Philip Payton Jr.: The Crusading Capitalist Who Outwitted New York's Racist Landlords

Best known as the "father of Harlem," Philip Payton (1876-1917) was guided by the theory that free markets penalize bigotry.

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The former residents of two square blocks at West 98th and 99th Streets in Manhattan have been holding annual neighborhood reunions since the mid-1950s, when the federal government bulldozed their homes in a "slum clearance project" spearheaded by Robert Moses.

This formerly all-black enclave was home to an A-list of black artists and intellectuals, including singer Billie Holiday, historian Arturo Schomburg, poet James Weldon Johnson, and actor Robert Earl Jones. Bordering Central Park, the community was settled in 1905 in an area with modern housing and easy access to the city's brand new subway.

The founder of the community was an African-American realtor named Philip Payton Jr., also known as "the father of Harlem." His role in the formation of what would later become the cultural capital of black America is well established. Less appreciated is the economic philosophy that guided his life's work.

Payton was an unabashed free-marketeer whose approach, as one headline writer put it, was "to make the color line costly." He believed that property owners participating in racial covenants could be forced to pay a penalty in a competitive marketplace, and that even bigoted landlords might choose "profit over prejudice" when faced with the choice.

"Race prejudice is a luxury, and like all other luxuries, can be made very expensive in New York City," Payton wrote in his company prospectus.

Click here for full text and links: https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/02/28/philip-payton-jr-harlem-new-york

Video written, produced, and edited by Jim Epstein.

Music: "Jubilee Stomp" by Duke Ellington; "Washboard Wiggles," Tiny Parham And His Musicians; "Liza" and "The Dream" by James P. Johnson; "Babalu" by Jan August; "Serenade" by Herman Chittison Trio; "If I Had You" by Charlie Ventura. Source: archive.org, public domain music.

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