NEW YORK — In 1974, the deserted streets and run-down tenements of Harlem told the story of an abandoned neighborhood. Decades of disinvestment had culminated in a mass exodus known as the urban exodus, and residents watched as their wealthier, more educated fellow citizens left the New York neighborhood in droves.
But the tide turned when Percy Sutton, then Manhattan borough president and the highest-ranking black official in New York City, launched a campaign to breathe new vitality into the historically African-American neighborhood, which was known as a global black mecca of arts, culture and entrepreneurship.
It became known as Harlem Week and lured back those who had already moved away. 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 “a constant thread running through the last 50 years of America’s most historic black neighborhood,” said Reverend Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network is headquartered in the neighborhood. “The dream of Percy Sutton and his colleagues in government, art, church and other areas of Harlem lives on, stronger than ever.”
In the 1970s, Harlem needed more than a regular festival if it wanted a resurrection. Those who stayed in Harlem during the urban exodus—mostly low-income black families—turned on their televisions and saw constant despair: crime reports, grim statistics, and reporters calling their home a “sinking ship.”
Sutton knew that Harlem was about to enter an invigorating, uplifting moment.
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, to create an event that would shift attention from Harlem’s problems to its living 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 the corner of 138th Street and 7th Avenue, marking the beginning of the “Second Harlem Renaissance.”
At the grand opening, 7th Avenue was renamed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, named after the first African American elected to Congress from New York City. This 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 us all and said it was such a successful day,” said Lloyd Williams, one of the co-founders of Harlem Day and the current president of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. “It meant so much to the other cities that were abandoned, in Detroit and Baltimore, Washington and Chicago, that they asked if we would do it annually.”
They did, and Harlem Day evolved into Harlem Weekend and eventually Harlem Week, which expanded to a full month of programming before the pandemic.
“Only in Harlem can a week be longer than seven days,” said Williams, whose family has lived in Harlem since 1919.
This year’s celebration featured entertainment including a headlining performance by hip-hop artist Fabolous, a tribute to Harry Belafonte and Broadway performances. Additional concerts showcased jazz, reggae, RandB and gospel traditions are maintained in Harlem, along with hundreds of food and merchandise vendors.
Organizers also organized empowerment initiatives such as financial literacy workshops and health screenings at the Harlem Health Village and the Children’s Festival. Each participating child received a school bag.
Harlem Week has always been a living tribute to the history of Harlem and its great names like WEB Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Augusta Savage and Aaron Douglas. It celebrates the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement and honors landmarks like 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 had been plagued by numerous unrests, including a riot in 1964 that left an unarmed black teenager dead, the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and the turmoil following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Household 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, alongside peers who owned country homes upstate in the Hamptons.
“I didn’t understand why where we lived looked so different from where they lived,” he said. “I knew something was wrong.”
But Harlem residents are creative minds and entrepreneurs, visionaries and leaders. Where others saw decline, they saw opportunity, and the determination to connect Harlem with its potential was strong.
Yoba, now 56, went on to pursue a career as an actor, bringing Harlem to audiences across the country. His experiences with housing inequality also fueled his passion for real estate.
Yoba combats the effects of redlining with his company, Yoba Development, which provides access to the industry for young people of color and runs active projects in Baltimore and New York City.
“When you grow up in disenfranchised and impoverished communities, you can’t see the forest for the trees,” Yoba said. “You grow up believing that it’s a birthright to walk past burned buildings, rather than understanding that construction is a business.”
Hazel Dukes, 92, a prominent New York civil rights activist and 30-year resident of Harlem, has spent her life fighting discrimination in housing and education. She lived in the same Harlem building as Sutton and was involved in the same activism as him. In 1989, she became national president of the NAACP.
“I know what it feels like to be rejected,” said Dukes, who was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and endured segregation under Jim Crow laws before moving to New York City with her parents in the 1950s.
Due to gentrification and the city’s continued cultural appeal, real estate in Harlem is now sought after.
“There was a waiting list because everyone wanted to live in Harlem,” Dukes said. “People want to come to Harlem before they leave this world.”
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