NEW YORK — In 1974, the deserted streets and dilapidated tenements of Harlem told the story of a neighborhood gone bad. Decades of disinvestment had led to a mass exodus known as urban flight, as residents watched their wealthier, better-educated brethren flee the New York City neighborhood en masse.
But the tide turned when Percy Sutton, then Manhattan’s borough president and New York City’s highest-ranking black elected official, launched a campaign to revitalize the historic African-American neighborhood, known as a global mecca for black art, culture and entrepreneurship.
It became known as Harlem Week, and was intended to draw back those who had left. On Sunday, organizers celebrated the 50th anniversary of Harlem Week after 18 days of free programming showcasing all that the iconic neighborhood has to offer.
Harlem Week is “the constant thread through the last 50 years of America’s most historic black neighborhood,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network is headquartered in the neighborhood. “The dream of Percy Sutton and his colleagues in government, the arts, the church and other elements of Harlem lives on, stronger than ever.”
In the 1970s, Harlem demanded more than a simple festival if it was to be revived. Those who remained in Harlem during the urban exodus—mostly poor, black families—turned on their televisions to a constant display of despair: crime reports, grim statistics, and reporters who called their homes “sinking ships.”
Sutton knew that Harlem was in need of a revitalizing, uplifting period.
That summer, Sutton gathered religious, political, civic, and artistic leaders including Tito Puente, Max Roach, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Lloyd Williams. Together, they conceived of an event that would shift the spotlight from Harlem’s problems to its vibrant legacy: Harlem Day.
Radio DJs Hal Jackson and Frankie Crocker performed a concert on the plaza of the Harlem State Office Building, while actor Ossie Davis cut a ribbon at 138th Street and 7th Avenue, heralding the beginning of the “Second Harlem Renaissance.”
During the opening ceremony, 7th Avenue was renamed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, after the first African American elected to Congress in New York. It was the first time a street in New York City was named after a person of color.
“About two or three weeks later, Percy Sutton called all of us and said it had been such a successful day,” said Lloyd Williams, one of Harlem Day’s co-founders and current president of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. “It meant so much to the other cities that were being abandoned in Detroit and Baltimore, Washington and Chicago, that they asked if we would do it again annually.”
They did, and Harlem Day evolved into Harlem Weekend and eventually Harlem Week. Before the pandemic, the event expanded to a full month of programming.
“Only in Harlem can a week last longer than seven days,” said Williams, whose family has lived in Harlem since 1919.
This year’s celebration featured entertainment including a headlining set by hip-hop artist Fabolous, a tribute to Harry Belafonte and Broadway performances. Other concerts featured jazz, reggae, R&B- and gospel traditions are kept alive in Harlem, along with hundreds of food and merchandise vendors.
Organizers also included empowerment initiatives, such as financial literacy workshops and health checks, at the Harlem Health Village and the Children’s Festival. Every child who attended received a back-to-school backpack.
Harlem Week has always been a living tribute to Harlem’s history of greats such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Augusta Savage, and Aaron Douglas. It recognizes the Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts Movement, and honors landmarks such as the Apollo Theater and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Many historians consider the late 1960s and 1970s to be Harlem’s darkest years.
The area was plagued by unrest, including a riot in 1964 that left an unarmed black teenager dead, the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and the unrest following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Family incomes fell dramatically and infant mortality rates were high.
“The neighborhood was run down,” recalls Malik Yoba, an actor born in the Bronx in 1967 who grew up in Harlem and spent days playing in the dirt of vacant lots. Yoba went to school on the Upper East Side with peers who owned mansions in the Hamptons.
“I didn’t understand why the place where we lived looked so dramatically different from where they lived,” he said. “I knew something was wrong.”
But Harlemites are creatives and entrepreneurs, visionaries and leaders. Where others saw decline, they saw opportunity, and the determination to match Harlem to its potential was great.
Yoba, now 56, built a career as an actor who brought Harlem to audiences across the country. His experiences with housing inequality also fueled his passion for real estate.
Yoba is combating the effects of redlining through his company Yoba Development, which provides young people of color access to the sector and has active projects in Baltimore and New York City.
“When you grow up in underserved and alienated communities, you can’t see the forest for the trees,” Yoba said. “You can grow up thinking that walking past burned-down buildings is your birthright, instead of understanding that construction is a business.”
Hazel Dukes, 92, a prominent New York civil rights activist and Harlem resident for 30 years, has dedicated her life to fighting discrimination in housing and education. She lived in the same Harlem building as Sutton and organized with him, later becoming national president of the NAACP in 1989.
“I know what it’s like to be rejected,” said Dukes, who was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and lived through Jim Crow segregation. She moved to New York City with her parents in the 1950s.
Today, real estate in Harlem is in high demand due to gentrification and its enduring cultural appeal.
“There was a waiting list because everyone wanted to live in Harlem,” Dukes said. “People want to come to Harlem before they make the transition out of this world.”
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