Signs of the Times Commemorates Black Perseverance in a Changing Harlem
There are three new signs now along West 125th Street in Harlem, where shoppers and diners move in and out of chain stores including Whole Foods, CVS, Starbucks, Chipotle and Golden Krust.
One on Lenox Avenue marks the former location of the Lenox Lounge, the iconic bar that opened in 1939 and hosted the likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane in its heyday before closing in 2012 when the rent got too damn high. The former Art Deco Lenox Lounge in Harlem.
Another sign on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, still known by some long-time locals as 7th Avenue, stamps Nelson Mandela’s visit there in 1990, just after he was freed from a South African prison.
A stone’s throw away, outside of what’s now the Touro College of Orthopedic Medicine, a third sign marks the old location of the Blumstein Department Store, in what was then the second-biggest building in Harlem after the Hotel Theresa.
The plaque notes the store was the site of a "Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work" campaign led by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. that compelled the Black neighborhood’s white-owned shopping destination to finally hire 34 Black people after years of protests.
All those signs, and 18 more are now installed on blocks from the northern end of Central Park on West 110th Street up to West 162nd Street and Jumel Terrace, veering into Washington Heights. It’s the culmination of a project started a decade ago by the nonprofit group While We Are Still Here, to "educate, enshrine and preserve the extraordinary legacy of Harlem as an influential incubator that was vital to the intellectual, cultural, social, and political advancements of the Harlem community as well as the African Diaspora."
There are four more signs yet to go up due to sidewalk sheds, ongoing construction or construction taking place when technicians tried to install the plaque – a reminder of how quickly Harlem is continuing to develop and change, becoming ever taller and pricier.
‘Move Forward and Persevere’
Where the 13-story Hotel Theresa once stood out as Harlem’s tallest building, high-rise apartments now line 125th Street, and chain businesses and fast casual eateries have pushed out many of the small businesses that once dotted the busy thoroughfare.
Between 2010 and 2020, Harlem gained more than 18,000 white residents and lost 10,805 Black residents, according to census data. That’s part of a broader trend, as the Black population of New York City has gone down by about 200,000, or 9%, over the past two decades, largely because of the rising cost of raising a family here.
"People call what’s happening in Harlem gentrification. I have trouble with the word, but so that I’m understood, I use the word," said Taylor. "But in a building, for instance, like 555 Edgecombe Avenue, or 409 Edgecombe Avenue, many of the white people who are moving in are younger people. They seem to be college students," said Taylor.
"In 555, for example, we have a federal judge who lives here. We’ve got a physician who lives here. We’ve got college professors who live here. You know, all of these very illustrious people who’ve won Grammy Awards and Tony Awards and Emmy Awards, they live in this building. So that’s why I think I have trouble with this terminology, ‘gentrification,’ because it appears to mean white person and that just doesn’t make sense to me," said Taylor.
Conclusion
The Signs of the Times Project stands as a testament not only to Harlem’s past, but to the residents connected to it who are still there. The idea is that "We should just go ahead and do it and not wait for other people." As Taylor said, "We just have to move forward and persevere in what I call the tradition of Black perseverance. We just keep persevering and trying until things turn out right."
FAQs
- What is the Signs of the Times Project?
The Signs of the Times Project is a project started by the nonprofit group While We Are Still Here to "educate, enshrine and preserve the extraordinary legacy of Harlem as an influential incubator that was vital to the intellectual, cultural, social, and political advancements of the Harlem community as well as the African Diaspora." - What is the purpose of the project?
The purpose of the project is to install markers on the streets of Harlem to commemorate the history of the neighborhood and its residents. - How many signs are there?
There are currently 21 signs installed, with four more to be installed in the future. - What is the cost of the project?
The project has cost around $100,000 to cover the design, purchase and installation of the markers, as well as permit fees and some money for a videographer and a photographer to document the work.
