HARLEM RENAISSANCE
The years? Late 1910s – mid 1930s. The place? Harlem. The vibe? Black and Excellent.
With the Great Migration, multitudes of Blacks exchanged sharecropping, Jim Crow, and racist terrorism in the south for employment and increased racial tolerance in the north and west. Almost 175,000 Blacks relocated to Harlem; accounting for the largest concentration of Black people in the world during that time. As we do wherever we go, Blacks brought their creative minds and talents with them, sparking an era of significant cultural expression—the Harlem Renaissance. This expression also took place in Cleveland and LA, but is greatest known in Harlem. Alain Locke—dean the Renaissance—described the time as a transformation from “social disillusionment to race pride.”
Poetry, prose, jazz, swing, painting were all at the forefront of cultural expression and portrayed what it truly meant to be Black in America. Artists used raw art forms to underscore their civil rights.
Intellectuals: W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Cyril Briggs, Walter Francis White; Performers: Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson; Writers and Poets: Zora Neale Hurston, Effie Lee Newsome, Countee Cullen; Visual Artists: Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage; Musicians: Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ivie Anderson, Josephine Baker, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton. All LEGENDARY; all of whom should have their names spoken over and over again.
Black art defined and was the culture for Blacks and whites alike. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 meant less financial support for the arts and the Harlem Renaissance came to a close in the following years. The impact remained as Blacks around the world renewed their commitment to social consciousness and political activism.
FASHION FOOTNOTE:
Many Blacks had an evolving middle class status and new luxuries to match. Out with the old, in with the colorful, flashy, and glamor! The feathers, frocks, fascinators, & furs were signs of liberation. The dresses were looser and those hemlines rose up as women expressed their new freedoms and danced the night away at speakeasies.
EARLY TO MID-20TH CENTURY BLACK MAIDS
Can we tell the truth about them? So many white families romanticize their maids’ experiences and roles in their lives. Many were neither happy nor adequately compensated working for those families. Many had their own children to raise and preferred to be at home with them. Many were severely mistreated and those families’ children (now adults) will never know the truth behind those atrocities. Their parents kept it from them. Why? Same reason it’s illegal to teach critical race theory in schools.
Working as a maid was a means to an end. Most could not be hired elsewhere because of racism + socioeconomic barriers to education, opportunity, and upward mobility.
My Grandma was a maid for a short time in the 1940s. She took a gap year after high school to pay for college. The white woman she worked for wanted her floors mopped after every. single. meal. She micromanaged and obsessed over it. Why do you need a maid when you at home all day? I digress.
One day this woman talked to my Grandma real crazy, so Grandma THREW THE MOP DOWN, QUIT, + WENT TO COLLEGE. She left without her final check, but TRUST my Great Grandma went back for it!
Now Black women are the Most Educated, Often Imitated, Never Duplicated demographic in these United States. We stand on the shoulders of women who came before us. The women who scrubbed floors, cleaned toilets, raised other folks’ babies (and their own), and still gracefully contended with the duality of being Black and a woman. People of color continue to hold most jobs in service industries and I need everyone to put RESPECT on their names. Greet them in the hallways. Dap them up. Thank them for their service. If your family employed a Black maid then or now, inquire about the real experience. Black maids: Tell their stories and tell them honestly.
FASHION FOOTNOTE: By the 20th century, maid uniforms strayed from the common black color and became available in grey, neutrals, and blue. Dresses were simple, serviceable, and came with aprons. The goal was to look presentable in what’s functional.
EARLY TO MID-20TH CENTURY BLACK MAIDS VIDEO
SYDENHAM HOSPITAL
This hospital was established in 1892 in a Harlem brownstone on 124th and Manhattan Ave. In 1944, the hospital moved to a 200-bed facility on 125th and Lenox. Sydenham served predominately Black patients and became the first hospital to have a desegregated interracial policy with 6 Black Trustees and 20 Blacks on staff. This was the first full service hospital in New York to hire Black doctors and became well-known for hiring Black docs + nurses when other NYC hospitals would not.
Because of its small size, Sydenham faced more financial issues than most private hospitals. In 1971, Florence Gaynor became the first Black female Executive Director. In 1977, Mayor Ed Koch announced a 10% reduction in municipal hospital funding. Metropolitan Hospital (East Harlem) and Sydenham were up for closure.
The Coalition to Save Sydenham assisted with legal efforts to stop the closing, facilitated rallies, and brought to the forefront research to demonstrate the need for the hospital. The government itself called Harlem underserved and a health disaster area in 1977. The Committee of Interns and Residents staged a walk out to protest budget cuts. Metropolitan was saved, but Sydenham closed by 1980. The hospital for Black folks was not saved. Interesting.
When I walk the halls of my teaching hospital, I do not see photos of Black doctors + nurses from the time of inception. I am constantly reminded we need another Sydenham. This time Black-created and Black-led. I imagine Black patients and clinicians walking down the hallways of such a hospital decades from now seeing themselves and imagining all the possibilities.
FASHION FOOTNOTE:
The nursing uniform is largely attributed to Florence Nightingale. Before Nightingale, nurses did not have a uniform as they were not yet part of a recognized profession. The attire helped legitimize nursing as a career. Uniforms were modeled after nun habits and featured long dresses, aprons, and plain caps. This imagery soon became iconic and the wealthy even masqueraded as nurses at fancy balls. Salute to Mary Elizabeth Mahoney—first Black trained nurse in the US.
SENECA VILLAGE
Central Park? Nah, SENECA VILLAGE.
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W 82nd – W 89th St was once home to predominately Black Americans. Seneca Village began in 1825 when John and Elizabeth Whitehead, white farmers, divided their land into 200 lots and began selling them to Black folks.
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This area provided Blacks a respite from unhealthy conditions and racial discrimination downtown. New York abolished slavery in 1827, but racism remained. Living in Seneca Village offered Blacks more stability as half of them owned their homes. With property ownership came the right to vote. By the mid-1850s, the town had 50 homes, 3 churches, and a school for Black children.
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In the early 1850s, the city began planning Central Park. In years prior, the media and park advocates began using racial slurs to describe Seneca Village. They portrayed inhabitants as squatters committing illegal activities while living in shanty towns. Same tricks, different century. In 1853 Central Park commissioners conducted tax assessments on land; offering an average of $700 to landowners. Community members fought to retain their homes and land, but in 1857, the government acquired all property through eminent domain and the final inhabitants were removed.
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Columbia University is conducting research to learn more about Seneca Village and its 32 year history. To remove home ownership and, therefore, voting rights from a Black community trying to reconstruct after slavery is yet another example of systemic attacks on Black opportunities for social mobility. Central Park is what it has become. Just remember when you’re taking in that semi-fresh air on your morning jog or allowing your children to play in the snow when it’s 21 degrees outside (???), you are doing so on land that rightfully belonged to Black folk.
FASHION FOOTNOTE:
In the 1850’s, fashion silhouettes were all about thin waists, tight corsets, and voluminous skirts. The dome-shaped skirts were often supported by petticoats underneath. Sleeves became open and wide. Necklines remained high. Fashion was colorful and luxurious!
I especially enjoyed this year’s series because you all not only learned from what I shared, but I also learned from all of your comments. Especially on the Black Maids post, there was a sharing and storytelling (still in the comments!) of experiences from so many across our Beautiful diaspora. I was all the more reminded how rich and powerful our history is; how rich and powerful we are!
Thank you all so much for coming on this journey with me and I hope you all enjoyed. You can catch Vol. 1 and 2 here & here. Looking forward to next year’s series and the celebration of Black excellence, Black love, Black joy all year long!
xx,
Photos by Tina Smith and Sweetie Mensah
