance of the “Harlem Renaissance” era. African Americans in Harlem today wield little, if any, political and/or economic influence. This predicament has grown worse in the past two to three decades, due primarily to weak African American leadership in Harlem. The absence of strong, intelligent, and fearless leadership that functions with a high level of integrity is the primary reason why African Americans have no say in the future growth and development of Harlem.
This lack of strong, intelligent and fearless leadership was clearly demonstrated by what happened in Harlem during the 1990’s. In the early 90’s, the City of New York created a program that offered to sell city owned property in Harlem to the residents of Harlem at below market value. This was a great opportunity for African Americans to actually have some ownership of Harlem. What happened next is indicative of ineffective and corrupt leadership. Buyers of these properties had no intention of making Harlem black-owned. Their intention was to make a profit in a most unscrupulous manner. These buyers; mostly African American, would become involved in a scheme to basically defraud New York City and the Federal Government as well as the people of Harlem. Here is how the game was played. The original buyer of the property would find a church or other charitable organization to purchase the property from them, at or above true market value. The church or charitable organization wasn’t concerned about the above market price of the property because they weren’t using their money to buy the property. The church or charitable organization would obtain federally guaranteed 203(k) mortgages to buy the property. The church or charitable organization would then default on the “guaranteed” mortgage. The church or charitable organization would receive a kickback from the seller – the original buyer. In the aftermath of the defaults of these loans, these building were left to further deteriorate; even though many of them were currently being occupied by tenants. This selfish act of greed caused harm to the people of Harlem and to the residential real estate market in Harlem as well. This period of Harlem history explains why approximately 90%-95% of African Americans in Central Harlem rent and not own their homes.
Malik Green is the author of “The Black-Print: Black America’s Blueprint for Achieving Wealth, Prosperity and Respect. He is also the host Black America Rising - Blog Talk Radio Show. For more information about the author’s views and opinions regarding African Americans go to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/black-america-rising or http://www.insightful-opinion.com
