Race & Gender

Foreign Born (% of Population) 1860-2000
(Images taken from Social Explorer)

Female (% Population 1860–2000)
(Images taken from Social Explorer)

Source: http://www.east-harlem.com/history.htm

A group of Native Americans called the Wecksqauesgek were the first to populate the area of East Harlem.   They called that land “Muscoota”, or “flat place”and it was good for growing crops.  In the 1600s, there was an increase of Dutchmen as they moved up from lower Manhattan.  They began settling the area without asking the Native Americans. Other Dutch settlers and French Huguenots followed suit.  British settlers started to populate the area after the English invasion on 1664.

The late 1800s brought more immigrants to East Harlem.  The German and Irish immigrants were one of the first urban residents of East Harlem.  They were mainly wage laborers who worked on the railroad tracks and tunnels.  Central and Eastern European Jews soon followed them to East Harlem, escaping the crowd of the Lower East Side.  Because of the extended railroad and cheap tenement apartments, many more different groups came to East Harlem.  These groups included African-Americans, Scandinavians, Finns, and Norwegians.

Irish Track-layers

The Italians were a group of immigrants who came to dominate East Harlem for a long period. The first groups of Italian immigrants moved to northern Manhattan during the 1870s. In 1880, more Italian immigrant workers were brought by the First Avenue Trolley as strike breakers. The Irish track-layers who were on strike were later fired.  By 1884, there were about 4,000 Italian immigrants in northern Manhattan.  During the 1890s, there was a major increase in the number of Italian immigrants, mainly from southern Italy. This was due to several factors, which include the expansion of the railroad, and the cleanup of the Italian colony at Mulberry Bend in the Lower East Side. By 1920, the Italians are the dominant group in East Harlem. East Harlem also became the “largest Italian settlement in the United States”.

Welfare Council Report, 1937

Even with so many Italians moving into East Harlem, the total population decreased from 1910-1930. This was due to restrictions on immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. But an even bigger factor was the exodus of many groups, especially the Jewish. Overcrowding of Central Harlem caused many African Americans to start moving into East Harlem (by 1931, there were 164,566 African Americans in East Harlem, or 38% of the total population). Puerto Ricans were also starting to move into East Harlem around this time, but were small in numbers:

Source - Ethnic Displacement in the Interstitial Community: The East Harlem (New York City) Experience Francesco Cordasco and Rocco G. Galatioto

The growth of Puerto Ricans in East Harlem was slow, and took place mainly from 1920-1930, and after WWII. The Puerto Ricans were used to replace workers in the factories, much like how the Italians were once used to replace the track-layers. However, after the depression, the numbers of Puerto Ricans who moved to East Harlem decreased. In 1937, East Harlem was still dominated by the Italians.

As time goes on, the various races of East Harlem adopt and discard social and economic niches.  The following table takes a look at Italians and Jews in 1950, with occupations ranging from managers to laborers:

The following chart shows the steady increase in non-White Populations, a direct contrast to the White population which shows a significant decrease:

More recent statistics show that these trends differentiate East Harlem from the rest of the city:

Local headshot boutique displaying the prominent ethnicities of the area

Although Italian Harlem has been replaced with Spanish Harlem, the white population continues to develop, increasing by 21% between 1990 and 2000. On the other hand, not only has the black population decreased in East Harlem (-10.2%), but it has also diminished in New York City, according to the Community District 11 Planning Assessment.

The Latino population experienced the biggest expansion out of all the ethnicities observed. The Mexican community, however, exploded between 1990 and 2000 – a growth of 324%! Immigrants from the Dominican Republic and “other” have also experienced an increase in number (58.9% and 229% respectively), according to the Community District 11 Planning Assessment.

Statistics gathered from the Community District 11 Planning Assessment

East Harlem's male-female ratio at the turn of the twentieth century. Source - Ethnic Displacement in the Interstitial Community: The East Harlem Experience by Francesco Cordasco and Rocco G. Galatioto

Source - Ethnic Displacement in the Interstitial Community: The East Harlem Experience by Francesco Cordasco and Rocco G. Galatioto

The 1920- 1930 period in East Harlem was marked by a drop in population. This decrease in population is something peculiar; during this decade, East Harlem saw a decrease of 7,224 people. Considering that the influx of Italians had begun to increase at this point, it is a wonder why the population dropped. This demonstrates the sociological effect which pressured other groups, like the German, Irish and especially the Jewish, to move out. The Jewish had maintained a middle-class socioeconomic status at this point, and saw the Italians as a threat to their neighborhood. Feeling that they lost the neighborhood with so many Italians moving in, the Jews began to leave. According to Cordasco and Galatioto, the second-generation Jewish population moved first, attracted by the newly developed areas in the Bronx. Eventually, they were reluctantly followed by the older generations. The table below depicts the decrease in the Jewish presence in East Harlem throughout that decade.

Source - Ethnic Displacement in the Interstitial Community: The East Harlem Experience by Francesco Cordasco and Rocco G. Galatioto