A Harlem Rent Party circa 1944

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Tn early 20th century Harlem in New York, these cards were your ticket to a good time. They advertised “Harlem rent parties”, a social phenomenon that began in the 1920s - African American tenants in Harlem would raise money to pay their rent by throwing a party.

These parties were always held on Saturdays (pay day) and run well into early Sunday morning, slowing down after 7:00 or 8:00 am. Hosts charged around 25 cents for admission, rolled back the living room carpet, dimmed the lights and musicians or bands hired for the night would play.

A Harlem Rent Party:

Harlem rent parties played a major role in developing jazz and blues music. The popular phrase “cutting a rug”, is thought to have come from the Harlem rent parties, often the location of so-called ‘cutting contests’, which involved jazz pianists taking turns at the piano, attempting to out-do each other. Hosts provided homemade fried chicken, pork chops, pigs feet and potato salad for sale, piled high on tables in the kitchen or at a makeshift bar in the hallway.

Soon, they began advertising their rent parties on business cards with poetic jingles to entice guests. Prohibition was still in effect and handing out the cards was a risk if not given to the “right” people.

These examples are part of a collection of personal items held at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library that belonged to Langston Hughes, a pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance.

The origin of the Harlem rent parties is more sobering. During the early nineteen twenties when cheap industrial labor was in high demand, it is estimated that more than 200,000 African Americans migrated to Harlem, many fresh from the cotton-picking fields of the deep South. Segregated in a small section of Manhattan, as many as five to seven thousand people lived in a single block.

Upon arrival, Harlem property owners cranked the rent higher than anywhere else in New York and profited greatly as families piled on top of each other in unwholesome living spaces.

Rents were doubled and tripled by landlords, predominantly Jewish shop-owners and property-owners who fulfilled a role white business owners would not attempt. Tenants under pressure to come up with ways to pay their increasing debts and help friends in need.

Organising social occasions was an escape from a monotonous, humdrum week of low-income labor. Inviting people over as paying party guests before the landlord’s monthly visit was a happy; ‘timely thought’. Everyone had a good time and cost less than other public entertainment venues. It proved such a fun and easy way to pay the rent that they became an overnight rage and the Harlem Rent Party was born.

Every weekend was a  party, usually on a Saturday night and sleep in the next day, although Thursdays often proved a popular night as well. Some parties were more wholesome than others, as the popular phenomenon caught on with small-time pimps and madames who used the rent parties as ways to attract lonesome traveling salesmen, truck drivers or young, naive and unattached males and females new to the city and prowling the night for adventure.

An apartment with a red, pink or blue light in the window and the sound of piano music lured them in. A hostess greeted them and after initial introductions at the refreshments table, a night of non-stop drinking, wild dancing, and obscene sexual behaviour ensued.