The neighbourhood
Harlem and its Black churches
A short history of Harlem, from a Dutch farming village to a centre of Black American life, and why churches and their choirs sit at the heart of it.
Reserve your Harlem gospel seat ↗A Dutch village
Harlem began as a Dutch settlement, formally organised in 1658 and named after Haarlem in the Netherlands. Peter Stuyvesant led its incorporation in 1660. The National Park Service describes Nieuw Haarlem as a farming village that was renamed Harlem under English control. For most of its early history the area was countryside well north of the city, which is hard to imagine on a street of brownstones and subway entrances.
The Great Migration arrives
In the early 1900s African Americans began to move north to escape the Jim Crow South. As the subway extended uptown, many settled in Harlem, and the neighbourhood changed quickly. Central Harlem's Black population was about 10% in 1910, 32.4% in 1920 and 70% by 1930, per the figures Wikipedia gives for central Harlem, and the National Park Service describes the same shift. People came for work, better schooling and a life away from segregation.
The Black church as an institution
Black churches had been building independent institutions since the 1790s, when Black Christians in Philadelphia left a white Methodist church and opened the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in 1794. The African Methodist Episcopal Church became fully independent in 1816. After Reconstruction the Black church became the cornerstone of African American public life, supporting schools, mutual aid and political organising as well as worship. Families who arrived in Harlem found, and built, churches that did the same work.
More than 400 churches
Religious life has long been strong in Black Harlem, and the neighbourhood has more than 400 churches. Abyssinian Baptist Church has been especially influential because of its large congregation, and Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a New York City landmark. Alongside these large names are many smaller congregations, each with its own choir, which is why gospel is so closely tied to this part of the city.
How churches and choirs fit together
Black churches have carried African rhythms and traditions into worship, and scholars list testimony, exhortation, improvisation, call and response and song among their traditions. That is the working background to a Harlem choir. The singers are not performing a genre borrowed from outside the church; they are drawing on the way the congregation has worshipped for generations. Gospel, spirituals and hymns sit side by side in that repertoire, which is why a good gospel hour moves between them so easily.
The Harlem Renaissance
The period between the world wars came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. Wikipedia describes Central and West Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s as the centre of an outpouring of artistic work without precedent in the American Black community. The National Park Service names Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington among the musicians who flourished here. Black pianists living in Harlem developed stride, and the Apollo Theater opened on 125th Street on 26 January 1934.
Visitors and congregations today
Gospel music has made some Harlem churches a stop for travellers, and that has brought tension as well as income. NBC New York reported that growing crowds caused problems for congregations, that rules such as no photos and no leaving during the sermon were being enforced at one church, and that visitors fill pews and help keep churches afloat financially. A concert designed for visitors, in a church that opens its doors for it, is one way to hear the music without taking a place in someone's Sunday worship.
Where the Wednesday concert fits
The Wednesday concert is a modern way of putting that history in front of visitors. A historic Black church in Hamilton Heights, known for its ministry and its choirs, opens its doors for an hour of gospel and spirituals led by its music director. It is not a regular service, and it is not a stage show either, which is why it deserves the same courtesy you would show on a Sunday. That means keeping your phone away and following the lead of the singers and ushers.
Sources