Mindy | 
01 15th, 2010| 
Today, the Manhattan borough is one of the most vibrant, and culturally rich neighborhoods in the city, filled with parks, community centers, art schools, fine restaurants, theatres and many a best Manhattan hotel. Across the country and around the world, the musical genres of Hip-Hop, Rap, Swing and Jazz, all owe their beginnings to this neighborhood and the times during the Harlem Renaissance. Not only in music, but in political and literary history, this neighborhood, and the people who have called this home for many generations, have changed world views and society norms, through their art, their ideas and their progressive views on the definition of civil rights and equality.
Today, there are new businesses, new families and new housing developments on the rise, and this stems from, and is reflecting in the resurgence that occurred that time so many years ago, the time of the Renaissance, which began just following the American Civil War. During a time that was still tainted by racism, many African-Americans moved North, in search of a better way of life, a livable way of life, and they found it in the housing developments of Harlem. Between the years of 1900-1920, the African-American population in the city of New York doubled.
The newly arriving population, brought with them what all of the immigrants have brought over the years, their culture, their art, their ideas, their music, their ambitions and their talents. During the 1900′s this became the epicenter for the nation, in the fight towards racial equality, supporting three headquarters for civil rights groups. During 1909, W.E.B. DuBois, together with white civil rights workers and prominent leaders in the African American community, founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP.
As in so many of the streets of the city of New York, this feeling, this historical importance is written on the walls, on the faces, and in the spirit of everyone living in these neighborhoods today. Take a walk through Harlem on your next visit, you will feel the vibe of a small borough of New York, as well as the vibe of a time in our nation’s grand history.
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