On this day, 1 November 1963, a rent strike by mostly Black tenants living in slum conditions in Harlem, New York, began.

On this day, 1 November 1963, a rent strike by mostly Black tenants living in slum conditions in Harlem, New York, began. By mid-December, the protest had grown to include Puerto Rican residents and had spread to 58 buildings housing 850 families in the area between Park and 8th Avenue (now Frederick Douglass Boulevard) and 115th and 118th Streets.
The city responded in the short term by reducing the rents of many families to $1 per month (down from over $100), as demanded by the protesters, and stepping up building inspections.


As in many historical rent strikes, much of the day-to-day organising work growing and maintaining the strike was undertaken by women residents. By January 1964, around 2,000 tenants were withholding rent. But over time, more and more focus by organisers went into court cases, which often dragged on for long periods of time, and ended up ruling in landlords' favour, sapping the energy of the rent strike. The rent strike began to falter and largely ended by the autumn of 1964.
However, the action did result in concrete achievements. Many of the buildings where tenants withheld rent were improved somewhat, mitigating some of the worst conditions like water leaks, rat infestations and lack of heat. And New York City was forced to introduce a significant rat eradication programme, employ more housing inspectors, pass new laws legalising rent strikes and improve enforcement against slumlords.

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