ABSTRACT
HARLEM HAS CONTINUED TO METAMORPHOSE OVER THE PAST TWO hundred years. One element that has remained consistent in this series of communities, and African American black life in general, is the impact of racism. Dating back to slavery, racial inequality has been a persistent and determinant part of the black American experience from its origins. Enslavement constitutes the bulk of the experience of African people in the United States because it lasted close to 250 years. This is almost double the approximately 143 years that have passed since passage of the 13th Amendment.
