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Harlem Street Scene

    Vintage black and white photo of a nearly deserted street in Harlem, early 1940s. At left, the silhouette of an elderly woman, her back to the camera, is seen on the sidewalk in the shade of brownstone tenements. A white cross, perhaps emblematic of a Protestant mission, hangs from a metal triangle-ball device. A tall post lamp is on the sidewalk in front of the woman. On the right side of the street, early morning sunlight bathes five-story brownstones.

    In the early 1940s, Malcolm Little frequented Harlem streets such as this one. Harlem was Malcolm X’s lodestar, described in his autobiography as “Seventh Heaven.”

    1943
    Copyright
    No known restrictions
    Attribution/Credit

    Photo by Gordon Parks, U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division