The place was Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s. Rents were high and wages were low for many African Americans and one way they came together to fight the injustice and to raise the rent money was to hold rent parties.
Refreshments and music were provided and they printed up these neat cards to promote the evenings.
When Langston Hughes moved to Harlem he was already familiar with the rent party scene from his days writing for the Chicago Defender. He would eventually put together “quite a collection” of the cards. Hughes said “When I first came to Harlem, as a poet I was intrigued by the little rhymes at the top of most House Rent Party cards, so I saved them. Now I have quite a collection.”
Hughes’ collection of rent party cards resides at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where the above images are from.
Thanks to The Vault, a new blog from Slate for the lead.