Philip A. Payton Jr.
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Philip Anthony Payton Jr. (February 27, 1876-August 1917) was an African-American real estate developer, known as the "Father of Harlem" who leased properties in Harlem, New York City, to African Americans. [1]
Philip A. Payton, Jr., was born on February 27, 1876, in Westfield, Massachusetts, the second of four children: one girl and three boys. His father was a barber, and his mother was a hairdresser. His father demanded that the children know a trade so that he was educated in the family profession twice a week after school so that Payton appeared to be a full-fledged barber by the age of fifteen. [2]
Discrimination in Housing
Harlem is considered the "Black Capital of America," a sanctuary for Black people from all over the globe (and the world). It was the nexus of African American culture and home to the largest black community outside of Africa. It was all the product of the aspirations of one man – Philip A. Payton, Jr. [3]
Housing inequality has become more pronounced since the end of slavery, usually as part of the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. The federal government decided to take steps against these restrictions in 1917 when the Supreme Court ruled that blacks must be forbidden from renting or buying houses in the majority-white communities of Buchanan v. Warley. However, after the Civil Rights Act of 1968, both the federal government and city municipalities appeared to be directly responsible for the segregation of housing by redefining and race-restricted treaties. [4]
Payton’s Work and Contribution
Payton moved to New York in 1899 to make his own fortune. He worked to survive, working as a barber, a handyman, and eventually as a steward in the real estate office. Soon the ambitious young man scraped together his savings, opened an office and advertised, “Colored man makes a speciality of managing colored tenements.” [5]
"My first chance came as a result of a dispute between two landlords in West 134th Street," he said in an interview with The New York Age, a black publication. "To 'get' one of them handed his house over to me to load with vibrant tenants. I was effective in renting and maintaining this property, after a while, I was able to persuade other landlords to... give me their houses to operate." The landlord assumed that having a building packed with black tenants would hinder his rival's leasing efforts.
When more black people came, whites left, depressing land prices and providing more jobs. Soon Payton became the owner of the building himself. And by 1904, the year the subway entered Harlem, it incorporated the Afro-American Realty Company to help remake Harlem as a refuge for black people who faced discrimination in housing. [6]
On June 15, 1904, with the help of other well-off blacks, Payton chartered the Afro-American Realty Company, issuing 50,000 shares at $10 each. He appealed to black investors specifically, both to their social justice and profit motives, with an ad stating: “Today is the time to buy, if you want to be numbered among those of the race who are doing something toward trying to solve the so-called ‘'Race Problem.” and the prospectus writing: “The very prejudice that has heretofore worked against us can be turned and used to our profit.”
In 1905, a white-owned real estate company, the Hudson Realty Company, had bought a tract of land on West 135th Street near Lenox Avenue, in the heart of Harlem, for residential development. To make the development property more attractive to prospective builders, it also bought three neighbouring tenement buildings from the Afro-American Realty Co., and evicted their black tenants, replacing them with white ones. The Hudson’s builders agreed to only rent their properties to whites. In response, the Afro-American Realty Company bought two adjacent apartment houses, evicted their white tenants, and moved in the dispossessed black residents. Eventually, Hudson gave up and sold the original three buildings back to the Afro-American at a large loss. The incident gained Payton reputation and investors. The New York Times, reporting on the incident, called it a “Real Estate Race War”.
Despite facing a lot of challenges, Payton continued to acquire and run Harlem real estate for black residents and then founded Philip A. Payton Jr. Company, well known for its PAP logo.
By 1914, The Outlook wrote that three-quarters of the black population in New York City, including all blacks of renown, was living in Harlem; it called Payton "the father of his Black community." The popularity of Payton's company could be seen in the 13th West 131st Street neighbourhood, a house he had purchased for himself and his wife Maggie in 1903. The entire street was white in 1900; at the time of the 1915 New York State Census, the block was almost exclusively populated by blacks. The Phillip A. Payton, Jr. Company survived after Payton and his younger brother died in 1917 and 1912, and the company was still operating a number of African-American apartments at least until 1922. [7]
Reference
- ↑ Philip A. Payton Jr.. en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Carolyn. Philip A. Payton Jr., Harlem Real Estate Visionary. Feb 26, 2018. harlemworldmagazine.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Walks of New York. Philip A. Payton: the Father of Harlem. Feb 11, 2012. warlkofnewyork.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Housing discrimination in the United States. en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Walks of New York. Philip A. Payton: the Father of Harlem. Feb 11, 2012. warlkofnewyork.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Walks of New York. Philip A. Payton Jr.: A real estate magnate who turned Harlem into a black mecca. nytimes.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
- ↑ Carolyn. Philip A. Payton Jr., Harlem Real Estate Visionary. Feb 26, 2018. harlemworldmagazine.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
