| Chapter 1: | Health Conditions in Harlem in the Early Years of Black Urbanization |
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visual, and literary creations to uncover these feelings and concerns in Who Set You Flowin'? The African American migration narrative was the leading mode of black cultural production of the twentieth century. Griffin demonstrated that when closely and insightfully read, these creative works offer glimpses into how urban modernity and alienation intersected with a people's attempt to create a home in a new land.10
Rudolph Fisher's short stories dramatized this uncertainty for Southern migrants. In “City of Refuge,” Fisher—a Harlem resident, writer, and physician—told the story of King Solomon Gillis, a Southern migrant who, after shooting a white man, flees the South to avoid being lynched. Gillis travels north by automobile from his home in North Carolina through Washington, DC, and at last arrives in Harlem. Gillis' first sight is a black policeman directing traffic, a symbol of Harlem's grandeur. Fisher wrote the following: “[Gillis'] eyes opened wide; his mouth opened wider…For there stood a handsome brass-buttoned giant directing the heaviest traffic Gillis had ever seen…with supreme self-assurance.”11 Fisher's use of the image of the black officer was twofold. First, he used the image to remind the reader that for migrants, black officers were new symbols of freedom and manhood. These images encouraged migrants to envision a new life with respectable, well-paying jobs. Second, he used the figure of the police officer to suggest that order and disorder went hand in hand for migrants. Shortly after being mesmerized by the officer, Gillis becomes involved in an illegal activity orchestrated by Mouse Uggam, a migrant from his town in North Carolina.
Uggam, a small-time dope peddler, befriends Gillis after seeing him leave the subway and assists him in finding housing and employment. To repay Uggam for his kindness, Gillis agrees to assist him in selling French medicine—little white pills that are, in actuality, illegal narcotics. Working alone in the grocery store, Gillis sells the pills for Uggam, who in turn compensates Gillis