“Over the years, several books and projects have attempted to capture the essence of Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill, and thankfully, with Davida Siwisa James, the legendary community has its griot. She brings a fresh veneer, a lively descriptive narrative to this timeless section of Harlem. To be sure, the dramatic moments of the past are invoked and then lavishly alloyed with the neighborhood's current vibrancy.”

—Herb Boyd, The Harlem Reader

“Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill traces the transformation of New York’s West Harlem community from the ancestral hunting grounds of the Lanape Indians into the cultural mecca of Black America. Davida Siwisa James narratives with pictures of one of America’s most prolific neighborhoods. Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill produced American icons like the writer James Weldon Johnson, the scholar George Edmund Haynes, the boxing champ Joe Louis, and the 20th century composer George Gershwin. But beyond that, this book makes an important contribution by showing how one small American neighborhood impacted New York’s culture, politics, and arts.”

—Bruce D. Haynes, University of California