From the 1930s Harlem faced overcrowding, discrimination in jobs and housing, and disinvestment; disturbances in 1935 and 1943 reflected real grievances. It was also a base for civil-rights and Black-nationalist leaders, among them the pastor and congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X.
Since the 1990s investment, new housing and new institutions have returned, bringing both opportunity and anxiety about rising costs and displacement. Residents, long-time and new, disagree about what Harlem should keep and what should change; this site tries to present those debates fairly.