As
the Negro population of Harlem grew, white resistance and
discrimination also increased. Although Johnson had been impressed
with the wealth contained in Harlem, it was infinitesimal compared
to the great sums of money held by whites downtown.
Langston Hughes, wbo had also been impressed by the vitality of
Harlem, came to realize that Negro Harlem was, in fact, dependent
on downtown financing. As Harlem grew, downtown financiers
became increasingly aware that money could be made there. In the
1930s, in contrast to Johnson's optimistic vision, Adam Clayton
Powell, Jr. and others pointed out that almost all the stores on
125th Street, the major shopping district, were owned by whites
and that they employed whites almost exclusively. Harlem soon
became a center for both crime and exploitation.
However, in the 1920s Harlem throbbed with vitality and hope.
Besides attracting Afro-Americans from every walk of life, it
became the focal point for young intellectuals whose creativity
resulted in the Negro Renaissance.
The Negro Renaissance
In 1922, James Welden Johnson edited a volume of American Negro
poetry, and in the same year Claude McKay, who had come to Harlem
from Jamaica, published his first significant volume of poetry,
"Harlem Shadows".
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