Black organized crime in Harlem: 1920-1930.
Item
-
Title
-
Black organized crime in Harlem: 1920-1930.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9108171
-
identifier
-
9108171
-
Creator
-
Schatzberg, Rufus.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Robert J. Kelly
-
Date
-
1990
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
History, Black | Sociology, Criminology and Penology
-
Abstract
-
Early twentieth century White street gangs rooted in violence emerged to dominate the illicit alcohol business in supplying the goods and service during the prohibition era, 1919-1933. These street hoods transformed themselves from previously predatory groups into parasitical and commensal organizations entrenched in the political and economic structure of New York City. During the early 1920s and separate from this group of purveyors of illicit alcohol a group of Black number bankers successfully operated a policy racket in Harlem. This is the first time that large organized gambling networks operated under Black control in America.;The study argues that the Black leaders of Harlem's numbers gambling networks had not experienced a similar evolutionary development as alleged to have occurred among White number bankers who later entered the policy racket. The study shows there is no evidence to support the notion that the original Black policy bankers were involved in other criminal activities before entering the racket. Harlem's early Black and Latin policy bankers were entrepreneurial people who saw the policy racket as an opportunity to make money. As the game revealed its money making potentials for its operators and as the policy industry expanded and became popular, White criminals with political connections entered the racket as bankers. Eventually more powerful gangsters entered the racket forcing the Black policy bankers to join their organization as workers or leave the racket altogether.;The early Black and Latin bankers did not command violence or a political force to maintain their control when opposed by assertive White criminals that entered the policy racket. To explain the loss of dominance in Harlem's number gambling operation, this study hypothesizes, first, that Harlem's Black policy bankers did not experience the same criminal development as did their White counterparts. Secondly, they lost their leadership role in the illicit numbers business to White bankers because they lacked the necessary political and economic resources commanded by their adversaries. Harlem's Black policy bankers were not historically rooted in violence and lacked criminal prowess in addition did not have the opportunity to develop a political astuteness to fend off their adversaries.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
