In Anne Petry's 1946 novel, The Street, all of the African-American characters face racism.  To understand the novel, it is important to have a sense of the racist forces that beseiged Harlem culture and United States culture as a whole during the period.  Fighting against these racist forces sometimes resulted in rioting.  As Martin Luther King said two decades after The Street was published, "A riot is the language of the unheard."    Pressed to the limit by oppressive living conditions, racist economies, and institutional discrimination, the African American community has been ignited by notorious incidents of racism, like the brutal arrest in 1943 of a black soldier who tried to defend a black woman against the police in a hotel lobby.  The photos below document this riot and an earlier one in 1935.
 
 

Bystanders gather to look over a mass of merchandise scattered over the sidewalk in front of a pawnshop at 145th Street and Eighth Avenue, August 2, 1943, an aftermath of Harlem disorders in New York City.  (AP Photo)

Quick thinking by the proprietor of this store who hastily plastered his display window with signs proclaiming it a  colored store, saved this shop from destruction when rioting Negroes swept through New York's black belt March 19, 1935, fighting police and shattering store windows.  This picture, taken March 20, a few hours after the riot subsided, shows the store front the center of interest for a group of Negro boys.  (AP Photo)

Smoke billows from a parked, unoccupied automobile which was set afire during the morning of August 2, 1943 in fresh disorders which broke out in Harlem, New York City, after a night of clashes and looting.  (AP Photo)

This link is to the Cortland Memorial Library's holdings in African-American Literature.  The site lists useful reference books in the field, key words that will help in searches, and links to other relevant sites.

 This link will take you to the Library of Congress American Mosaic collection on African-American history and culture.