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The whites resented the Negroes taking over Harlem, but eventually all of them had to serve Negroes—including at those white-owned restaurants—or go out of business, because after a while there was nobody left but Negroes. White folks had run out of Harlem like fleas from a dead dog.

Bessie’s words appear midway through Chapter 21, Part V, “Harlem-Town.” In the 1920s, the “New Negro,” an empowered and educated urban Black person, is beginning to emerge. Jim Crow is still in force in the South, but Black people are already staging sit-ins at Harlem lunch counters and making their voices heard. This quotation reveals both the power that Black people are beginning to wield in some cities and also the fear whites have for them. Though Harlem is a popular nightspot for whites, many do not want Black people as their neighbors. Rather than adjusting to newly integrated neighborhoods, whites flee Harlem in the 1920s. Ironically, the Black population, with its jazz artists and celebrated verve, is what attracts tourists and businesses to the area, although the white business owners who benefit from increased activity in the area continue to treat Black people like second-class citizens. Steady progress is made, however, and Bessie and others speak out when they perceive injustice. Slowly, discriminatory business practices are exposed, and shops are pressured into changing their policies.

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