Payton, Philip Anthony Jr.
1876-1917 · Contribution: 1900-1917
Founded the Afro-American Realty Company in 1904 and personally engineered the real estate strategy that transformed Harlem from a predominantly white neighborhood into the Black cultural capital that hosted the Harlem Renaissance
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Impact on the world
Payton engineered the demographic transformation that made Harlem the capital of Black America, the residential foundation on which its cultural renaissance was built.
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Harlem Neighborhood Block Association (citing the Schomburg Center, NYPL)
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