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During the early portion of the 20th century, Harlem was the destination for migrants from around the country, attracting both people from the South seeking work and an educated class who made the area a center of culture, as well as a growing "Negro" middle class. These people were looking for a fresh start in life and this was a good place to go. The district had originally been developed in the 19th century as an exclusive suburb for the white middle and upper middle classes; its affluent beginnings led to the development of stately houses, grand avenues, and world-class amenities such as the [[Polo Grounds]] and the [[Harlem Opera House]]. During the enormous influx of European immigrants in the late 19th century, the once exclusive district was abandoned by the white middle class, who moved farther north.
Harlem became an African American neighborhood in the early 1900s. In 1910, a large block along 135th Street and Fifth Avenue was bought by various African American realtors and a church group.<ref>{{
Despite the increasing popularity of Negro culture, virulent white racism, often by more recent ethnic immigrants, continued to affect African American communities, even in the North.<ref>{{cite book |last=Muhammad |first=Khalil Gibran |author-link=Khalil Gibran Muhammad |title=The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America |year=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-03597-3 |pages=1–14 }}</ref> After the end of World War I, many African American soldiers—who fought in segregated units such as the [[Harlem Hellfighters]]—came home to a nation whose citizens often did not respect their accomplishments.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://americacomesalive.com/2015/02/05/harlem-hellfighters-black-soldiers-world-war/|title=Harlem Hellfighters: Black Soldiers in World War I|date=5 February 2015|website=America Comes Alive|access-date=16 June 2017}}</ref> [[Mass racial violence in the United States|Race riots]] and other civil uprisings occurred throughout the United States during the [[Red Summer of 1919]], reflecting economic competition over jobs and housing in many cities, as well as tensions over social territories.
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