This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the Harlem Renaissance and the birth of Malcolm X. To celebrate, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed two pieces of legislation renaming the 110th Street-Central Park North subway station after the civil rights icon and designating the Harlem Renaissance Cultural District, officially recognizing the area for its significance.
The legislation renames the Harlem 2/3 subway station 110th Street-Malcolm X Plaza. Born in 1929, Malcolm X lived in Harlem, first in 1943 and then from 1954 until his assassination in 1965.
A second bill authorizes the state’s Council on the Arts to designate the Harlem Renaissance Cultural District. The district stretches from 110th Street to 155th Street, from Fifth Avenue to the Hudson River, marking the area “as sacred ground for Black art and culture and music and thought,” the governor said during a press conference on Sunday.
As a result of the Great Migration, roughly 175,000 African Americans moved to Harlem. By 1930, 70 percent of Central Harlem’s population was black.
During this period, the neighborhood became the center of American culture, art, and academics, with some of the greatest jazz musicians, poets, artists, and writers coming out of Harlem. The area also attracted activist groups and fraternal organizations that laid the groundwork leading up to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
“Harlem has long been a critical intellectual incubator and a global springboard for so many of our greatest artists, poets, leaders, and thinkers,” Erika Mallin, executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts, said.
“For over 60 years, the New York State Council on the Arts has supported the rich cultural work of Harlem — from organizations and public programs to seeding the work of emerging artists — and these are transformative initiatives that will secure Harlem’s creative and cultural future.”
Hochul signed the legislation as part of the annual Harlem Week, a celebration of the neighborhood that began in 1974. Running from August 1 through August 17, this year’s event, with the theme “Celebrate Our Magic,” includes conversations on justice and reform, a career fair, live performances, a night market, and more.
“One of the best ways to celebrate the rich history and community of Harlem is to recognize the contributions of Malcolm X and the Harlem Renaissance to New York and to the world,” Hochul said.
“From the struggle for civil rights and equality to boundary-breaking cultural impacts of American icons like Zora Neale Hurston and Duke Ellington, Harlem has been at the center of progress in our nation for generations.”
The governor also noted the recent passing of Lloyd Williams, who founded Harlem Week and led the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce that helped promote the resurgence of the neighborhood.
“It is especially meaningful to be here as we celebrate Harlem Week and mourn the passing of its co-founder, Lloyd A. Williams, whose life was dedicated to championing this community,” Hochul said.
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