In it are some who year in and year out never leave the narrow confines of Harlem. There are those who make rare excursions into the larger shopping districts and rarer still to the theatrical center. There are those whose work takes them down to New York's factories, office buildings, hotels, restaurants and places of amusement, but they know these places only in working hours; their life is the life of Harlem. There are those who, still ghetto-bound mentally, have been pressed through the bars of the cage, but they have been caught up and placed in tiny ghettos of their own in other sections of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and on Long Island. Their lives too are race-bound. But there is another group, which is not Harlem bound, whose contacts are many, whose sphere of activity is wide and ever widening. Theirs is New York in its entirety; theirs is the opportunity of giving Harlem to New York and New York to Harlem.
Education is the way out of the ghetto. Age submits, but youth even though the door be barred revolts. In many instances age contributes to the burden by pressing youth into the beaten paths of experience, by insisting upon teaching, preaching and medicine as the appropriate professional goals. Now youth is revolting and getting away from the compromise so often expressed in words like these: "Well, I'll take it up any way, even if I cannot practice it, perhaps I can teach it." Youth is escaping into business, art and the technical professions. A few even are escaping into the broad freedom of the leisure class.
In sharp contrast with these rebels of success who are seeking to work out their own destiny, these individualists who often appear in the first instance to be deserting the race, are the conscious pathbreakers those who protest at proscription. We find them of varied ardors and enthusiasms, often misguided, from those who won't go to a colored church or who will break into a white block to those who organize some definite assault on occupational proscription. Whereas many who break the bonds are actuated solely by the desire to get the best for themselves in spite of proscription, a few realize that they are blazing a trail that others of the race may follow. This kind of thing is instanced by the young man who about seven years ago succeeded in becoming the first interne known to be of Negro extraction in a New York city hospital, or by the older surgeon \who a little while ago became the first of his race to be permitted to conduct operations in one of the city's large hospitals.
This being "first" means a great deal in the life of the racial group. There is a constant struggle among young men and women to be the "first" to do a certain thing, for the pioneer in any thing significant occupies, if only for a little while, an exalted position while a large portion of the race indulges in a mild form of hero worship. These achievements are the pride of the race; this business of reaching new heights is taken very seriously by the ghetto bound, for each is a milestone on the road of progress which leads to the goal of unrestricted opportunity.
These achievements have not always been regarded as breaking paths for others to follow. There was a time, in fact, when they were truly exceptional, when there was a first and never a second, when the proud possessor of such a record was even jealous and fearful lest some one rob him of his uniqueness. Now among leaders and youth there is prevalent the relay spirit which seeks to "keep openings open."
THERE is also some tugging from without at the ropes that bind the ghetto. It is the result of the efforts of the whites because of curiosity, self-interest, a spasm of self-righteousness or very rarely genuine interest, to establish a contact with those within the ghetto. It takes the form of the establishment of various organizations within the ghetto and organizations outside the ghetto to "help" those inside. We see it in the Christian societies, in the numerous clinics, health organizations and social service bureaus which are operating in Harlem, in the rapidly increasing group of whites who are attending civic and social affairs there and for varied reasons attempting to establish understanding and friendship with those within.
In many cases this is no conscious attempt to break the ghetto bonds; indeed it may be a deliberate attempt to go in and satisfy the needs of the inhabitants to prevent their leaving the ghetto. Sometimes the ruse is successful but more often, in the long run, it defeats its own end, for it sets an example of broadness that the ghetto-bound spirit eagerly seizes upon. Having secured a taste of the world outside, the ghetto youth is eager to get more of it and the determination to grow strong and break through increases.
There is another side of the picture; it is a tale of long dark years of dismal failure, of brave struggles to rise above mediocrity, of bitter fights for existence, a tale twisted with heartaches and heartbreaks, a tale drenched in sweat and blood, but still shot through with flashes of sunlight upon pure gold. It takes rare courage to fight a fight that more often than not ends in death, poverty or prostitution of genius. But it is to these who make this fight despite the tremendous odds, despite the deterring pessimism of those who see in the tangle of prejudice that surround the ghetto a hopeless barrier, that we must look for the breaking of the bonds now linked together by ignorance and misunderstanding.