Harlem
contained more Negroes per square mile than any other place on
earth. It drew a bewildering and energizing diversity of peoples.
Students, peasants, artists, businessmen, professional men,
poets, musicians, and workers; all came to Harlem. It combined
both the exploiters and the outcasts. Langston Hughes, in
describing his first entrance into Harlem from the 135th Street
subway exit, said that he felt vitality and hope throbbing in the
air. In Black Manhattan, James Weldon Johnson said that Harlem
was not a slum or a fringe. Rather, he insisted that it was one
of the "most beautiful and healthful sections of the city."
According to Johnson, the stranger traveling through Harlem would
be totally surprised by its appearance. Crossing 125th Street on
his way up Seventh Avenue, Johnson said, the visitor would not
expect to find himself in the midst of an Afro-American community.
The character of the houses did not change. For the next twenty-
five blocks the streets, stores, and buildings looked no
different from those he had already passed. With the exception
of their color, the appearance of the people on the streets was
the same too.
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