Black mecca
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A black mecca, in the United States, is a city to which African Americans, particularly singles, professionals, and middle-class families, are drawn to live, due to some or all of the following factors:
- superior economic opportunities for black people, often as assessed by the presence of a large black upper-middle and upper class
- black businesses and political activism in a city
- leading black educational institutions in a city
- a city's leading role in black history, arts, music, food, and other cultures
- harmonious black-white race relations in a city
New York City, in particular Harlem, was referred to as a black mecca during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and still is as of today. Atlanta has also adopted the name and has been referred to as a black mecca since the 1970s, while Black Enterprise has referred to Houston as the emerging equivalent.