FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:Teresa Candori
212-558-5362 | tcandori@nul.org
URBAN LEAGUE LEADERS: “IT’S HARLEM, NOT ‘SOHA’”
NEW YORK (JUNE 7, 2017) -- National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial and New York Urban League President and CEO Arva Rice today issued the following statement:
“Gentrification may be a process as old as real estate itself, but efforts to rebrand the nation’s most important historically Black neighborhood add insult to injury. For more than a century, Harlem has been the cultural center of Black life in America. It has given us the great intellectuals, activists and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Nora Zeale Hurston and Paul Robeson. It is home to landmark institutions such as the Apollo Theater, the Schomburg Center, the National Black Theater, Abyssinian Baptist Church, Sylvia’s Soul Food – and, of course, the New York Urban League.
“Efforts to rename parts of Harlem are attempts to erase its rich history and to create a bland, blank canvas on which to overwrite Black culture with dollar signs. Neighborhoods evolve, and we welcome our new neighbors from all parts of the world to share our love for this spot on the planet that is known – and shall be known – as Harlem.”
