African Americans in New York City

[13] In the early 1900s, many African Americans moved to Harlem, due to a number of factors, including many Black migrants relocating from the South to the North.

In 1936, overcrowding in Harlem caused scores of African Americans to leave and move to Bedford-Stuyvesant, which eventually became the second largest Black community in New York City.

[16] In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of African Americans in New York City declined, due to Blacks having a higher rate of contracting and dying from the virus than other racial groups.

[19] Black families leaving New York are frequently drawn to places where job growth and housing is more plentiful.

The reformed Constitution of 1821 conditioned suffrage for black men by maintaining the property requirement, which most could not meet, so effectively disfranchised them.

It was the site of the first African-American periodical journal Freedom's Journal, which lasted for two years and renamed The Rights of All for a third year before fading to obsolescence; the newspaper served as both a powerful voice for the abolition lobby in the United States as well as a voice of information for the African population of New York City and other metropolitan areas.

The African Dorcas Association was also established to provide educational and clothing aid to Black youth in the city.

[25][26] "As late as 1869, a majority of the state's voters cast ballots in favor of retaining property qualifications that kept New York's polls closed to many blacks.

African American men did not obtain equal voting rights in New York until the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870.

"[23] Emancipated African Americans established communities in the New York City area, including Seneca Village in what is now Central Park of Manhattan and Sandy Ground on Staten Island, and Weeksville in Brooklyn.

In addition to an influx of long-time African-American residents from other neighborhoods,[31] the Tenderloin, San Juan Hill (now the site of Lincoln Center), Little Africa around Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village and Hell's Kitchen in the west 40s and 50s.

[32][33] The move to northern Manhattan was driven in part by fears that anti-black riots such as those that had occurred in the Tenderloin in 1900[34] and in San Juan Hill in 1905[35] might recur.

In addition, a number of tenements that had been occupied by blacks in the west 30s were destroyed at this time to make way for the construction of the original Penn Station.

In 1905, U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt appointed Charles William Anderson as Collector of Revenue in New York City.

Harlem's decline as the center of the African American population in New York City began with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.

Following the construction of the IND Fulton Street Line[36] in 1936, African Americans left an overcrowded Harlem for greater housing availability in Bedford–Stuyvesant.

[41] Many Black Americans work jobs without health insurance coverage, leading to an inability to seek proper medical care when faced with a severe COVID-19 case.

Band rehearsal on 125th Street in Harlem , the historical epicenter of African American culture. New York City is home by a significant margin to the world's largest Black population of any city outside Africa , at over 2.2 million. African immigration is now driving the growth of the Black population in New York City. [ 5 ]
African American Day Parade in Harlem in 2022
The Apollo Theater on 125th Street in Harlem is the historic nexus of African American culture .
Philip A. Payton, Jr.
During the initial the outbreak of the COVID-19, mortuary trucks like these were used by hospitals and morgues across the city to house the dead. [ 39 ]
James McCune Smith, first African American to run a pharmacy in the United States
James McCune Smith , first African American to run a pharmacy in the United States