In 1900 there were 60,000 African Americans in the city, 5,000 of which were foreign-born. By 1930 Manhattan was home to 224,000 African Americans including 40,000 foreign-born, and Harlem had the largest population of Caribbean immigrants. Prior to the popular migration to New York, Caribbean people mostly participated in interterritorial migration. This began after many were freed from slavery and moved away from their former plantations. However, there were several immediate issues that they encountered. Due to a lack of land reform, freed slaves had no real opportunities to be landowners, but instead were stuck as laborers. Additionally, the large volume of unemployed people made it very difficult to find available jobs. Eventually between 1904 and 1914, many moved to Panama to work on the Canal. It was in the Canal Zone that many Caribbean people first encountered American-style Jim Crow laws.

At the start of World War I, Caribbean people were immigrating to New York at the same time that native blacks were migrating from the southeastern seaboard. Additionally, blacks were being pushed upward towards Harlem, pulled by the availability of homes devised by Philip Payton and other African American real estate agents. The result was a rapid peopling of a black, heterogeneous Harlem. This new and upcoming community produced interesting reactions from blacks and whites.

Many African American leaders hoped that incoming blacks from both the South and the Caribbean would align with and contribute to the goals set for the entire race, many of which involved attaining higher social class. Some looked to Caribbean immigrants as models for the “representative negro” that all members of the race should aspire to imitate. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that the Caribbean immigrants were sensible and hardworking people and referred to them as “cultural heroes”. On the other hand, many native blacks felt threatened by the immigrants, many of whom were educated. They feared that they would compete for jobs and their place in society. To assert superiority, some native blacks would form exclusive social groups and prevent Caribbean immigrants from joining.

Examining “race” as a social construct was a new concept to me, and it was interesting to see how it applied. Native blacks and Caribbean immigrants were both categorized as “black”, however, whites tended to treat Caribbean blacks better after realizing they were not native. Booker T. Washington spoke of a man who was trying to get a hotel room and the worker who spoke to him with great resentment, but upon realizing he was a Caribbean immigrant, the worker’s resentment was replaced with respect. Claude McKay recalled a time when he did not have on him his registration card and was arrested because he believed to be a draft dodger. When a judge heard that McKay was from Jamaica he complimented the country, referred to McKay as “sir”, and dismissed his case. Additionally, two black men on the train were asked to move to a Jim Crow car by the conductor, but when the conductor heard them speak Spanish he withdrew his request and began to treat them like any other passenger. This prompted some African American leaders to encourage blacks to get ahead by learning Spanish. Some native blacks could even benefit socially when they would be mistaken as immigrants. These incidents prove that race is just another way to categorize humans, and while it is helpful in many respects, it has produced a baseless hierarchy of worth many times throughout history.