In the early part of the twentieth century, the United States was a country dominated by racism and racial segregation; for the most part, white and black people lived separate lives. Harlem was the center of New York's (and perhaps the whole nation's) African American community, but during the Harlem Renaissance white people flocked there by the hundreds. They were eager to experience the art and culture and maybe eat the fried chicken and sweet potato pie that they knew they would find there. This trend (which some blacks resented because they felt that Harlem had been invaded by whites) was called "Harlemania" or "Going Uptown." How did it start—how did white New Yorkers get so interested in Harlem?

For many whites, one major window into African American culture was the musical theater. Theatergoers had seen exuberant dancers with seemingly boundless...