ly inhabited by Negroes. About
1890, the community shifted its focus northward into the 20's and low
30's just west of Sixth Avenue. At the turn of the century, it moved
again into the vicinity of 53rd Street. By this time, the city's
Afro-American community was developing a small middle class of its own,
and it contained its own fashionable clubs and night life. Visiting
Negro entertainers from across the country usually performed at and
resided in the Marshall Hotel. The "Memphis Students", probably the first
professional jazz band to tour the country, played at the Marshall.
Shortly after 1900, Negroes began to move to Harlem.

Harlem had been overbuilt with large apartments which the owners were
unable to fill. The Lenox Avenue subway had not yet been built, and there
was inadequate transportation into the area. As a result, most tenants
preferred to live elsewhere. Philip A. Payton, a Negro real estate
agent, told several of the owners, located on the east side of the
district, that he could guarantee to provide them with regular tenants if
they were willing to accept Negroes. Some of the landlords on East 134th
Street accepted his offer, and he filled their buildings with Negro
tenants.

At first, whites did not notice. However, when Negroes spread west of
Lenox Avenue, white resistance stiffened. The local residents formed a
corporation to purchase the buildings inhabited by Negroes and to evict
them. In turn, the Negroes responded by forming the Afro-American Realty
Company, and they too bought out apartment buildings, evicted the white
tenants, and rented the apartments to Negroes. White residents then put
pressure on lending institutions not to provide mortgages to prospective
Negro buyers. When one was able to buy a piece of property, regardless
of how prosperous or orderly he might appear, local whites viewed it as
an invasion, panicked, and moved out in droves. This left the banks,
still unwilling to sell to Negroes, holding a large number of deserted
properties. Eventually, they were compelled to sell these properties at
deflated prices. During and immediately after the First World War,
Negroes poured into Harlem, obtained high-paying jobs, and purchased
their own real estate. Johnson believed that Harlem Negroes owned at
least sixty million dollars worth of property, and this, he believed,
would prevent the neighborhood from "degenerating into a slum."

However, the great migration from the rural So