When some nineteenth century New Yorkers said "Harlem",
/ Q2 k( Q/ C" O) R they meant almost all of Manhattan above Eighty-sixth Street.% ]3 O* M! D' q- K7 p
Toward the end of the century, however, a group
+ R2 _' _) {, E$ @9 J' W7 S of citizens in upper Manhattan-want perhaps, to shape a closer 1._________
" M& u$ [( V5 E1 b. s1 W j and more precise sense of community—designated a section that% \4 ]( a3 X% ?8 P' r
they wished to have known as Harlem. The chosen area was the0 Q0 K& @7 f' x( f" [0 k5 ?- b
Harlem which Blacks were moving in the first decades of the 2.________
) l* w/ ]( \! b$ j K6 T new century as they left their old settlements on the middle and
1 i, y" G0 K* n# m lower blocks of the West Side.; ~0 f' d. M- v5 f% ~( w
As the community became predominantly Black, the very
# x8 b/ w6 W" J" V, ] word "Harlem" seemed to lose its old meaning. At time it was 3.________
) F: k5 W! q) M& H# G& O9 T easy to forget that "Harlem" was originally the Dutch name% @1 E5 ]( ]5 W+ H: I2 h
"Harlem"; the community it described had been founded by 4.________, i1 e4 o. a% a
people from Holland;and that for most of its three centuries—it
! r7 ?( C: v0 F! o was first settled in the sixteen hundreds—it had been preoccupied 5.________( f5 F" V$ Y9 e$ V i% {6 ^) J
by White New Yorkers. "Harlem" became synonymous to 6.________
3 c- D0 Q) Y P* T4 ?# X. N6 ]( _' x Black life and Black style in Manhattan. Blacks living there% X; X Y0 I; ^/ Q
used the word as though they had coined it on themselves—not 7.________
4 Q/ r- s" L# o' ]" W) T only to designate their area of residence but to express their1 A$ J- q$ U! V. ?$ u) p- n+ s
sense of the various qualities of its life and atmosphere. As the- B4 B s, r4 r4 p3 M2 Z
years passed, "Harlem" asserted an even larger meaning. In 8.________
0 S6 p( {4 v/ x5 d4 U$ ~ the words of Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., the pastor of the' s$ j F6 g1 e3 r
Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem "became the symbol of liberty
1 _, w& y6 \) j8 Z and the Promised Land to Negroes everywhere".
) J2 O. m' I3 ?: H3 b H9 ] |