Above 110th Street, Seventh Avenue becomes Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard , a broad sweep pushing north between low-built houses that for once in Manhattan allow the sky to break through. As with the rest of Harlem, Powell Boulevard shows years of decline in its graffiti-splattered walls and storefronts punctuated by demolished lots. The recent injection of funds into this area should change it for the better; in fact if the current investments don't make some difference, it's hard to say what will.

At 132 W 138th St stands the Abyssinian Baptist Church , noted primarily because of its long-time minister, the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr , who was instrumental in the 1930s in forcing the white-owned stores of Harlem to employ the blacks who ensured their economic survival. Later, he became the first black on the city council, then New York's first black representative in Congress, sponsoring the country's first minimum-wage law.

Powell Boulevard

• Powell Boulevard

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