The Harlem Reader by Herb Boyd

Author:Herb Boyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307422088
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE

SIDNEY POITIER

From The Measure of a Man:

A Spiritual Autobiography (2000)

In his second autobiography, Sidney Poitier covers some of the same ground he did in This Life. The only difference is the focus and how the material is compressed when it is re-encountered. Here he discusses those years just before he entered the army, recalling a man who cut a fine figure, sometimes arrayed in a doeskin suit and a Panama hat.

My haphazard political education got under way in 1943. The school in which that education occurred was that district north of Central Park known as Harlem, New York. Now, the school of hard knocks provided no classes in political science, but long before I arrived, Harlem residents knew full well that politics was a deck stacked against them—an invisible force of exclusion expertly woven into the fabric of everyday life. In the school of hard knocks, politics was a name for the way white folks arranged things to their own advantage. Harlem residents had figured a good many things out. (1) They knew that for practical economic reasons, there never was a time when downtown politics didn’t embrace Harlem as a cheap and handy labor pool. (2) In cultural terms, they knew downtown politics’ insistence on a requisite distance being kept once they day’s work was done. (3) They knew that in matters of race, downtown politics had set in place rules and ways to enforce those rules, to ensure that all residents from Harlem were respectful of the “civilized traditions” that had been erected between themselves and the larger community over the preceding two hundred years. (4) They also knew that when need required, downtown politics would bombard Harlem with promises Harlem’s residents knew, from experience, would never materialize.

The Harlem that I knew for fourteen years was an amazing place—a fabled destination well known in African-American communities throughout the country. Its dazzling power drew visitors of many races from many places to experience by taste, by smell, by touch its bewitching energies, its mysterious vibrations, and its signature rhythms, each of which was said to be in the very air a visitor breathed. And all of Harlem’s visitors were encouraged to believe that each breath they took would also contain spiritual blessings that came flowing out of the soul of its loving people through the gateways of their hearts.

Harlem’s attractions beckoned with a wink and a smile. Jazz at Minton’s. Vaudeville at the Apollo. Floor shows at Smalls’ Paradise. Comedians and torch singers at the Baby Grand. Jitterbuggers at the Savoy and the Renaissance Casino. Soul food at Jennylou’s. Elegant late-night dining at Wells. The Palm. Frank’s. Sugar Ray Robinson’s. The Shalamar. Joe’s Barbecue. And after midnight, when the legitimate bars closed, the speakeasies would open. There was gambling at the Rhythm Club twenty-four hours a day. There were pleasure houses offering high-quality interludes at prices that guaranteed satisfaction. And then there was the Theresa Hotel—a symbol of community pride and joy—where visitors of big-time status would hold court.

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