Every Negro resident of New York City prior to the year 1900 remembers
too well the great difficulty always experienced in trying to find
anything like a decent place to live. Never before this time was the
question of “How much rent shall we pay?” anything like as important as
“Where can we live?”
The Negro as a tenant was wanted nowhere except in the very poorest
section of the city and there only in such houses as were so run
down that even the poorest of whites refused to longer occupy them.
In these houses Negroes were crowded together without any regard for
their health or morals. Here they were bullied and even insulted by
independent landlords, who were very careful to do little or nothing
for their erstwhile not wanted tenants except to squeeze from them
every dollar of rent possible.
This was a “condition, not a theory,” that we faced when in October,
1900, we opened our office as the first Negro Real Estate Agents in New
York City, making a specialty of the management of colored tenement
property. Our very best friends all told us that we were attempting
the impossible, that we could not succeed, that we would starve in our
undertaking. For the first year and a half they proved to be prophets
indeed. Our many disappointments, heartaches and actual sufferings
during this period would fill a book and read like a romance. Every one
could tell us how we could NOT make it, but none how we could.
We were real estate agents making a specialty of the management
of colored tenement property for nearly a year before we actually
succeeded in getting a colored tenement to manage. Our first
opportunity occurred in West 134th Street as a result of a dispute
between two landlords. To “get even” one of them turned his house over
to us to fill with colored tenants. We were so very successful in
renting and managing this house that, after a time, we were able to
induce other landlords in whose houses vacancies had occurred due to
the opening of this house for colored people, to make the change and
give us their property to manage.
This was the beginning of the turning over to Negro tenants of one of
the very best sections of Manhattan Island and in no part of the city
are there any better built or more modern tenements for any class of
people than are now occupied by Negroes in this section. By opening
for colored tenants first a house in one block, and then a house in
another, we have finally succeeded in securing for the colored people
of New York over 250 first-class flats and private dwellings in a
fine section of the city, conveniently located as to transportation
facilities, etc.
To this extent our ambition has been gratified. There is, however,
more work to be done in another direction before we shall be entirely
satisfied with the condition of the Negro tenancy in this great
city. We feel that our personal experience both as a Negro tenant
and a landlord has peculiarly fitted us for the work. Dr. Booker T.
Washington in his latest book, “The Negro in Business,” says: “_Mr.
Payton has had an opportunity during this time to learn something
of the condition under which colored tenants live, sometimes are
compelled to live, in New York. Stranger than all else, he was, as he
has confessed to me, several times put out of houses, bag and baggage,
for inability to pay his rent. He has thus been able to see how an
ejectment suit looks from both the point of view of tenant and of
landlord._”
There is every reason why colored tenement property should be managed
by Negro agents. From them, the tenant may be certain of receiving
more real interest, sympathy and respect. Were the Negroes to demand
it to-day, at least 90 per cent. of the colored tenements in this city
could be controlled by agents of their own race. This would not only be
of benefit to the tenant but to the entire race.
Tell your landlord that you prefer to have your rent collected by a
Negro agent. In this manner you will be aiding your people in their
struggle for commercial advancement. You owe it to your race to do this.
=DESIRABLE APARTMENTS FOR DESIRABLE TENANTS=
=Philip A. Payton, Jr., Company=
=New York’s Pioneer Negro Real Estate Agents=
=BROKERS--APPRAISERS=
67 West 134th St., New York City
TELEPHONES 917-918 HARLEM
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Transcriber’s Note:
This book is a reprint edition provided by Arno Press, A Publishing
and Library Service of the New York Times, New York, 1969.
Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation
in the text. These have been left unchanged. Misspelled words were not
corrected.
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_; those in bold are surrounded by equal marks, =like this.= One
footnote has multiple anchors; it was moved to the end of the section
in which the anchors occur. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards,
upside down, missing or partially printed letters, were corrected.
Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were
added.