190 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
Cities across the Northeast and Midwest were
transformed by the waves of African American
migration after the turn of the century. The
neighborhood of Harlem at the northern end of
Manhattan became known as the cultural capital
of black America, one with a rich and vibrant
community of writers, artists, and musicians.
Prohibition produced speakeasies across the country,
but in Harlem it also fostered a rich musical culture
that drew whites and blacks alike. In the era of
Prohibition, Harlem became famous for jazz. This
map—drawn by one of the century’s most successful
African American illustrators—captures the energy
of that moment.
Elmer Simms Campbell studied at the Art Institute
of Chicago before moving to Manhattan in 1929
in search of work as a cartoonist. As a black man,
he faced a string of rejections before catching a
break with the founding of Esquire magazine in
- For the next thirty-eight years he supplied the
magazine with smart, appealing cartoons featuring
the predicaments of beautiful young white women.
In fact, it was Campbell who established Esquire’s
knowing visual style: playful, often risqué, and
thoroughly urban. Throughout the 1930s he also
drew covers for the New Yorker and cartoons for other
national magazines. Campbell’s sheer artistic talent
helped him cross the color line, but no doubt his
success also had much to do with his shrewd decision
to focus on white culture rather than black life.
As a young man, Campbell met band leader Cab
Calloway, who, along with Duke Ellington, presided
over the legendary performances at the Cotton
Club. Calloway and Campbell became fast friends,
drinking buddies, and regulars at many of Harlem’s
famed speakeasies and jazz clubs. Before he was
discovered by Esquire, Campbell drew this whimsical
and insightful roadmap to Harlem’s hotspots for
Manhattan magazine. Part tourist guide, part
spoof, and part loving tribute, the map captures
the boundless vitality of Harlem at the height of
its popularity.
MUSIC AND MAYHEM IN NEW YORK
E. Simms Campbell, “A Night-Club Map
of Harlem,” 1932
Campbell’s map pulses with energy, but
also hints at Harlem’s complex racial dynamics.
Many of these nightclubs catered to middle-class
whites in search of slightly dangerous urban
thrills. Black residents of the neighborhood had
little say in the permissiveness that characterized
their neighborhood. The Cotton Club—like most
establishments in Harlem—was segregated and
owned by whites. Other clubs such as Small’s
Paradise, at the right edge of the map, were owned
by blacks and catered to the same. Smaller clubs
were often open to both races, and all of these
establishments collectively widened the audience
for American jazz.
Prohibition also inadvertently made it more
acceptable for women to drink in public, or at
least in these semi-public clubs and speakeasies.
The map shows blacks and whites drinking and
dancing together, at a moment when both legal
and customary segregation dominated much of
the nation. Campbell references Calloway’s smash
hit “Minnie the Moocher” on the map, with the
bandleader belting out “HO-DE-HI-DE-HO.” No
doubt this explains why Calloway kept a copy of the
map in his office. Just outside the Savoy Ballroom—
across Lenox Avenue—“Marahuana cigarettes”
are sold at two for twenty-five cents. Campbell’s
exuberant rendering of Harlem’s nightlife practically
leaps off the page. And, while he celebrates the social
and racial diversity in some of these clubs, he also
acknowledges the general mayhem in the streets. At
right, two officers play cards inside a shiny new police
station, while drunks sow chaos outside.
All of this nightlife and culture was fueled by
twelve years of Prohibition. While it curtailed the
incidence of alcoholism, Prohibition also fostered
an illegal market that worsened crime. In turn, this
led to the rise of the penal state, anticipating the war
on drugs at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1928
Al Smith ran for president on a platform that openly
called for repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment.
Though Smith lost to the Republican Herbert
Hoover, his position attracted many new voters
to the Democratic Party who would go on to
support Franklin Roosevelt—and the repeal
of Prohibition—in 1932.