Building a Healthy Black Harlem: Health Politics in Harlem, New ...

business. They eye your wife—the mens do. Sometimes even a female tempts me myself.”²²

Elizabeth Garson was the head of an eleven-person household, the largest household at 2460 Seventh Avenue. Of the eleven people, there were three married couples, one widower, and four unmarried individuals. Garson was the oldest member at age thirty-four. Perhaps it was this fact that made her the best candidate for household leader. The remaining ten were between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-one. With two single women, two single men, and three married couples, Garson must have had a difficult task keeping the home in the best physical and emotional state.

The domestic and economic spheres overlapped and mutually reinforced each other so that the residents of 2460 Seventh Avenue, like other residents of black Harlem, were preoccupied with making ends meet. Table 1.1 shows that most of the residents at 2460 Seventh Avenue were employed in the service sector and domestic pursuits. Of the 257 residents listed in the census schedules for the building, only 167 residents' occupations could be ascertained. Of the 167, about half worked as maids, porters, waiters/waitresses, or cooks.

Many of Harlem's black families, despite having several working family members, had incomes well below the amount necessary to provide for an adequate standard of living and health care.²³ Approximately 88 percent of black married women