In The Crisis, Survey Graphic, Opportunity, and perhaps the majority of black writing to come out of this time period exists not only a similar goal of the advancement of the black race, but also a yearning for a higher, more perfect way of being and living. It was not enough for black thinkers at the time to gain freedom and equal opportunity. There seemed also to be a need for what we may now realize is mythology. Concepts like “The New Negro” and a “Negro Heaven” formed and were often discussed, though it was seldom agreed upon what people and communities fit these titles. Harlem became the center of these mythologies. The place where black people could live the most freely and comparably to whites. Black thought leaders at this time seemed to place all of the races hopes and dreams on this one, relatively small area.

“The cosmopolitanism of the city attracts the Negro. The heterogeneity of the population has generated an atmosphere of freedom and democracy. The city’s reputation has been broadcasted to every nook and corner of the Southland, and when Negroes decide to move it is natural for those along the Atlantic seaboard to think of New York and act accordingly.” (p. 413) writes Eugene Kinckle Jones in an essay in the January 1926 issue of Opportunity. Jones seems to buy into the idea that New York is the ideal place for black people to thrive. He notes Manhattan’s “heterogeneity” and atmosphere of “freedom–not accounting for the fact that blacks were moving to Harlem most probably because they were not welcome in other areas. Jones goes even further in his hopes for New York.

“The Negro is probably the real test of democracy in America. Shall this democracy endure? The Negro migrant to New York State may yet give the answer.” (p. 416) writes Jones.  But was New York really that special, or simply the location that had the largest number black people in the country at that time? Not every scholar at the time agreed with Jones on Harlem being the Mecca.

“Where is the Negro’s Heaven?” an essay by Kelly Miller in the December 1926 issue of Opportunity vehemently argues that Washington D.C., as opposed to Harlem, is the “Negro’s Heaven”–a black utopia. “The New Negro, of whom we have heard so much is nothing but the old Negro exposed to the Harlem environment.” (p. 765) writes Miller. Miller argues that Harlem’s reputation is overblown due to its population. Though New York has many more black people than Washington, the culture of Washington better supports freedom for black people, says Miller. “If every Negro should withdraw over night from the greater New York, nothing would be missed except the jazz and the blues.” (p. 765) writes Miller. It’s a harsh hypothesis that undermines how Harlem was thought of then, and even how the period of the Harlem renaissance is spoken about today. Though Miller does not destroy the idea that a Negro Heaven exists, the very disagreement on its location calls the whole concept into question. Miller is able to see the cracks in Harlem’s facade, he is seemingly trying to say that the cultural breakthroughs found in Harlem will not protect its citizens from the cruelty of American racism.