Adrian Horczak
People of New York
Professor Jenifer Lutton
February 18, 2015
Blood Relations Ch. 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, & 11
The book has a theme of conflict and cooperation. The black residents of Harlem formed their own social groups, lodges, and churches as a way of working together to find solutions to the hardships they faced in New York City. They struggled getting positions in low wage jobs like janitors and servants. Even if they had the credentials to work in a more favorable position, they were denied that possibility. Thus, African Americans decided to try and start their own businesses by appealing for help from a few wealthy black Americans. They worked together to make their voices heard and some were imprisoned and punished because of ideas thought to be too radical by the white American leaders. One of the best ways to get support for black civil rights was by being economically successful. The lack of access to well paying jobs did not stop them because black Americans started their own successful, although illegal businesses, running lotteries.
In addition, black Americans developed a system of patronage based on personal loyalty to deliver their votes to white Republican candidates. Some even received great rewards for being so loyal. For example, John W. A. Shaw became the Deputy Tax Assessor for Queens, the highest position held by an African American in the state. As they shifted slowly from the Republican to the Democratic Party at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, they formed other organizations to ensure their voices were heard. They made it a priority to encourage leaders to hire blacks in professional jobs. At that time, there were no black police officers.
Feeling a sense of unity among blacks, some African Americans wanted all black people to separate from whites and unite together in Africa where they can govern themselves and provide opportunities for one another. A well-known proclaimer of this idea was Marcus Garvey. The American Revolution inspired Garvey since Americans formed their own successful nation. For many, his ideas seemed very radical and his meetings with the Ku Klux Klan made people feel suspicious of his activities and beliefs. Fearing a revolution of black inhabitants occurring, whites tried to find ways to deport the Jamaican immigrant Marcus Garvey. Therefore, they accused him of mail fraud, imprisoned him, and later deported him from the United States.
A very successful business in Harlem was the lottery. Although illegal, the lottery was the largest employer of black workers in Harlem. In addition, the entrepreneurs that ran the lotteries were respected within the neighborhood. The lottery also helped many small businesses thrive because they collected bids from customers. Popularity was very high among black Americans, but white Americans also participated in this illegal, African-American owned enterprise. Those responsible for running these lotteries pocketed between two thousand to six thousand dollars a week. They used their large sums of money to secure equal political rights for all blacks in America.
It is ironic that lotteries were outlawed when they were so popular among working class and upper class people. Today there are a lot of popular lotteries, since they became legal.
