Amidst the artistic spectrum of the Harlem Renaissance, the occupation of prostitution created an underlying tension for African American women and their right to solicit their bodies for profit.
Following the civil war, the city of Harlem thrived as African Americans brought artistic beauty and breathtaking literature to bring forth a renaissance.
Underneath the surface of professional creativity, underground professions such as drug dealing, bootlegging, gambling, and prostitution supplied the needs to those who were daring and eager enough to make quick money.
During the roaring twenties, in the city of Harlem, prostitution was one of many major occupations deemed inappropriate and obscene.
Black prostitutes of the Harlem Renaissance were examined over a course of time and were place on a political watch list.
Dubois''', editor of the NAACP journal threw a curve ball at the investigation exclaiming that if there was going to be an examination of black prostitution, then there would have been a policing of interracial sociability that would promote segregation.
Beginning in the early 1920s, Black prostitutes were predominantly accused of committing the illegal act due to public indecency.
At night they were transformed into hot gambling spots, bars, and rooms for rent that admitted prostitution.
Morgenstern observed that the music and dance halls north of Central Park were "meeting" places of the professional prostitutes who took clients into numerous "transient hotels" nearby.