Moreover, Johnson insisted that Harlem was an
integral part of metropolitan New York and was not just a quarter
within the city in the sense that was true of the communities
inhabited by recent European immigrants. Its citizens were not
aliens. They spoke American; they thought American.
Harlem Negroes, claimed Johnson, were woven into the fabric of
the metropolitan economy. Unlike the Negroes in other Northern
cities, they did not work in "gang labor"; rather, they had
individual employment here and there scattered throughout the
city. He believed that this integration into the society as a
whole made a difference in the kind of race relations which
existed there, and he said that it explained why New York had not
had a major race riot in the "bloody summer" of 1919. He
contended that Harlem was a laboratory for the race problem. Many
had argued that when Negroes moved north, the race problem would
follow them. Johnson pointed out that 175,000 Negroes had
recently moved into Harlem without any substantial racial
friction and with no unusual increase in the crime rate.
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