List of people from Harlem
People from Harlem, New York.
The early period (pre-1920)
- John James Audubon - naturalist
- Frederic Alexander Birmingham - editor of Esquire Magazine from 1945-1957, grew up in Harlem[1]
- Richard Croker - Tammany Hall politician[2]
- F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald - author and wife[3]
- George and Ira Gershwin: Composers, grew up in Harlem. George wrote his first hit song, "Swanee," at his home at 520 W. 144 street in 1919.[4]
- Alexander Hamilton - politician, lived in Harlem at the end of his life
- Oscar Hammerstein I - lived at 333 Edgecombe Avenue[4]
- Harry Houdini - magician, lived at 278 West 113th Street from 1904 until his death in 1926[5]
- Scott Joplin - pianist/composer, lived at 133 West 138th Street in 1916, then at 163 West 131st Street until his death in 1917. Had a studio at 160 West 133rd Street.[6]
- Norman Rockwell - lived as a child at 789 St. Nicholas Avenue.[4]
The Harlem Renaissance and World War II (1920-1945)
- Louis Armstrong - musician[7]
- Count Basie - bandleader and pianist. Lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue.[8][9]
- George Wilson Becton - religious cult leader[10]
- Julius Bledsoe - singer, lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue[9]
- Arna Bontemps - writer
- William Braithwaite - poet and novelist, lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue[9]
- Eunice Carter - New York state judge, lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue[9]
- John Henrik Clarke - editor of Freedomways Magazine and of several books, sometime professor. Moved to Harlem in 1933.[11]
- Collyer brothers - compulsive hoarders, lived in Harlem their entire adult lives
- Countee Cullen - poet[7]
- Aaron Douglas - painter, lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue[9][11]
- W.E.B. DuBois - activist, writer. Lived at 409 Edgecombe.[8][9]
- Duke Ellington - composer, band leader. Lived on Riverside Drive in Harlem and, at another point, at 555 Edgecombe.[12][8]
- Father Divine - religious leader[12] Lived in several locations in Harlem, including on Astor Row, and maintained offices at 20 West 115th Street[13]
- Jesse Fauset - poet
- Rudolph Fisher - writer[11]
- Willie Gant - pianist
- Charles "Sweet Daddy" Grace – evangelist, born in Cape Verde islands but became prominent in Harlem in the 1920s[12]
- Lillian Harris Dean - entrepreneur known as Pigfoot Mary
- Lionel Hampton - jazz musician. Lived in Harlem through WWII and for some years thereafter.[11]
- Johnnie Hodges - musician, lived at 555 Edgecombe.[8]
- Billie Holiday - singer, lived with her mother at 108 West 139th Street[14]
- Casper Holstein - gangster
- Langston Hughes - writer[3]
- Zora Neal Hurston - writer[3]
- Bumpy Johnson - gangster, lived in Lenox Terrace at 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue near the end of his life.[15]
- James P. Johnson - pianist
- James Weldon Johnson - author, activist, composer. Lived at 187 West 135th Street.[8]
- Fiorello La Guardia - New York Mayor, from East Harlem
- Cora La Redd - dancer[7]
- Alain Locke - editor[7]
- Claude McKay - poet and novelist. Born in Jamaica but moved to Harlem and wrote the famous novel "Home to Harlem"
- Florence Mills - entertainer
- Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. - priest, civic leader[12]
- A. Philip Randolph - activist, labor organizer
- Paul Robeson - singer and actor, lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue.[8][9]
- Bill "Bojangles" Robinson - dancer, lived on Strivers' Row.[8]
- Willie "The Lion" Smith - pianist
- Stephanie St. Clair - criminal leader, lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue.[16]
- Wallace Thurman - writer[7]
- Jean Toomer - writer[11]
- James Van Der Zee - photographer[12]
- Fats Waller - pianist
- Madam C.J. Walker - philanthropist and tycoon
- A'Lelia Walker - socialite and businesswoman
- Ethel Waters - singer, actress. Born in Chester, PA
- Walter Francis White - civil rights leader[17]
- Bert Williams - vaudeville actor. Born in Antigua. Died in 1922, near the start of the Harlem Renaissance.
- Mary Lou Williams - pianist, lived at 63 Hamilton Terrace[14]
Famous after WWII
- Emmanuel Abdul-Rahim- Jazz drummer, born in Harlem
- James Baldwin - novelist, lived at one time at 131st Street and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. (which was called "seventh avenue" when Baldwin still lived there)[18]
- Romare Bearden - artist, primarily working in collage.
- Harry Belafonte - calypso musician
- Ron Brown - U.S. Secretary of Commerce, grew up in the Hotel Theresa.[19]
- Claude Brown - novelist, wrote Manchild in the Promised Land
- Dr. Kenneth Clark - psychologist and activist, lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue.[9]
- Benjamin J. Davis - New York city councilman, ultimately sent to jail for violations of the Smith Act[11]
- Ossie Davis - actor, lived in Harlem in the late 1930s and mid-1940s
- Ralph Ellison - novelist, wrote Invisible Man, about a man who moves from the deep south to Harlem. Lived at 730 Riverside Drive in Harlem.[20]
- Erik Estrada - actor, from East Harlem
- Jack Geiger - physician, cofounder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; lived with Canada Lee for a year at 555 Edgecombe Avenue.[21]
- Althea Gibson - professional tennis player. Lived at 115 West 143rd Street.[8]
- W. C. Handy - composer and bandleader, lived on Strivers' Row in Harlem towards the end of his life.[8]
- Bennie Harris - musician, trumpet[22]
- Roy Innis - head of the Congress of Racial Equality. Lived in Harlem but ultimately moved to Brooklyn. "Forget Harlem. Brooklyn is now the world's black capital."[23]
- LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka - dancer / poet / activist
- Charles Kenyatta - activist, pastor, bodyguard and confidant of Malcolm X[12]
- Canada Lee - actor, lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue.[21]
- Frankie Lymon - Lead tenor of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, best known for "Why do Fools Fall in Love"
- Frank Lucas - drug dealer
- Malcolm X - preacher, revolutionary
- Earl Manigault - Basketball player
- Thurgood Marshall - Supreme Court justice, lived at 409 Edgecombe Avenue.[8][9]
- Carl McCall - one-time New York State Senator, and Comptroller of New York State[12]
- Jackie McLean - musician, alto saxophone[22]
- Eleanor Holmes Norton - one-time head of the Commission of Human Rights for New York City, now non-voting Delegate from the District of Columbia to the United States House of Representatives. "There is something magical about Harlem."[12]
- Gordon Parks - film director and photographer[12]
- Basil Patterson - one-time Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee[12]
- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. - politician
- Bud Powell - musician, piano[22]
- Isiah Robinson, one-time president of the New York City Board of Education[12]
- Sugar Ray Robinson - Boxer, Harlem entrepreneur. Moved to Harlem at age 12.
- Sunny Rollins - musician, tenor saxophone[22]
- Steve Rossi - Comedian, former manager for Howard Stern[24]
- Hazel Scott - pianist, one-time wife of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., first African American woman with her own television show.[12]
- Nina Simone - singer. Lived for a time in Duke Ellington's old house in Harlem.[12]
- Percy Sutton - one-time Borough President of Manhattan. "If I were offered a million dollars, I wouldn't leave Harlem."[12]
- Dinah Washington - "Queen of the Blues", born in Alabama but became famous when she lived in Harlem.[12]
- Roy Wilkins - civil rights leader, lived at 409 Edgecombe.[8]
- Louis T. Wright - influential physician, chairman of the board of the NAACP[17]
Rap and hip hop
- Damon Dash - CEO
- Tupac Shakur - deceased rapper
- Big L - deceased rapper
- Cam'ron - rapper (Co-CEO of The Diplomats)
- Doug E.Fresh - 80's rapper
- Acechek - rapper
- Jae Millz - rapper
- JR Writer - rapper
- Juelz Santana - rapper
- Joe Budden - rapper
- Mase - rapper
- Freekey Zeekey - rapper (president of Diplomat Records)
- Jim Jones (rapper) - rapper (Co-CEO of The Diplomats)
- Immortal Technique - Rapper
- Murda Mook - battle rapper
- T-Rex - battle rapper
- Neek Rusher - songwriter/producer
- Kelis - R&B Singer/songwriter
- Biz Markie - rapper/disc jockey
- Cannibal Ox - rapper duo
21st century residents
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - basketball player, moved into a Mount Morris brownstone in September, 2006.[25]
- Alimoe, aka Tyrone Evans - streetballer
- Maya Angelou - author, owns a home on 120th Street in Mount Morris Park district. "I never agreed with Thomas Wolfe. I never thought you can’t go home again. I've been coming home to Harlem for 50 years."[26]
- Anthony Ashe - poet, born and raised in Harlem.
- Jonathan Franzen - author, lived on 125th Street when he wrote his book The Corrections[27]
- Marcia Gay Harden - actress[3]
- S. Epatha Merkerson - actress [3]
- Mandy Patinkin - actor[3]
- Adam Clayton Powell IV - New York City council member
- Akhnatan Spencer-El - Olympic fencer
- Joel Steinberg - Famously killed his adopted daughter, moved to Harlem after his 2004 release from prison[28]
Representatives
- Charles B. Rangel - United States House of Representatives, lives in Lenox Terrace at 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue. "I've always lived in Harlem. Never wanted to go anywhere else."[15]
- David Paterson - New York State Senate minority leader
- Jose M. Serrano - New York State Senate
- Keith L.T. Wright - New York State Assembly
- Adam Clayton Powell IV - New York State Assembly
- Robert Jackson - New York City council
- Inez Dickens- New York City Council
References
- ^ It Was Fun While it Lasted, Frederic Alexander Birmingham, 1960
- ^ Malcolm, Bruce Perry, Station Hill, 1991. page 154
- ^ a b c d e f "Star Map," New York Magazine, August 14, 2006, p.35
- ^ a b c Harlem One-Stop
- ^ "The Top of the Park," New York Magazine, February 5, 2007, p.44
- ^ "Tracing Scott Joplin's Life Through His Addresses," New York Times, Real Estate, p.2, February 4, 2007
- ^ a b c d e "My Early Days in Harlem," Langston Hughes, in Harlem U.S.A., ed. John Henrick Clarke, 1971 edition, p.58
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Manhattan African-American History and Culture Guide, Museum of the City of New York
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hamilton Heights - West Harlem Community Preservation Organization
- ^ "Four Men of Harlem -- The Movers and the Shakers," in Harlem, U.S.A., John Henrik Clarke, 1971 edition, p.251
- ^ a b c d e f Harlem U.S.A, introductory essay to 1993 edition, John Henrik Clarke, A&B Book Publishers
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "To Live In Harlem," Frank Hercules, National Geographic, February 1977, p.178+
- ^ "Four Men of Harlem -- The Movers and the Shakers," in Harlem, U.S.A., John Henrik Clarke, 1971 edition, p.256
- ^ a b "The New Heyday of Harlem," Tessa Souter, The Independent on Sunday, June 8, 1997
- ^ a b "Chairman of the Money," New York Magazine, January 15, 2007, p.20
- ^ "409 Edgecombe, Baseball, and Madame St. Clair," Katherine Butler Jones, in The Harlem Reader, 2003
- ^ a b "How Bootsie Was Born," Ollie Harrison, in Harlem U.S.A., John Henrik Clarke, ed., 1971, p.75 (note, this is a weak source, as it is a reference in a fictional story. A better source should be found.)
- ^ "A Talk to Harlem Teachers," James Baldwin, in Harlem USA, ed. John Henrik Clarke, 1971, p.173
- ^ Meet Me at the Theresa : The Story of Harlem's Most Famous Hotel, Sondra Kathryn Wilson, 2004
- ^ monument outside 730 Riverside Drive
- ^ a b "Kindness of Strangers," This American Life, September 12, 1997
- ^ a b c d "The Music of Harlem," William R. Dixon, in Harlem USA, ed. John Henrik Clarke, 1971, p.136
- ^ "City Hall Holds The Key. Harlem's renaissance finds lots of friends, and a few foes," Christian Science Monitor, March 12, 1987
- ^ Steve Rossi IMDB page
- ^ "Kareem's Harlem digs," New York Daily News, September 10, 2006
- ^ "A Revised Edition," Louis Tutelian, New York Times, January 5, 2007
- ^ "Catching up with Harlem," Jean Cumming, TheGlobeAndMail.com Travel, October 18, 2003
- ^ "The monster now," The New York Daily News, July 10, 2006