esqueness has in large part been preserved by extreme poverty, with its
overcrowding, illiteracy, malnutrition, disease, and social dislocation.

Several health centers have striven to alleviate the distress from disease.
The Negro district's Central Harlem Health Center, the Puerto Rican
Service Center, and Little Italy's East Harlem Health Center serve thousands
of persons daily. The centers direct their work along the lines of preventive
as well as therapeutic medicine.

Crime and juvenile delinquency have germinated in the tenements de-
spite periodic police cleanups. Especially during the Prohibition years, the
Harlems became the headquarters of several notorious gang leaders, who
gathered recruits among the youth of the slums. Harlem's church groups
and settlement houses, such as the Haarlem House, have done their ut-
most to improve the morale of the locality.

The Works Progress Administration has made a significant contribution
to the cultural life and social welfare of Harlem. It provides assistance to
the health centers, operates the Lower Harlem Chest Clinic for tubercu-
losis diagnoses, and assigns teachers and recreational directors to church
community centers. The WPA Federal Arts Projects conduct varied cul-
tural activities: the Music division maintains three schools (Central Man-
hattan, Harlem, and Hamilton branches), the Art unit supervises the
Harlem Community Art Center, the Negro Theater presents productions
at the Lafayette Theater.

Negro Harlem

Area: W. 110th, 120th, and E. 125th Sts. on the south to 155th St. on the north;
from Morningside Ave. and St. Nicholas Ave. (125th to 155th St.) east to Lenox
Ave. (110th to 120th St.), Madison Ave. (120th to 125th St.), and the Harlem
River. Map on page 255.

Negro Harlem, into which are crowded more than a quarter of a mil-
lion Negroes from southern states, the West Indies, and Africa, has many
different aspects. To whites seeking amusement, it is an exuberant, origi-
nal, and unconventional entertainment center; to Negro college graduates
it is an opportunity to practice a profession among their own people; to
those aspiring to racial leadership it is a domain where they may advocate
their theories unmolested; to artists, writers, and sociologists it is a mine
of rich material; to the mass of Negro people it is the spiritual capital of
Black America.

Negroes began to move into Harlem in 1901 as a result of a deflated