THE EARLY YEARS Migration to Harlem: During the late 1800's real estate brokers geared Harlem property to be set aside as an upper-class white residential neighborhood. Wall Street stock brokers and other Whites who could afford it, were to be lured uptown to reside with the Whites who lived there. At this time Harlem was mostly made up of European immigrants. The southeast corner of Harlem was Italian, the central south section was largely Russian …showed first 75 words of 331 total…

…showed last 75 words of 331 total…estate broker, proposed acting as a liaison to Black families who were willing to pay even higher rents then the prospective White tenants. Harlem property interests soon attracted the creme de la creme of New York's Black business leaders. They organized themselves into the Afro-American Realty Company which Payton founded in 1904. National support for the company came from Booker T. Washington himself, who was on close personal and business terms with the company's board members.