The first three decades of the 1900’s were the first time that the African American culture was taken seriously by the Caucasian community. Several factors, including the Plessy vs. Ferguson case which allowed racial segregation in 1896, led to what is known as the Great Migration. Job opportunities and far less amounts of racism were significant reasons for more than seven million African Americans moving to northern states. The concentration area of the Great Migration was Harlem in New York City. This district of New York was originally intended for white laborers who preferred to commute to the city rather than live there. The housing developers were over ambitious and had created far too much living space that white middle-class Americans were not interested in and as a result, the properties were sold to African American real estate agents who, in turn, rented the apartments out to black tenants. Between 1900 and 1920 the black population in Harlem had doubled and became known as “the Black Mecca” (Biography.com).