Harlem, USA: Will it be Hillary or Barack?

In this Black Mecca where the soul of African-American culture resides, there is a raging battle for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers. High above Harlem’s “Main Street”, in the tallest office tower on 125^th Street, the office of Rep. Charles Rangel serves as Hillary’s Harlem headquarters. He is the most powerful black politician in America, and arguably the most powerful congressman in Washington, who brought the Clintons to New York and crowned them Harlem’s black royalty. Bill Clinton’s office whose presence in Harlem over the past 7 years has triggered a second Harlem Renaissance, is a few steps away. Down on the street at the dingy Paris Blues Bar, one of a few dives still–standing from the 1940’s, state senator Bill Perkins is holding forth as he has done throughout the primaries. The mood is a mix of anticipation, excitement, and solemnity as he says to the overflowing crowd of 50 or so people: “you know that Martin and Malcolm and all our ancestors who led the way are looking down at us and saying, ‘This is it! The moment we’ve been waiting for’