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Tuesday

Weak African American Leadership in New York, Responsible For the Gentrification of Harlem

The following statement was made in the July, 1911 edition of Harlem Home News, a real estate publication for Harlem at the time.
The Negro invasion must be vigilantly fought, fought until it is permanently checked, or the invaders will slowly but surely drive the whites out of Harlem.
One hundred years later, the script has now been flipped. Today's headline would read:
The Caucasian invasion must be vigilantly fought, fought until it is permanently checked, or the invaders will slowly, but surely, drive the African American out of Harlem.
Harlem became an African American community beginning in the early 1900's. It started with the Great Migration - a period where over a million and half African Americans migrated from the southern states to the northern states. This migration was precipitated by African American's desire to escape the oppression of Jim Crow laws and the promise of better employment opportunities up north.
By the 1920's Black Americans had formed a significant middle class community in many northern cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit. However, Harlem - New York, was the place where African American cultural, political and social consciousness manifested itself on a grand scale. This period of African American development is commonly known as the "Harlem Renaissance". This period of development came to a crashing halt with the arrival of the "Great Depression".
Today's Harlem bears hardly any resemblance of the "Harlem Renaissance" era. Black Americans in Harlem today wield little, if any, political and/or economic influence. This predicament has grown worse in the past two to three decades, due primarily to weak African American leadership in Harlem. The absence of strong, intelligent, and fearless leadership that functions with a high level of integrity is the primary reason why African Americans have no say in the future growth and development of Harlem.
This lack of strong, intelligent and fearless leadership was clearly demonstrated by what happened in Harlem during the 1990's. In the early 90's, the City of New York created a program that offered to sell city owned property in Harlem to the residents of Harlem at below market value. This was a great opportunity for African Americans to actually have some ownership of Harlem.
What happened next is indicative of ineffective and corrupt leadership. Buyers of these properties had no intention of making Harlem black-owned. Their intention was to make a profit in a most unscrupulous manner.
These buyers; mostly African American, would become involved in a scheme to basically defraud New York City and the Federal Government as well as the people of Harlem.
Here is how the game was played.
The original buyer of the property would find a church or other charitable organization to purchase the property from them, at or above true market value. The church or charitable organization wasn't concerned about the above market price of the property because they weren't using their money to buy the property. The church or charitable organization would obtain federally guaranteed 203(k) mortgages to buy the property. The church or charitable organization would then default on the "guaranteed" mortgage. The church or charitable organization would receive a kickback from the seller - the original buyer.
In the aftermath of the defaults of these loans, these building were left to further deteriorate; even though many of them were currently being occupied by tenants. This selfish act of greed caused harm to the people of Harlem and to the residential real estate market in Harlem as well. This period of Harlem history explains why approximately 90%-95% of African Americans in Central Harlem rent and not own their homes.
Strong, Intelligent, Fearless and Scrupulous Leadership This would not have happened if Harlem had strong, intelligent, fearless and scrupulous leadership. The gentrification of Harlem would not be happening today if Harlem had strong, intelligent, fearless and scrupulous leadership. Today, these properties are in the hands of greedy developers who are hell-bent in their endeavor to gentrify Harlem. The disheartening aspect of this is that the current leadership in Harlem appears unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
What Harlem needs right now is a blast from the past in regards to African American leadership. Harlem needs to rekindle the spirit of the Black leaders of the past; leaders who stood up for black people regardless of the price to be paid. We sorely miss leaders like, Malcolm X, Hubert Harrison, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael aka (Kwame Ture), Angela Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Too many of today's African American leaders preach individualism. Individualism teaches our children to go for self; it teaches that "You" can be anything "You" want to be. Preaching individualism plays right into the hands of the enemy; those who wish to limit or control the political and economic influence of African Americans.
The problem with individualism is that it breeds selfishness. Selfishness is the antithesis of Unity. "Divide and Conquer" is a tried and true strategy. If African Americans want to improve their quality of life in America, then we must be willing to come together for the common good of African Americans - the descendants of African slaves. To further make my point I will end this article with a few quotations from true Black leaders.
"You cannot look at the success of black people by seeing who is on the front of Ebony magazine or by looking at Oprah. When you consider that only 1 percent of all business revenue comes from black-owned businesses, you have to ask yourself if this class disparity is the kind of society we want." -- Elaine Brown, Author and Former Black Panther Party leader
"Careful study of the modern black freedom struggle offers support for the more optimistic belief that participants in a mass movement can develop their untapped capabilities and collectively improve their lives."
Clayborne Carson - The Black Scholar 24 (Fall 1994).
Malik Green is the author of "The Black-Print: Black America's Blueprint for Achieving Wealth, Prosperity and Respect". To learn more about this topic and other issues concerning African Americans go to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/black-america-rising
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African American Planet: Relationships, Education, Products & Lifestyle by Nicholl McGuire is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at africanamericanplanet.blogspot.com.

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