Loading...
Creator
Harlem Neighborhoods Association
Call number
Sc MG 364
Physical description
2.7 linear feet (8 archival boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Harlem Neighborhoods Association records, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Harlem Neighborhoods Association records chronicle the deteriorating quality of life in Harlem from the 1940s to the late 1970s. The collection consists of correspondence and memoranda, board of directors and committee minutes, financial reports, publicity and outreach materials, membership lists and printed matter. The committee and program files document an ongoing organizational concern for chronic social dysfunction and urban poverty in Harlem. The most substantive files are the Day Care Committee, 1952-1956; the Housing Committee, 1952-1956; the Recreation Committee, 1948-1958; the Parents Committee, 1952-1968, and several youth related programs spanning from 1948 to 1963. Other substantive issues include: school decentralization in Harlem, urban renewal, drug prevention and family planning. Frequent correspondents include James H. Robinson who served as chairman of the West Harlem Council of Social Agencies, Harriet Pickens and Mildred Fisher, respectively chairperson and executive secrtary of the Central Harlem Council for Community Planning, and committee chairpersons Exie Welsch, Eugene Houston and Gertrude Tanneyhill. Also included is a scrapbook of articles and other printed matter documenting local efforts in 1963 to raise funds for the construction of a two-hundred bed hospital in Mount Morris Park.

Biographical/historical information

The Harlem Neighborhoods Association (HANA) was launched in 1937 as the West Harlem Council of Social Agencies. Its mission was to serve as a clearinghouse for various social agencies operating in Harlem. Membership included churches and schools, community groups, social agencies and individuals. The organization began with an informal group of social service professionals which met in 1934 to deal with relief problems caused by the Depression. The West Harlem Council of Social Agencies gained affiliation with the Welfare and Health Council of New York City in the early 1940s, and subsequently changed its name to the Central Harlem Council for Community Planning. Its board of Directors included officers and administrators of local schools, libraries, hospitals, banks, welfare and youth organizations, child care centers, and local branches of the Urban League, the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross and the Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Council had a paid staff which included an executive secretary, the Council's long time chairperson, Harriet Ida Pickens and several committees.

The Welfare and Health Council was reorganized into the Community Council of Greater New York in 1956, and ended its affiliation and funding programs with regional councils. As a result, the Central Harlem Council discontinued its exclusive relationship with social agencies and became a community and social planning group, with a new emphasis on grassroots participation. A membership drive was launched to enlist local community groups and individuals. A Founding Community Meeting was held in 1959 and the organization renamed itself the Harlem Neighborhoods Association (HANA). The new group received partial operating funds, as well as office space and some staffing, from the Community Services Society, a former member of the Central Harlem Council. HANA attracted more than 150 individual members and some twenty-four agencies during its first year of existence. For the next fifteen years, it organized public campaigns in Harlem around such issues as drug prevention and rehabilitation, housing renovation and preservation, community control in the area's public schools, better day care facilities for children, and health and youth services. HANA was one of the initial sponsors of “Harlem Youth Day” and the Haryou-Act project during the 1960s, and was instrumental in setting up a mental health clinic at Harlem Hospital. The organization lost its momentum in the late 1960s due partly to funding difficulties, and faded out of existence after 1976.

Scope and arrangement

The Harlem Neighborhoods Association Collection is a segment of that organization's records, salvaged from the rubble during renovation of the building where HANA was located. The collection has been divided into two series: RECORDS OF THE CENTRAL HARLEM COUNCIL FOR COMMUNITY PLANNINGwhich span from 1941 to 1958, and RECORDS OF THE HARLEM NEIGHBORHOODS ASSOCIATION,1958 to 1978. Each series is in turn divided into two subseries: Board of Directors Records,and Committee and Program Files.The collection chronicles the deteriorating quality of life in Harlem over three decades, along with the often ill-adapted responses of social agencies and municipal bodies.

The Board of Directors Recordsare arranged chronologically and consist of correspondence and memoranda, minutes, agendas and reports, publicity and outreach materials, financial records, membership lists and printed matter. The Committee and Program Filesin both series document an ongoing organizational concern for chronic social dysfunctions and urban poverty in Harlem. The most substantive files are: the Day Care Committee, 1950-1956; the Housing Committee, 1952-1956; the Recreation Committee, 1948-1958; the Parents Committee, 1952-1968; and several youth related programs spanning from 1948 to 1963. Other issues and projects documented in the collection include: the desegregation and decentralization of public schools in Harlem, urban planning and racial segregation, the Haryou-Act project, drug prevention, and family planning. Also included is a scrapbook of articles and other printed matter documenting local community efforts to raise funds for the construction of a new two hundred bed hospital in Mount Morris Park in 1963.

The Harlem Neighborhoods Association records are arranged in two series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

Papers salvaged by Schomburg Center staff on the grounds of a building under renovation at 200 West 135th Street in Harlem.

Source of acquisition

SCM 89-103

Papers salvaged by Schomburg Center Staff on the grounds of a building under renovation located at 200 West 135th Street in Manhattan. The larger part of the records located there had already been discarded by the construction crew, and much of the present materials were strewn among the rubble and demolition heap.

Processing information

Processed by Andre Elizee; Machine-readable finding aid created by Apex Data Services; revised by Terry Catapano.

Separated material

The following items were removed from:

Name of CollectionHarlem Neighborhoods Association Records

Accession NumberSCM 89-103

Donor:See Provenance note

Date received:1989

Date transferred:July 1993

The item(s) listed below have been sent to the division indicated, either to be retained or disposed of there. Any items that should receive special disposition are clearly marked.

Schomburg Photographs and Print Division:

Mount Morris Hospital-- United Hospital Fund Campaign Committee, 1963.Eight b&w photographs documenting local community efforts to raise funds for the construction of a two hundred bed hospital in Mount Morris Park in Harlem.

Accessioned by:A. Elizee

Date:July 1993

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor