Biohazard Cleanup Near West Harlem Harlem, FL

Harlem is a census-designated place (CDP) in northeastern Hendry County, Florida, directly south of the city of Clewiston, and part of the Clewiston micropolitan area.

Harlem was established in 1926, when a Black settlement on Lake Okeechobee was relocated to the site.

Around 1928 the community was laid out under the name 'Townsite' as a camp for sugar plantation workers, as sugar had become the predominant crop in southern Florida; it is historically a Black town.

Harlem's population is predominantly African American — about 94% of residents identified as Black or African American at the 2020 census.

The Harlem Academy was the community's main school, championed by A. A. Thomas and his wife Lois Thomas; it closed in 1971 after racial integration, when Harlem students were bussed to Clewiston, and the Thomases afterward opened a local day care.

Harlem had a population of 2,441 at the 2020 census, down from 2,658 in 2010, living in 854 households.

The CDP covers only about 1.05 square miles of land just south of the southern shore region of Lake Okeechobee.

Harlem shares ZIP code 33440 with neighboring Clewiston, the center of the Lake Okeechobee sugar-growing area.