The content details how Harlem, excluded from legitimate power structures, developed a sophisticated, self-governing "parallel authority" through organized crime, particularly the numbers racket, which funded community institutions and demonstrated the possibility of self-governance, albeit with inherent fragilities and eventual suppression by official systems.
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The photograph was taken from across the
street, high angle, probably fourth
floor, maybe fifth. The camera was
expensive, professional grade, the kind
the NYPD intelligence division kept for
surveillance operations they'd later
deny existed. The date stamp read June
3rd, 1928.
The location, 135th Street and 7th
Avenue, right in front of the
Renaissance Casino. And in the center of
the frame, perfectly in focus, was a
group of men and women dressed like they
owned the city, which in a very real
sense, they did. There were 12 of them.
Three women in fur coats despite the
summer heat. Nine men in tailored suits
that cost more than most Harlem families
made in a month. They were laughing, one
of the women throwing her head back,
hand on someone's shoulder. They looked
like movie stars, like royalty, like
people who'd never worried about money
or power or where their next meal was
coming from. And that photograph, that
single image, was filed in a Manila
folder labeled negro agitators and
criminal elements. Ongoing surveillance,
because that's what the NYPD called
them, agitators, criminals, threats to
public order. But those 12 people in
that photograph controlled more actual
power in Harlem than the police, the
mayor's office, and the municipal
government combined. They just didn't
control it officially. They didn't have
badges or titles or government
appointments. They had something else,
something the system couldn't quite name
and definitely couldn't stop. They had
money that moved independent of white
banks. They had justice that operated
outside white courts. [snorts] They had
enforcement that didn't require police
permission. [music] They had what every
government fears most, parallel
authority, the ability to govern without
asking. And by 1928, Harlem had been
under surveillance for nearly two
decades because of it. This isn't a
story about rebellion. It's not about
protest or resistance in the traditional
sense. This is about something far more
threatening to power structures.
Replacement. the creation of a complete
functioning alternative to the official
system. Not criminal chaos, governmental
infrastructure, built quietly, operated
efficiently, funded continuously by
people America refused to let
participate in legitimate governance.
The woman throwing her head back,
laughing in that photograph, that was
Madame CJ Walker's daughter, Ailia
Walker, who' turned her mother's hair
care fortune into patronage of every
black artist. writer and intellectual in
Harlem. The man standing next to her,
hand in his pocket, looking directly at
the camera like he knew exactly where it
was, that was Casper Holstein, who
controlled the numbers banking operation
that generated more revenue than most
legitimate businesses in New York. The
woman in the white fur, smaller than the
others, but somehow commanding
attention, that was Stephanie St. Clare,
who'd later go to war with Dutch Schultz
and refused to surrender, even when
surrender meant survival. 12 people. 12
centers of power. 12 reasons the NYPD
kept taking photographs and filing
reports and monitoring activities that
were technically legal. Because they
weren't just committing crimes. They
were building institutions. And
institutions don't disappear when you
arrest someone. They persist. They grow.
they become permanent. That's what made
them dangerous. That same day, June 3rd,
1928, three blocks north on 138th
Street, a detective named John Ryan was
sitting in an unmarked car, writing in a
notebook. He'd been assigned to Harlem
surveillance for 6 months. His notes
were meticulous, detailed, and
increasingly frustrated. "Subject A
departed residence at 9:47 a.m." he
wrote. Met with subject C at Renaissance
Casino. Conversation lasted 47 minutes.
Observed handshake between subject C and
subject F. Possibly monetary exchange.
No probable cause for arrest. No visible
criminal activity. Recommend continued
surveillance. No probable cause. That
phrase appeared in Ryan's reports 73
times over 6 months. He was watching
crime happen. He was certain of it. He
could feel it. But he couldn't prove it
because the crime wasn't street level
dealing or violence enforcement. The
crime was structural, economic,
political. The crime was building power
in a system designed to prevent exactly
that. Detective Ryan had no language for
what he was witnessing. No legal
framework, no precedent. Because America
had never confronted this particular
problem before. What happens when people
you've excluded from legitimate power
simply build their own power structure
instead? Not underground, not hidden,
right in front of you, photographed and
documented and operating in broad
daylight, just legally ambiguous enough
that you can watch but not stop. That
was Harlem in 1928. But to understand
how Harlem became America's most watched
neighborhood, how it developed this
parallel power structure that required
constant surveillance, you have to go
back. Back before the photographs,
before the money, before the elite, back
to when Harlem was just a neighborhood
at the edge of Manhattan that nobody
white wanted. Back to the moment when
geography became destiny. Back to 1900.
Harlem in 1900 was a real estate
disaster. Beautiful brownstones built
for wealthy white families who never
came. Speculative development that
collapsed when the subway route changed.
Property values plummeting, owners
desperate. And into this vacuum walked a
black man named Philip Payton Jr. with
an idea that would reshape American
urban geography. He called it the
Afroamerican Realy Company. The pitch
was simple. Let black families rent your
empty buildings. We'll pay on time,
maintain the properties, cause no
trouble. The white landlords were
skeptical, then desperate, then willing.
And in 1904, the first black families
began moving into buildings on 134th
Street. Within 5 years, they'd moved
into blocks from 135th to 145th Street.
Within 10 years, Harlem had transformed
from a failed white neighborhood into
the largest concentrated black community
in America. But that's not the
interesting part. The interesting part
is why they stayed. Why Harlem didn't
just become another neighborhood black
people passed through on their way to
somewhere else. Why it became the
capital, the center, the place where
power accumulated instead of dispersing.
The answer is brutally simple. They had
nowhere else to go. Not because they
didn't try, because every other option
was systematically closed. By 1915, you
could map black exclusion in New York
City with geographic precision. Below
110th Street, landlords wouldn't rent to
black families regardless of income.
Brooklyn had neighborhood associations
that existed solely to keep black
families out. Queens was farmland and
hostility. The Bronx had restrictive
covenants written into property deeds,
making it [music] illegal to sell to
black buyers. Every direction was
blocked. Every expansion prevented.
Every attempt to disperse was met with
violence, legal obstruction, or simple
refusal. So Harlem became a funnel.
Every black person arriving in New York
from the south, from the Caribbean, from
anywhere got directed to the same 20
block radius. Not by choice, by
elimination of alternatives. In 1910,
about 50,000 black people lived in
Harlem. By 1920, that number was
150,000. Same geographic area, triple
the population. And the people arriving
weren't random. They were selected,
self- selected through the act of
migration itself. Because leaving the
South in 1915 wasn't a casual decision.
It was dangerous. It required resources,
courage, planning. The people who made
that journey were by definition the ones
willing to take risks for better
opportunities. The ambitious ones, the
ones who looked at sharecropping or
domestic service and said, "No, there
has to be something else." And they all
arrived in the same neighborhood. James
Weldon Johnson, who'd later document
this transformation, described it
[music] in 1930. Harlem is not a slum.
It's a city within a city. It has its
own economy, its own governance, its own
aristocracy. The only difference is that
none of it is official. He was right.
But he was also understating it. Because
what was happening in Harlem wasn't just
community building. It was pressure.
Literal pressure. Thousands of people
with money, ambition, and skills
compressed into a geographic area that
couldn't expand. In normal
circumstances, that pressure would
dissipate. People would spread out, but
the boundaries were rigid, enforced,
patrolled. So, the pressure had nowhere
to go but up. Up into organization, up
into hierarchy, up into power
structures. By 1920, you could see it
forming if you knew what to look for.
The legitimate economy was thriving.
Blackowned businesses on every block,
doctors, lawyers, undertakers,
shopkeepers, the Amsterdam News
reporting on community affairs, churches
with thousands of members and social
welfare programs, the NAACP establishing
its national headquarters on Fifth
Avenue. This was the visible layer, the
official Harlem, the part white America
occasionally praised as evidence that
black people could succeed if they just
worked hard enough.
But underneath that, something else was
building. Something the official economy
couldn't accommodate because the
official economy was deliberately
limited. Black doctors could practice in
Harlem, but couldn't admit patients to
white hospitals.
Black lawyers could try cases, but face
judges and juries that didn't consider
them equals. Black business owners could
operate shops, but couldn't get loans
from white banks. Every legitimate
avenue of power accumulation had a
ceiling, a hard limit enforced by law,
custom, and violence. So the ambitious
ones, the ones who arrived in Harlem
looking for opportunity and found
artificial constraints, did what
ambitious people always do when
legitimate paths are blocked. They built
illegitimate ones. In 1920, a man named
Casper Holstein arrived in Harlem from
the Virgin Islands. He was 39 years old.
He had a sixth grade education and $50
in his pocket. He worked as a porter,
then a dorman, then a building
superintendent. He saved money. He
watched. He learned. And what he learned
was that there was more money moving
through Harlem's informal economy than
through any bank. The numbers racket had
existed for years. Small-time gambling,
where you picked three numbers, and if
they matched the last three digits of
the next day's stock market trades, you
won. Penny bets, nickel payouts, street
level hustlers running operations out of
barber shops and bars. It was small,
disorganized, local. Holstein looked at
it and saw something nobody else did.
Structure, predictability, scale. He
started consolidating, buying out small
operators, standardizing the payout
ratios, creating central collection
points, hiring runners who worked on
salary instead of commission so they
wouldn't skim, building accounting
systems, establishing territories.
Within 3 years, he was processing
thousands of bets daily. Within 5 years,
he was the largest numbers banker in
Harlem. Within 7 years, he was
generating revenue that exceeded most
legitimate businesses in New York. And
he did it all without a single
interaction with the formal financial
system. No bank loans, no business
licenses, no tax returns, no legal
recognition. He built a multi-million
dollar enterprise in the shadow economy
because the legitimate economy wouldn't
let him build anything equivalent in the
light. But Holstein wasn't unique. He
was just the most successful example of
a pattern repeating across Harlem.
Stephanie Stlair arrived from
Martineique in 1912 and built her own
numbers operation independent of
Holings. Henry Mero controlled policy
games. Marcelino controlled sports
betting. Each of them generating massive
revenue. Each of them operating outside
the official financial system. each of
them accumulating power that had nowhere
to go except into Harlem itself because
they couldn't invest it anywhere else.
This is the part most histories miss.
They focus on the crime, the illegality,
the exploitation, all of which was real.
But they miss the reason it became so
organized, so powerful, so institutional.
institutional.
The money had nowhere to go. A white
gangster making millions in the 1920s
could buy property in Manhattan, invest
in legitimate businesses, move his
family to Connecticut, send his kids to
private schools. He could launder money
into legitimacy. But black gangsters
couldn't do any of that. Every
investment had to stay in Harlem. Every
dollar had to circulate inside the same
20 block radius. The money couldn't
escape. So, it accumulated, compressed,
became concentrated power. By 1925,
there was more liquid capital moving
through Harlem's informal economy than
through its banks. There were more
disputes resolved through unofficial
mediation than through courts. There
were more jobs created by illegal
enterprises than by legitimate
businesses, not because black people
were inherently criminal, because the
legitimate system had been deliberately
constructed to prevent black
accumulation of capital and power. So
capital and power accumulated anyway.
just in forms the system couldn't
control. And the people controlling that
capital and power, they started
recognizing each other started
coordinating, not formally, not
explicitly, but in the way that people
with aligned interests always do. Holin
knew St. Clare. St. Clare knew the
owners of the Cotton Club. The club
owners knew the lawyers who fixed cases.
The lawyers knew the ministers who
controlled voting blocks. The ministers
knew the newspaper editors who shaped
public opinion. Networks of mutual
interest and shared exclusion. This is
why Harlem became America's most watched
neighborhood. Not because of crime
rates, not because of violence, but
because it was developing independent
governance. Authority that operated
parallel to official authority. And
that's the thing systems can't tolerate.
Crime they can manage. Protest they can
suppress. But alternative power
structures, alternative ways of
organizing society, that's existential.
That requires surveillance,
documentation, constant monitoring.
Because if people realize they can
govern themselves without permission,
the whole legitimacy structure starts to
crack. Detective Ryan, sitting in his
car on 138th Street in 1928, was
watching the crack form. He just didn't
understand what he was seeing. He filed
reports about suspicious meetings and
possible criminal conspiracies. He took
photographs of well-dressed people
having dinner. He documented handshakes
and conversations and the movement of
people between locations. He was
building a surveillance apparatus that
would only grow larger, more
sophisticated, more pervasive over the
next two decades. Because by 1928,
Harlem wasn't just a neighborhood
anymore. It was a parallel state with
its own economy generating millions
annually. Its own justice system
resolving thousands of disputes. Its own
political structure influencing
elections and policy. Its own media
shaping narratives. Its own elite class
making decisions that affected hundreds
of thousands of lives. All of it
unofficial. All of it operating in the
spaces between laws. All of it built by
people America refused to let
participate [music] in legitimate
governance. That's not chaos. That's
order. Just not the order white America
authorized. And unauthorized order is
always more threatening than authorized
disorder. Because disorder you can
contain order. You have to acknowledge.
And acknowledgement requires recognition
of power. And recognition of power
requires sharing power. And that's what
America wasn't willing to do. So
instead, they watched and photographed
and documented and tried to understand
how people they'd excluded from power
had built power anyway. Tried to find
the illegality they could prosecute, the
conspiracy they could break, the leader
they could arrest to collapse the whole
structure. But that's not how it worked.
Because Harlem's power wasn't
centralized. It wasworked. 12 people in
a photograph, each controlling a
different piece. Remove one and 11
remained. Remove five and the structure
adapted. This wasn't a criminal
organization with a boss and hierarchy.
This was a functioning ecosystem with
multiple power centers that balanced
each other through competition and cooperation.
cooperation.
That's what made it strong. That's what
made it last. That's what made it
terrifying to anyone invested in
maintaining the official power
structure. And at the center of this
ecosystem, generating the resources that
made everything else possible, was
money. Massive amounts of it moving
through channels the official system
couldn't track or control or tax.
Funding culture, politics, legal
defense, community welfare, criminal
profits, paying for legitimate black
excellence. And nobody knew exactly how
much money it was. Not the police, not
the IRS, not the municipal government.
Nobody except the people counting it at
the end of each day in apartments across
Harlem. In ledgers that would never be
audited, amounts that would seem
impossible if anyone who didn't know
better heard them. Which brings us to
the foundation of everything else. The
reason Harlem could build parallel power
structures. The reason an elite class
emerged. The reason America was watching
so closely.
It all came down to one thing. Money.
How Harlem generated it. How they
controlled it. How they used it to build
institutional power without anyone's
permission. That's where we go next.
Into the numbers racket. Into the
underground economy that funded the
Harlem Renaissance. into the system that
turned pennies from poor people into
millions of dollars and then turned
those millions into power that lasted
decades. Because you can't understand
Harlem's elite without understanding
where their power came from. And their
power came from the most unlikely source
imaginable. Illegal gambling operations
that were more organized, more
efficient, and more trusted than most
legitimate businesses in America. The
slip of paper was smaller than a
business card. Three handwritten
numbers, 4 72, a name, Sarah Johnson,
and a date, March 15th, 1927.
It looked like trash, the kind of thing
you'd throw away without thinking. But
that slip of paper represented a bet. 15
cents, which doesn't sound like much
until you understand the system behind
it. 15 cents from Sarah Johnson and 15
cents from Mrs. Williams down the hall.
and 15 cents from the porter at the
building on 133rd Street. And 15 cents
from the maid who worked in Greenwich
Village [music] but lived in Harlem. And
15 cents from 3,000 other people who
played the numbers that Tuesday in
March. 3,000 people, 15 cents each.
That's $450
in one day from one neighborhood from
one numbers bank. And there were 40
numbers banks operating in Harlem by 1927.
1927.
Do the math. That's $18,000 daily.
Moving through an economy that operated
completely outside the formal financial
system. $18,000 daily equals $126,000
weekly, which equals roughly $6.5
million annually. in 1927
from an operation that had no business
license, no bank accounts, no corporate
structure, no legal recognition
whatsoever. An operation the government
called criminal, but couldn't stop
because it was too decentralized, too
embedded, too trusted by the community
it served. And that was just the numbers
racket. That doesn't count policy games,
sports betting, speak easys, after hours
clubs, informal lending, or any of the
other shadow economy operations
generating revenue in Harlem during the 1920s.
1920s.
Add all of it together, and you're
looking at an underground economy
processing somewhere between 15 and $25
million annually in a neighborhood where
the median annual income was $1,200.
This is how parallel power structures
get built. Not through ideology or
organization or political movements.
Through money, massive amounts of it,
flowing through channels the official
system can't control, creating
opportunities the legitimate economy
won't provide, and most importantly,
staying inside the community because it
has nowhere else to go. But to
understand why the numbers racket became
the foundation of Harlem's power
structure, you have to understand why it
worked. Why tens of thousands of people
who could barely afford to eat were
spending 15 cents daily on what was
essentially a lottery with terrible
odds. Why they trusted street level
runners with their money. Why the system
persisted for decades despite constant
police raids and periodic crackdowns.
The answer isn't addiction or
desperation or ignorance. The answer is
that the numbers racket solved problems
the legitimate financial system created.
Problem one, black people couldn't get
loans. Banks in the 1920s didn't lend to
black borrowers. Period. It wasn't just
prejudice. It was policy. Formal,
documented, institutionalized policy.
The National Banking Act had no explicit
racial restrictions, but banking was
locally controlled and local banks had
complete discretion over who qualified
for credit. In practice, that meant
black applications were denied
regardless of income, employment, or
creditworthiness. A black doctor making
$5,000 annually couldn't get a business
loan. A black property owner with clear
title couldn't get a mortgage for a
second building. The entire formal
credit system was closed. So, when Sarah
Johnson needed $50 to pay for her son's
medical treatment, she couldn't go to a
bank. She went to her numbers runner.
Who knew someone who knew someone who
had cash on hand and would lend it at
interest rates that were high but not
predatory with repayment terms that were
informal but enforced. That's not crime.
That's alternative banking created by
necessity because the legitimate system
refused to function. Problem two, black
people couldn't save safely. They could
open accounts at blackowned banks and
many did. But black banks in the 1920s
were small, under capitalized,
vulnerable to runs. The Binga State Bank
in Chicago collapsed in 1930, taking the
savings of thousands of black depositors
with it. The Dunar National Bank in
Harlem went under in 1938.
People learned that putting money in
official banks meant risking everything.
But giving money to your numbers runner,
that money was moving, circulating,
accessible. You could always get it back
because it was embedded in a social
network, not a bureaucratic institution.
Your runner knew where you lived. You
knew where he lived. Trust was personal,
not institutional. And personal trust in
a community where institutional trust
had been repeatedly betrayed was worth
the risk.
Problem three, black people couldn't
invest. The stock market was
functionally closed to black investors,
not legally, but practically. You needed
a broker. Brokers worked for firms.
Firms had policies. Those policies
excluded black clients. Same with real
estate outside Harlem. Same with
business partnerships. Same with
municipal bonds. Every legitimate
investment vehicle was either explicitly
or implicitly segregated. So when
someone in Harlem had $500 they wanted
to grow, there was nowhere to put it
except back into the informal economy.
Lend it to someone starting a business,
invest in a numbers operation, buy a
piece of a speak easy. The shadow
economy wasn't just where money was
made. It was where money could be used.
The numbers racket solved all three
problems simultaneously. It provided
credit, liquidity, and investment
opportunities in a community excluded
from all three through legitimate
channels. And it did so with remarkable
efficiency. Here's how it actually
worked in detail because the mechanics
matter. Every morning, runners would
start their routes. Most of them worked
specific territories, a few blocks, a
building cluster, a section of a street.
They'd visit the same people daily,
people they'd built relationships with.
Mrs. Johnson on the third floor always
played 375.
Mr. Williams at the corner store
alternated between his birthday digits
and his house number. The maid who
worked downtown played her employer's
address digits because she figured rich
people had lucky numbers. Everyone had
their system. Everyone had their
reasons. Most played the same numbers
for weeks or months. Building patterns.
The runner would collect bets throughout
the morning. Each bet got a handwritten
slip. The original went to the better. A
carbon copy stayed with the runner. By
noon, the runner would meet their
controller, the next level up in the
hierarchy. The controller would
aggregate slips from five or six
runners, verify the totals, collect the
money. By 2 p.m., everything went to the
bank, the operation's headquarters.
usually an apartment that looked
ordinary from outside but contained
adding machines, ledgers, safes, and
several people whose only job was
counting money and recording bets. The
winning number came from the New York
Clearing Houses's daily report of
financial transactions published in
afternoon newspapers. The last three
digits of the total handle at the track
or the last three digits of the Federal
Reserve transactions or the last three
of the stock exchange totals. The exact
method varied by operation, but it was
always based on something public,
verifiable, impossible to manipulate.
This was crucial. The winning number
couldn't be controlled by the bank. It
had to be transparently random because
the entire system depended on trust. And
trust required the game to be
legitimate. Illegal, but legitimate. If
your number hit, you won 600 to1. 15
became $90.
$90 in 1927 was two months rent. It was
medical bills paid. It was a winter coat
for your child. It was margin between
survival and catastrophe. The odds of
winning were roughly 1 in 1,000. So, the
math heavily favored the house, but the
possibility was real. People won
regularly enough that everyone knew
someone who'd hit. And when you won, you
got paid always, immediately in cash.
This is what separated Harlem's numbers
banks from whiterrun gambling
operations. Payment was guaranteed. The
banks had reputations to maintain. They
operated in a community where reputation
was everything because legal recourse
didn't exist. If a numbers banker didn't
pay out, word spread within hours.
Betters would switch to competitors.
Runners would quit. the entire operation
would collapse. So they paid every time,
even when it hurt, even when someone hit
big. Especially when someone hit big,
because that's what built trust. Casper
Holstein understood this better than
anyone. He ran his operation with
principles that sound absurd for an
illegal gambling enterprise, but made
perfect sense if you understood the economics.
economics.
First, pay winners immediately in full
with a smile. Second, pay runners fairly
and on time. Third, never expand faster
than you can maintain quality control.
Fourth, never skim more than the
expected house edge. Fifth, invest
profits back into the community visibly.
That last one was key. Holstein didn't
just take money out of Harlem, he
circulated it. He sponsored the Harlem
Renaissance Cultural Awards, giving cash
prizes to poets, writers, and artists.
He funded scholarships for black
students. He bought buildings and rented
them to black families at fair rates. He
donated to the NAACP, to churches, to
community organizations. He made sure
everyone knew where the money came from.
Numbers, profits, supporting black
excellence. This created a legitimacy
loop that the official system couldn't
break. People played the numbers. Some
won, most lost, but everyone felt like
they had a chance. The money went to
numbers bankers like Holstein. Holene
paid out reliably and invested publicly
in community good. The community
therefore tolerated, even supported the
operation, which meant more people
played, which meant more money, which
meant more investment, which meant more
community support. It was
self-reinforcing and it was phenomenally
effective at concentrating capital in a
community that had no other mechanism
for capital concentration. By 1928,
Casper Holstein was processing an
estimated $2 million annually through
his operation alone. Stephanie St. Clair
was running a nearly equivalent
operation independently. Henry Mero
controlled the West Harlem Policy Games.
Alex Pompez ran numbers in Spanish
Harlem. Each of them was generating
hundreds of thousands in annual profit.
And all of that money stayed in Harlem
because there was nowhere else to put
it. They couldn't open accounts in white
banks using gambling proceeds. They
couldn't invest in white businesses.
They couldn't buy property outside the
ghetto. So they invested in what they
could control, Harlem itself. Real
estate. Holstein bought apartment
buildings not just for rental income,
but to control housing stock to ensure
black families couldn't be arbitrarily
evicted by white landlords. To create
stable housing in a neighborhood where
stability was rare, St. Clair did the
same. By 1930, Numbers bankers
collectively owned more residential
property in Harlem than any official
real estate company. businesses. Numbers
profits funded restaurants, nightclubs,
barber shops, stores. These weren't
fronts for money laundering. They were
legitimate businesses that created jobs,
provided services, kept money
circulating locally. The Cotton Club was
partially funded by numbers money. The
Seavoy Ballroom, Smalls Paradise. These
weren't just entertainment venues. They
were economic anchors, places that
employed hundreds and attracted
thousands, generating legitimate tax
revenue for the city while being quietly
supported by the shadow economy. Legal
defense. This is the part most histories
ignore. Numbers bankers funded some of
the best criminal defense attorneys in
New York. Not for themselves, though
they use them when necessary, for the
community. When someone in Harlem got
arrested on questionable charges, there
was often a lawyer who' take the case
pro bono. That lawyer was being paid,
just not by the defendant. They were
being paid by numbers bankers who
understood that community support
required community protection, that you
couldn't extract wealth without
providing security. This created an
obligation network. The community
tolerated numbers operations because
numbers operations provided services the
government wouldn't. Credit, employment,
legal defense, housing stability. It was
a mutual aid society funded by gambling,
a social safety net built on illegal
profits. And it worked because it had to
work, because there was no alternative.
Because every legitimate avenue for
community support had been
systematically closed. But here's what
made it a power structure rather than
just a criminal enterprise. The coordination.
coordination.
By 1928, the major numbers bankers
weren't competing destructively.
They were coordinating territorially.
Holstein controlled central Harlem. St.
Clair had South Harlem. Miro had West
Harlem. Pompei had Spanish Harlem. They
didn't have a formal agreement. They
didn't need one. They had mutual
interest in stability in preventing the
kind of violent territorial wars that
would invite federal intervention. So
they maintained boundaries, respected
territories, and occasionally cooperated
on issues that affected all of them.
Like police payoffs, every numbers
operation paid police for protection.
Not individual cops, though that
happened too. They paid at the precinct
level. monthly cash payments to desk
sergeants who ensured that raids were
predictable, that arrests were for show,
that evidence disappeared. This wasn't
corruption in the sense of individual
bad cops. This was institutionalized
cooperation between the official system
and the shadow economy. The police got
paid. The numbers operations continued.
Everyone maintained the fiction that
gambling was illegal while ensuring it
continued profitably. The amounts were
staggering. Stephanie St. Clair later
testified that she paid over $30,000
annually in police protection during the
late 1920s. Holstein paid similar
amounts. Across all operations, Numbers
bankers were paying hundreds of
thousands annually to police, which
meant the NYPD had direct financial
incentive to allow the operations to
continue. They were taxing the shadow
economy informally, creating a corrupt
but functional relationship. This is why
the surveillance photographs, why the
constant documentation. The NYPD knew
what was happening. Everyone knew, but
they couldn't stop it without losing the
revenue. And they couldn't acknowledge
the revenue without admitting
institutional corruption. So, they
watched and documented and waited for an
opportunity to intervene that wouldn't
disrupt the cash flow. That opportunity
came in 1928, but not from police. from
the one force neither the numbers
bankers nor the corrupt cops had
accounted for white organized crime.
Because while Harlem was building its
parallel economy, generating millions
annually, creating institutional power,
the white mob was consolidating
nationwide. And eventually, they looked
north from their Midtown operations and
noticed something interesting. a massive
gambling operation generating more
revenue than most of their own rackets,
being run by people they'd never
considered competition in a neighborhood
they'd never considered valuable.
Dutch Schultz looked at Harlem in 1928
and saw easy money, a disorganized
collection of black criminals running
penny anti operations without real
muscle, without political connections,
without the sophistication to fight
back. He saw what everyone in the white
mob saw, an opportunity for expansion
with minimal risk. Take over the numbers
banks, extract the profits, cut out the
black operators, and absorb several
million annually into Italian mob
operations. What he didn't see, what
none of them saw, was that Harlem's
numbers operations weren't criminal
enterprises. They were governing
institutions. They provided credit,
employment, social services, housing,
legal defense. They were embedded in
every aspect of community life. They had
popular support not because people loved
gambling, but because numbers bankers
solved problems the government created.
And institutions don't fold when
threatened. They fight back. But Schultz
didn't know that yet. In 1928, he
started making moves, quiet ones at
first, talking to police about cutting
numbers operations out of protection
arrangements, meeting with politicians
about supporting a crackdown on black
gambling, sending scouts into Harlem to
assess operations, identify
vulnerabilities, map territories. He was
planning an invasion, and he was
confident it would be bloodless because
he couldn't imagine that black criminals
would seriously resist organized Italian
mob pressure. He was about to learn
otherwise because while he was planning,
Stephanie Stlair was planning too. And
she wasn't planning surrender. She was
planning war. Stephanie St. Clair kept
three ledgers, not one, three. The first
was obvious, sitting on her desk where
anyone who entered could see it. It
contained the daily numbers, bets
collected, payouts made, runner's
commissions, operating expenses, basic
accounting, the kind of record any
business would keep. The police had
raided her apartment twice and found
that ledger both times. They'd
confiscated it, examined it, found
nothing prosecutable
because it was deliberately incomplete.
Accurate, but incomplete. The second
ledger was hidden, sewn into the lining
of a custom-made trunk in her bedroom.
It contained the real numbers, the full
operation, police payments, political
contributions, loans made to community
members, property purchases, the
complete financial picture of an
enterprise generating $700,000 annually.
That ledger was never seen by anyone
outside her inner circle. It was too
dangerous, too complete, too clearly
evidence of an organization that rivaled
legitimate businesses in complexity. The
third ledger was something else
entirely. It wasn't numbers. It was
names. People who owed her, people she
owed, people who'd done favors, people
she'd helped. Lawyers who'd taken cases.
Politicians who'd voted certain ways.
Police who'd provided warnings. Rivals
who'd respected territorial boundaries.
allies who'd provided muscle when
needed. It was a map of obligation and
reciprocity, a social network documented
in careful handwriting. And it was worth
more than both other ledgers combined.
Because money is power only if you can
convert it into influence. Otherwise,
it's just numbers in a book. What made
Harlem's numbers bankers powerful wasn't
the millions they generated. It was what
they did with those millions. How they
transformed illegal profits into
legitimate community infrastructure. How
they turned cash into obligation
networks. How they made themselves indispensable.
indispensable.
Sinclair understood this instinctively.
She wasn't just running a gambling
operation. She was building a constituency.
constituency.
Every loan she made created a debtor who
owed her. Every legal fee she paid
created a lawyer who'd take her calls.
Every political contribution created a
politician who'd listen. Every community
donation created public goodwill. She
was systematically converting money into
relationships and relationships in a
community excluded from formal power
structures were the only power that
mattered. This is why the numbers racket
became foundational. Not because
gambling is inherently powerful, but
because it generated continuous cash
flow that could be converted into
continuous relationship building. A
legitimate business generates profits
quarterly or annually. Numbers
operations generated profits daily,
which meant daily opportunities to
create obligations, demonstrate
generosity, build loyalty. The velocity
of money mattered as much as the
quantity. Consider a typical week in St.
Clare's operation in 1929.
Monday through Saturday, her runners
collected bets. Total weekly handle,
approximately $15,000.
The winning numbers hit. Payouts were
made. runners got their commission.
After all expenses, her net profit for
the week was about $4,000.
That's $28,000 annually.
That's what the first ledger showed. But
the second ledger told a different
story. Of that $4,000 weekly profit,
$500 went to police payoffs. $300 went
to political contributions through
intermediaries. $400 went to her legal
defense fund. money kept aside for
lawyers who defend community members
arrested on questionable charges. $600
went to real estate investments, buying
properties that would later be rented to
black families. $200 went to community
donations, church fundraisers,
scholarship funds, cultural events. $800
went back into the operation as
reserves, and $1,200 she kept as
personal profit. She was spending 70% of
her profits on everything except
herself. That's not crime. That's
governance. That's taxation and redistribution.
redistribution.
That's what governments do. Extract
money from the population and convert it
into services, infrastructure, and
public goods. St. Clare was doing
exactly that, just without legal
authority. She was running a shadow
government funded by voluntary taxation
in the form of gambling losses. And she
wasn't alone. Every major numbers banker
in Harlem was doing similar
calculations. Holstein's version
emphasized cultural patronage. Mero's
emphasized employment creation. Pompei's
emphasized community protection, but all
of them understood the same principle.
Power requires continuous reinvestment
in the community that sustains it. This
created a problem for Dutch Schultz that
he didn't anticipate. When he started
moving on Harlem in 1929, he thought he
was taking over criminal enterprises. He
was actually attacking governing
institutions. And governing institutions
don't disappear when you arrest the
leadership. They reorganize. They adapt.
They fight back with resources you
didn't know existed. Schultz's first
move was predictable. He went to the
police, specifically to the officers
already being paid by Harlem Numbers
bankers. His offer was simple. I'll
double what they're paying you. Stop
protecting them. Start raiding them.
Force them to fold or sell out. It was
the standard mob playbook. Buy the
protection. Eliminate the competition.
Absorb the operations. What he didn't
understand was that the police
relationship with Harlem numbers bankers
wasn't purely financial. It was also
practical. The numbers operations
provided community stability. They
employed people who might otherwise turn
to more violent crime. They resolved
disputes that would otherwise require
police intervention. They maintained
order in a neighborhood the NYPD didn't
have enough officers to patrol effectively.
effectively.
The police weren't just being paid off.
They were outsourcing governance to an
informal system that worked better than
their formal one. When Schultz
approached them, many police took his
money, but they didn't stop protecting
the numbers operations. They warned the
bankers. They continued providing tip
offs before raids. They ensured evidence
didn't lead to convictions because
they'd calculated that having Harlem
police itself through numbers funded
community structures was easier than
actually policing it. Schultz's second
move was more direct. He sent men into
Harlem, Italian enforcers who'd done
this before in other territories. Their
instructions were simple. Collect
protection money from numbers runners.
Anyone who refused got beaten. Anyone
who resisted got worse. The implication
was clear. You're working for us now,
whether you like it or not. They started
on the edges. small operators,
independent runners who weren't
affiliated with the major banks. Some of
them folded, paid up, started passing
their collections to Schultz's men
instead of their original controllers.
This is how mob expansion usually
worked. Take the weak ones first,
establish presence, build momentum.
Eventually, the strong ones fold because
resistance becomes unsustainable.
But in Harlem, something different
happened. The independent runners who
got pressured went to the major numbers
bankers for protection. St. Clare's
response was direct. Anyone who works
with Schultz's people gets cut off from
all Harlem operations permanently.
Holstein backed her. So did Mero. So did
Pompez. They presented a united front
because they understood what Schultz
didn't. If they fractured, they all
lost. If they unified, they might survive.
survive.
This is when the violence started. Not
random violence, calculated violence.
St. Clare employed enforcers, men whose
job was protecting the operation's
integrity. The most effective was
Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson, who'd been
working for her since 1928.
Johnson wasn't muscle in the traditional
sense. He was smart, strategic. He
understood that violence and numbers
operations was a tool, not an objective.
You used it precisely, demonstrably, to
send messages, not to win wars. When
Schultz's men started intimidating
runners in St. Clare's territory,
Johnson responded by targeting Schultz's
collectors in Midtown. Not the big ones,
the small time guys collecting policy
bets from Italian shopkeepers. He didn't
kill them. He beat them badly enough
that they stopped working. The message
was clear. You come after our
operations, we come after yours. And
we're not restricted to our
neighborhood. This was unprecedented.
Black criminals hitting white mob
operations in Italian neighborhoods. It
violated every unwritten rule of New
York's organized crime hierarchy. But it
was strategically brilliant because it
changed the cost calculation. Schultz
thought taking Harlem would be
profitable. Johnson made it expensive.
Every runner he intimidated in Midtown
was money Schultz wasn't collecting.
Every Italian enforcer who got
hospitalized was an employee off the
payroll. The economics started shifting.
But Schultz had resources Harlem didn't.
He had Lucky Luciano's backing. He had
political connections at the highest
levels. He had more men, more money,
more institutional support from the
broader mob structure. He could absorb
losses that would break the Harlem
operations. And in 1930 he escalated.
His men stopped going after individual
runners. They started raiding numbers
banks directly. Walking into apartments
where operations were based, smashing
adding machines, burning ledgers, taking
cash, beating anyone present. These
weren't robbery attempts. They were
demonstrations of power. The message
was, "You can't defend this. Give up now
or we destroy everything." St.
Sinclair's apartment got hit in April
1930. Six men, they broke down the door,
trashed the place, took $3,000 in cash,
but they didn't find the second ledger.
They didn't find the third one, and they
didn't find St. Clair because she wasn't
there. She'd been tipped off by a police
officer. She'd been paying for 3 years.
An officer who'd also taken Schultz's
money, but decided that long-term,
reliable payments from St. Clare were
better than short-term promises from Schultz.
Schultz.
This is where the obligation networks
proved their value. St. Clare had spent
years building relationships, making
loans, paying legal fees, supporting
community institutions. When Schultz
came after her, she didn't just have
employees to defend her. She had
debtors, people who owed her in ways
that couldn't be calculated in dollars.
loyalty that couldn't be bought because
it was already paid for through years of reciprocity.
reciprocity.
She published an open letter in the
Amsterdam News in May 1930. Not subtle,
not coded, direct. Dutch Schultz and his
gangsters are attempting to steal our
businesses. They think because we're
colored that we'll fold. They're
mistaken. We built these operations when
no white banks would lend to us, when no
white businesses would hire us, when no
white institutions would serve us. We're
not giving them up. Not to Schultz, not
to anyone. It was a declaration of war,
but it was also a political move by
publishing in the Amsterdam News. She
made it public, made it a community
issue rather than a criminal dispute.
Now, it wasn't just St. Clair versus
Schultz. It was Harlem versus white mob
encroachment and Harlem had opinions.
Ministers started preaching about it.
Community organizations started
discussing it. The NAACP,
which normally stayed away from criminal
matters, started quietly acknowledging
that numbers operations, whatever their
legal status, were blackowned businesses
being targeted by white gangsters. The
framing shifted. It became about
economic self-determination,
about resisting white attempts to
control black commerce, about refusing
to surrender power that had been built
without permission. This is what Schultz
hadn't anticipated. He thought he was
fighting criminals. He was fighting
community institutions, and communities
defend institutions in ways that
criminals can't defend operations. By
mid 1930, the conflict was a stalemate.
Schultz controlled some territories. St.
Clare held others. Violence was regular
but not decisive. Money was being lost
on both sides. Police were being paid by
everyone and therefore loyal to no one.
It was expensive, bloody, and unsustainable.
unsustainable.
Something had to break. What broke
wasn't the operations. What broke was
the political calculus. Because while
Schultz and St. Clair were fighting,
media was paying attention. And media
attention meant white New York was
becoming aware of something they'd
ignored for years. There was massive
money in Harlem. Millions of dollars
annually flowing through an economy they
didn't control. And that recognition
changed everything.
Politicians started asking questions.
How much revenue was being generated?
Who was profiting? Why weren't these
operations being properly taxed if they
were going to be tolerated? The NYPD,
which had been quietly protecting
numbers operations for cash, suddenly
faced pressure to actually enforce the
law. Federal authorities started
investigating moneyaundering. The
Treasury Department got interested in
unpaid taxes. The spotlight was on and
neither Schultz nor St. Clare could
afford sustained public attention. Both
of them relied on operating in shadows,
on police looking away, on politicians
not caring. Once that changed, both
sides became vulnerable. By late 1930,
both sides were looking for an exit.
Schultz because the fight was costing
more than the potential profit. St.
Clare because federal attention was more
dangerous than mob competition. But
neither side wanted to surrender.
Surrender meant weakness. And weakness
in organized crime means everyone comes
after you. So they did something
remarkable. They negotiated. not
directly. Through intermediaries,
through the very lawyers and political
fixers who'd been taking money from both
sides, through people who understood
that continued war was bad for
everyone's business. They created a
compromise that would reshape organized
crime in Harlem for the next decade. The
compromise was simple. Territorial
division. Schultz would control policy
operations in certain areas. St. Clare
would maintain her numbers, banks in
others. profits would be partially
shared. Police protection costs would be
split. Neither side won completely.
Neither side lost completely. And most
importantly, both sides maintained face
because they could claim they defended
their territory. But the real
consequence was something neither side
fully understood at the time. By
negotiating that compromise, by sitting
down and dividing territories and
agreeing to coexist, they'd established
something new. recognition. Schultz had
implicitly acknowledged that black
criminals were legitimate negotiating
partners, that they controlled real
economic power, that they couldn't be
simply displaced or absorbed. And once
that recognition existed, once the
precedent was set, the entire hierarchy
of organized crime in New York began to
shift. Because if Harlem's numbers
bankers could force a negotiated
settlement with Dutch Schultz, one of
the most violent mobsters in America,
then they weren't street level criminals
anymore. They were something else.
Something the system didn't have
language for. They were the black elite.
People who controlled capital, exercised
authority, shaped outcomes. People who
governed without permission and enforced
without legal authority. people who'd
built a parallel power structure so
robust that even white organized crime
had to acknowledge it. That's how money
becomes power. Not through accumulation,
through conversion. Through transforming
profits into relationships, through
building obligations that persist longer
than cash, through making yourself
essential to enough people that removing
you would destabilize the entire
community. St. Clare didn't defeat
Schultz through violence. She defeated
him through embeddedness by being too
integrated into Harlem's social fabric
to be extracted without tearing the
entire fabric apart. And she wasn't
alone. By 1931, there was a full class
of black power brokers in Harlem. Not
just numbers bankers, lawyers, newspaper
editors, club owners, ministers,
political fixers, people who controlled
different pieces of Harlem's parallel
governance structure. people who knew
each other, who coordinated informally,
who protected shared interests, who
formed a genuine elite class that
operated outside official recognition
but with undeniable authority.
That's where we go next. Into that
elite, into how they recognized each
other, how they coordinated, what they
controlled, how they exercised power
without holding office. Because
understanding the black elite of Harlem
requires understanding that power isn't
always formal. Sometimes it's social.
Sometimes it's economic. Sometimes it's
simply the ability to make things happen
without anyone being able to explain
exactly how you did it. Part five of 12.
Act three. The black elite emerges.
First half approximately 18 minutes. The
invitation was printed on cream colored
card stock. expensive paper, the kind
that felt substantial in your hand. It
read, "You are cordially invited to a
private dinner at the Dark Tower."
Saturday, November 14th, 1931,
8:00. Formal attire required.
No RSVP information. No address listed.
If you needed to ask where the Dark
Tower was, you weren't actually invited.
The Dark Tower was Aelia Walker's
apartment on 136th Street. Technically
an apartment, actually a mansion
converted into a social club that
existed somewhere between a private
residence and a public salon. Walker had
inherited her mother's hair care
fortune. Millions of dollars that made
her the wealthiest black woman in
America. She could have lived anywhere.
She chose Harlem. and she chose to make
her home the social center of black
cultural and political life. The guest
list that November night was carefully
curated, not random, not accidental.
Every person present represented a
different form of power in Harlem, and
everyone there understood exactly why
they'd been invited.
Stephanie St. Clair arrived at 8:15,
fashionably late, wearing a dress that
cost more than most Harlem families
earned in 6 months. She came alone,
which was unusual. Most women arrived
with escorts, but St. Clare didn't need
protection or social validation.
Everyone knew who she was. Everyone knew
what she controlled. She could arrive
alone because her presence alone
commanded attention.
Casper Holstein was already there
talking with Langston Hughes near the
bar. Holstein in a tailored tuxedo that
masked his Virgin Islands accent, but
not his influence. Hughes in a more
modest suit. Literary success not yet
translating into financial security. But
they were talking as equals because in
this room, money wasn't the only
currency. Cultural capital mattered.
Intellectual capital mattered. The
ability to shape narratives mattered as
much as the ability to generate revenue.
At a table near the window, three men
sat discussing something that looked
serious. William T. Andrews, editor of
the Amsterdam News. Hubert Delaney, one
of Harlem's most successful criminal
defense attorneys, and Raymond Jones, a
political fixer who would later become
the first black leader of Tamonn Hall.
They weren't friends in the traditional
sense, their interests often conflicted,
but they were colleagues in the business
of exercising power without formal
authority. In the corner, two ministers
were in quiet conversation. Adam Clayton
Powell Senior of Abbisoninian Baptist
Church, which had over 10,000 members
and therefore represented 10,000 votes
in municipal elections. And Frederick
Cullen of Salem Methodist Episcopal
Church, smaller but strategically located and politically connected. They
located and politically connected. They weren't discussing theology. They were
weren't discussing theology. They were discussing a zoning proposal that would
discussing a zoning proposal that would affect Harlem property values. Because
affect Harlem property values. Because ministers in Harlem weren't just
ministers in Harlem weren't just spiritual leaders, they were political
spiritual leaders, they were political operators. And at the center of it all,
operators. And at the center of it all, moving between groups, introducing
moving between groups, introducing people, facilitating conversations, was
people, facilitating conversations, was Aelia Walker herself. She wasn't just
Aelia Walker herself. She wasn't just hosting, she was orchestrating, creating
hosting, she was orchestrating, creating connections, enabling coordination,
connections, enabling coordination, playing the role that no one else could
playing the role that no one else could play because no one else had her
play because no one else had her specific combination of wealth, social
specific combination of wealth, social standing, and strategic understanding of
standing, and strategic understanding of how power networks functioned. This is
how power networks functioned. This is how the black elite recognized each
how the black elite recognized each other. Not through formal membership or
other. Not through formal membership or official position, through invitation,
official position, through invitation, through presence in spaces like this,
through presence in spaces like this, through the social signaling that
through the social signaling that happened when someone like Walker
happened when someone like Walker decided you belonged in the room with
decided you belonged in the room with these particular people on this
these particular people on this particular night. The dinner itself was
particular night. The dinner itself was elaborate. Multiple courses, expensive
elaborate. Multiple courses, expensive wine served by staff who knew to be
wine served by staff who knew to be invisible. The conversation was careful.
invisible. The conversation was careful. Topics ranged from art to politics to
Topics ranged from art to politics to business, but certain subjects were
business, but certain subjects were avoided. No one discussed specific
avoided. No one discussed specific criminal operations. No one named names
criminal operations. No one named names regarding police payoffs. No one
regarding police payoffs. No one explicitly coordinated illegal activity.
explicitly coordinated illegal activity. But everyone understood that
But everyone understood that coordination was happening. Just encoded
coordination was happening. Just encoded language, just through implication and
language, just through implication and suggestion rather than direct statement.
suggestion rather than direct statement. St. Clare mentioned casually that
St. Clare mentioned casually that certain police officers had been
certain police officers had been reassigned to different precincts.
reassigned to different precincts. Andrews, the newspaper editor, noted
Andrews, the newspaper editor, noted that the Amsterdam News would be running
that the Amsterdam News would be running a series on police corruption in Harlem
a series on police corruption in Harlem next month. Jones, the political fixer,
next month. Jones, the political fixer, observed that municipal elections were
observed that municipal elections were coming up and certain alderman would
coming up and certain alderman would need support. Powell commented that his
need support. Powell commented that his congregation was concerned about
congregation was concerned about property speculation and displacement.
property speculation and displacement. Holstein announced he was establishing a
Holstein announced he was establishing a new scholarship fund for Harlem
new scholarship fund for Harlem students. None of these statements were
students. None of these statements were random. None were disconnected. They
random. None were disconnected. They were information sharing coordination
were information sharing coordination disguised as casual conversation. Each
disguised as casual conversation. Each person providing data points that others
person providing data points that others could incorporate into their own
could incorporate into their own decision-making. This is how elite
decision-making. This is how elite networks function when they can't
networks function when they can't operate openly. Through social
operate openly. Through social gatherings that look like parties but
gatherings that look like parties but function as strategy sessions. through
function as strategy sessions. through conversations that sound like small talk
conversations that sound like small talk but contain significant intelligence.
but contain significant intelligence. And this happened regularly, not just at
And this happened regularly, not just at the Dark Tower, at the Cotton Club,
the Dark Tower, at the Cotton Club, though that was more mixed with white
though that was more mixed with white patrons, at Smalls Paradise, at rent
patrons, at Smalls Paradise, at rent parties in Harlem apartments, at church
parties in Harlem apartments, at church functions, at NAACP meetings, at
functions, at NAACP meetings, at literary salons. The black elite of
literary salons. The black elite of Harlem had multiple overlapping social
Harlem had multiple overlapping social spaces where they encountered each
spaces where they encountered each other, built relationships, identified
other, built relationships, identified shared interests, and coordinated action
shared interests, and coordinated action without ever appearing to coordinate.
without ever appearing to coordinate. William T. Andrews understood this
William T. Andrews understood this better than most. He'd taken over the
better than most. He'd taken over the Amsterdam News in 1926 when it was a
Amsterdam News in 1926 when it was a struggling weekly. By 1931, it was the
struggling weekly. By 1931, it was the most influential black newspaper in
most influential black newspaper in America. Not because of circulation,
America. Not because of circulation, though that was substantial, because of
though that was substantial, because of who read it. The Amsterdam News was the
who read it. The Amsterdam News was the paper the black elite read. The paper
paper the black elite read. The paper that shaped how Harlem understood
that shaped how Harlem understood itself. The paper that could make or
itself. The paper that could make or break reputations, support or undermine
break reputations, support or undermine political candidates, frame issues as
political candidates, frame issues as community concerns, or individual
community concerns, or individual problems. Andrews was 52 in 1931. He'd
problems. Andrews was 52 in 1931. He'd been a teacher, a postal worker, a small
been a teacher, a postal worker, a small business owner before buying the
business owner before buying the newspaper. He understood that journalism
newspaper. He understood that journalism in Harlem wasn't just reporting. It was
in Harlem wasn't just reporting. It was power. The ability to determine what
power. The ability to determine what stories got told, what issues mattered,
stories got told, what issues mattered, who was praised or criticized. And he
who was praised or criticized. And he used that power deliberately,
used that power deliberately, strategically, to advance interests he
strategically, to advance interests he considered important. When Stephanie St.
considered important. When Stephanie St. Claire was fighting Dutch Schultz.
Claire was fighting Dutch Schultz. Andrews ran stories framing it as white
Andrews ran stories framing it as white gangsters trying to destroy black
gangsters trying to destroy black businesses. Not technically false, but a
businesses. Not technically false, but a specific framing that generated
specific framing that generated community support for St. Clair. When
community support for St. Clair. When Casper Holstein donated to the Harlem
Casper Holstein donated to the Harlem Renaissance Awards, Andrews covered it
Renaissance Awards, Andrews covered it prominently, creating public association
prominently, creating public association between numbers profits and cultural
between numbers profits and cultural excellence. When police corruption got
excellence. When police corruption got too visible, Andrews ran exposees that
too visible, Andrews ran exposees that created political pressure for reform.
created political pressure for reform. He was shaping narratives, controlling
He was shaping narratives, controlling information flow, exercising editorial
information flow, exercising editorial power that had political consequences,
power that had political consequences, and he was careful. The Amsterdam News
and he was careful. The Amsterdam News never explicitly endorsed illegal
never explicitly endorsed illegal activities, never directly named
activities, never directly named criminal operators. But through
criminal operators. But through strategic coverage, selective emphasis,
strategic coverage, selective emphasis, and careful framing, Andrews made sure
and careful framing, Andrews made sure the community understood who was
the community understood who was protecting them, who was exploiting
protecting them, who was exploiting them, who deserved support [music] and
them, who deserved support [music] and who deserved opposition. He was doing
who deserved opposition. He was doing what newspapers have always done,
what newspapers have always done, shaping public opinion, just in a
shaping public opinion, just in a context where public opinion affected
context where public opinion affected power dynamics the government couldn't
power dynamics the government couldn't control. Hubert Delaney represented a
control. Hubert Delaney represented a different form of power. He was one of
different form of power. He was one of the few black lawyers in New York who
the few black lawyers in New York who could practice in any court, who was
could practice in any court, who was respected by judges, who had enough
respected by judges, who had enough legal skill that even white clients
legal skill that even white clients occasionally hired him. He'd graduated
occasionally hired him. He'd graduated from City College, passed the bar in
from City College, passed the bar in 1918, and built a practice that was
1918, and built a practice that was officially focused on real estate and
officially focused on real estate and business law, but actually focused on
business law, but actually focused on whatever his clients needed. Most of his
whatever his clients needed. Most of his clients were involved in illegal
clients were involved in illegal enterprises, numbers bankers, speak easy
enterprises, numbers bankers, speak easy owners, after hours club operators,
owners, after hours club operators, people who needed legal representation
people who needed legal representation but couldn't get it from white firms.
but couldn't get it from white firms. Delaney provided that representation.
Delaney provided that representation. But more than that, he provided
But more than that, he provided translation. He understood both worlds,
translation. He understood both worlds, the legal system and the shadow economy.
the legal system and the shadow economy. He could explain to numbers bankers how
He could explain to numbers bankers how to structure their operations to
to structure their operations to minimize legal exposure. He could
minimize legal exposure. He could explain to judges why arresting certain
explain to judges why arresting certain people would destabilize entire
people would destabilize entire neighborhoods. He was a bridge between
neighborhoods. He was a bridge between systems that officially didn't
systems that officially didn't acknowledge each other. And he made
acknowledge each other. And he made money doing it. Lots of money. By 1931,
money doing it. Lots of money. By 1931, Delaney was one of the wealthiest black
Delaney was one of the wealthiest black professionals in Harlem. Not just from
professionals in Harlem. Not just from legal fees, though those were
legal fees, though those were substantial, from investments. He took
substantial, from investments. He took payment in cash and property. He owned
payment in cash and property. He owned buildings. He had stake in businesses.
buildings. He had stake in businesses. He was using his position between
He was using his position between legitimate and illegitimate worlds to
legitimate and illegitimate worlds to accumulate legitimate wealth. And he was
accumulate legitimate wealth. And he was demonstrating something crucial.
demonstrating something crucial. Criminal profits could be laundered into
Criminal profits could be laundered into respectability through legal expertise
respectability through legal expertise and strategic investment. His presence
and strategic investment. His presence at Walker's dinner wasn't accidental. He
at Walker's dinner wasn't accidental. He was there because everyone in that room
was there because everyone in that room either used his services or might need
either used his services or might need them. St. Clare had him on retainer.
them. St. Clare had him on retainer. Holstein consulted him on property
Holstein consulted him on property purchases. The ministers needed his
purchases. The ministers needed his advice on church-owned real estate. The
advice on church-owned real estate. The politicians needed his understanding of
politicians needed his understanding of how to navigate legal challenges. He was
how to navigate legal challenges. He was essential and everyone knew it. Raymond
essential and everyone knew it. Raymond Jones represented yet another form of
Jones represented yet another form of power, political mediation. He wasn't
power, political mediation. He wasn't elected to anything. He held no official
elected to anything. He held no official position, but he understood Tamonn
position, but he understood Tamonn Hall's machinery better than most people
Hall's machinery better than most people who worked for it. He understood how
who worked for it. He understood how votes translated into political favors,
votes translated into political favors, how campaign contributions translated
how campaign contributions translated into policy decisions, how patronage
into policy decisions, how patronage networks functioned, and most
networks functioned, and most importantly, he understood how to
importantly, he understood how to operate within that system as a black
operate within that system as a black man when the system was designed to
man when the system was designed to exclude black participation. Jones had
exclude black participation. Jones had started as a ward healer, doing basic
started as a ward healer, doing basic political work in the 1920s, registering
political work in the 1920s, registering voters, getting people to polls, the
voters, getting people to polls, the unglamorous mechanics of democracy. But
unglamorous mechanics of democracy. But he was smart. He noticed patterns. He
he was smart. He noticed patterns. He understood that Harlem's population was
understood that Harlem's population was growing faster than its political
growing faster than its political representation. That black voters were
representation. That black voters were concentrated enough to swing municipal
concentrated enough to swing municipal elections if they voted as a block. that
elections if they voted as a block. that white politicians needed black votes but
white politicians needed black votes but didn't want to acknowledge it publicly.
didn't want to acknowledge it publicly. So Jones positioned himself as the
So Jones positioned himself as the intermediary, the person white political
intermediary, the person white political bosses could talk to when they needed
bosses could talk to when they needed Harlem's votes. The person who could
Harlem's votes. The person who could deliver those votes if the price was
deliver those votes if the price was right. Not just money, though that was
right. Not just money, though that was part of it. Jobs, city contracts,
part of it. Jobs, city contracts, improved services, patronage positions.
improved services, patronage positions. Jones traded votes for resources, and he
Jones traded votes for resources, and he made sure those resources went to people
made sure those resources went to people who reinforced his position as the
who reinforced his position as the indispensable middleman. By 1931, no one
indispensable middleman. By 1931, no one got elected in Harlem without Jones's
got elected in Harlem without Jones's approval. Not because he controlled
approval. Not because he controlled votes directly, because he controlled
votes directly, because he controlled the infrastructure that mobilized votes.
the infrastructure that mobilized votes. He knew the ministers who influenced
He knew the ministers who influenced congregations. He knew the club owners
congregations. He knew the club owners who employed hundreds. He knew the
who employed hundreds. He knew the numbers bankers who had relationships
numbers bankers who had relationships with thousands of bettererss. He could
with thousands of bettererss. He could coordinate all of them towards
coordinate all of them towards supporting or opposing candidates. That
supporting or opposing candidates. That made him more powerful than any elected
made him more powerful than any elected official because elected officials came
official because elected officials came and went. But Jones's network persisted.
and went. But Jones's network persisted. His presence at these elite gatherings
His presence at these elite gatherings was strategic. He wasn't socializing. He
was strategic. He wasn't socializing. He was maintaining relationships, making
was maintaining relationships, making sure everyone understood that political
sure everyone understood that political access required going through him. that
access required going through him. that if you wanted city contracts, zoning
if you wanted city contracts, zoning variances, police assignments changed,
variances, police assignments changed, school funding allocated, you needed his
school funding allocated, you needed his coordination. He was selling a service,
coordination. He was selling a service, the ability to interface with official
the ability to interface with official power structures that wouldn't directly
power structures that wouldn't directly negotiate with Black Harlem. Adam
negotiate with Black Harlem. Adam Clayton Powell, Senior, represented
Clayton Powell, Senior, represented something different still. Moral
something different still. Moral authority combined with electoral power.
authority combined with electoral power. Abbiscinian Baptist Church wasn't just
Abbiscinian Baptist Church wasn't just large, it was organized. Powell ran it
large, it was organized. Powell ran it like a political machine disguised as a
like a political machine disguised as a religious institution. Members weren't
religious institution. Members weren't just congregants. They were a voting
just congregants. They were a voting block, an employment network, a
block, an employment network, a community welfare system. The church
community welfare system. The church provided social services the government
provided social services the government didn't. Job placement, financial
didn't. Job placement, financial assistance, child care, legal aid
assistance, child care, legal aid referrals, housing support. This created
referrals, housing support. This created profound loyalty. People didn't just
profound loyalty. People didn't just attend Powell's church. They depended on
attend Powell's church. They depended on it. And that dependence translated into
it. And that dependence translated into influence. When Powell suggested
influence. When Powell suggested congregation members vote a certain way,
congregation members vote a certain way, they generally did. When he endorsed
they generally did. When he endorsed candidates, they won. When he opposed
candidates, they won. When he opposed policies, they faced organized
policies, they faced organized resistance. He had 10,000 people who
resistance. He had 10,000 people who would show up to city council meetings
would show up to city council meetings if he asked. That's power. Direct,
if he asked. That's power. Direct, mobilizable, consequential power. But
mobilizable, consequential power. But Powell was careful. He never directly
Powell was careful. He never directly aligned with criminal elements. never
aligned with criminal elements. never endorsed numbers bankers publicly, never
endorsed numbers bankers publicly, never acknowledged the shadow economy that
acknowledged the shadow economy that funded much of Harlem's legitimate
funded much of Harlem's legitimate economy. He maintained plausible
economy. He maintained plausible deniability, but he also didn't condemn,
deniability, but he also didn't condemn, didn't preach against gambling, didn't
didn't preach against gambling, didn't refuse donations from people whose money
refuse donations from people whose money came from questionable sources. He
came from questionable sources. He accepted reality. Harlem's economy was
accepted reality. Harlem's economy was what it was. His job was to channel
what it was. His job was to channel resources toward community benefit, not
resources toward community benefit, not to judge where resources came from. His
to judge where resources came from. His relationship with people like St. Clare
relationship with people like St. Clare and Holstein was cordial but distant.
and Holstein was cordial but distant. They respected his position. He
They respected his position. He acknowledged their community
acknowledged their community contributions. When Holstein funded
contributions. When Holstein funded scholarships, Powell publicly praised
scholarships, Powell publicly praised him. When St. Clare got arrested,
him. When St. Clare got arrested, Powell's church members showed up to
Powell's church members showed up to court as character witnesses. There was
court as character witnesses. There was mutual support without explicit
mutual support without explicit coordination, understanding without
coordination, understanding without acknowledgement.
acknowledgement. This is how legitimate and illegitimate
This is how legitimate and illegitimate power structures coexisted in Harlem
power structures coexisted in Harlem through careful maintenance of
through careful maintenance of boundaries that everyone tacitly agreed
boundaries that everyone tacitly agreed not to cross. The dinner at the Dark
not to cross. The dinner at the Dark Tower lasted until nearly midnight. By
Tower lasted until nearly midnight. By the end, several things had been
the end, several things had been accomplished without anything explicit
accomplished without anything explicit being decided. Andrews had gathered
being decided. Andrews had gathered information for future stories. Delaney
information for future stories. Delaney had made mental notes about legal
had made mental notes about legal strategies several people might need.
strategies several people might need. Jones had assessed political alignments
Jones had assessed political alignments for upcoming elections. Powell had
for upcoming elections. Powell had secured commitments for church
secured commitments for church fundraising. Holstein had identified new
fundraising. Holstein had identified new cultural projects to fund. St. Clare had
cultural projects to fund. St. Clare had reinforced her social standing among
reinforced her social standing among people who mattered. And Ailia Walker
people who mattered. And Ailia Walker had achieved her objective, maintaining
had achieved her objective, maintaining the social infrastructure that allowed
the social infrastructure that allowed Harlem's elite to function as a
Harlem's elite to function as a collective without ever formalizing that
collective without ever formalizing that collective. Because the moment you
collective. Because the moment you formalize, you create vulnerability.
formalize, you create vulnerability. Written agreements can be discovered.
Written agreements can be discovered. Organizations can be investigated. But
Organizations can be investigated. But social networks, dinner parties,
social networks, dinner parties, cultural salons, those are just people
cultural salons, those are just people spending time together. Nothing illegal
spending time together. Nothing illegal about that. Nothing prosecutable. Just
about that. Nothing prosecutable. Just wealthy and influential black people
wealthy and influential black people socializing and through that
socializing and through that socializing, governing.
socializing, governing. This is what most histories of Harlem
This is what most histories of Harlem miss. They focus on individual figures.
miss. They focus on individual figures. Stephanie St. declare the numbers queen,
Stephanie St. declare the numbers queen, Casper Holstein the banker, Bumpy
Casper Holstein the banker, Bumpy Johnson the enforcer. But those
Johnson the enforcer. But those individuals operated within a network, a
individuals operated within a network, a social infrastructure that connected
social infrastructure that connected different forms of power, economic,
different forms of power, economic, political, legal, moral, cultural. And
political, legal, moral, cultural. And that network functioned through spaces
that network functioned through spaces like the Dark Tower, through newspapers
like the Dark Tower, through newspapers like the Amsterdam News, through
like the Amsterdam News, through churches like Abbisoncinian Baptist,
churches like Abbisoncinian Baptist, through law offices like Delaneies,
through law offices like Delaneies, through backroom political negotiations
through backroom political negotiations like Jones facilitated. The black elite
like Jones facilitated. The black elite of Harlem wasn't a conspiracy, wasn't a
of Harlem wasn't a conspiracy, wasn't a formal organization. It was a social
formal organization. It was a social class that emerged because conditions
class that emerged because conditions required it. Because when formal power
required it. Because when formal power structures exclude you, informal power
structures exclude you, informal power structures develop. Because when you
structures develop. Because when you can't operate through official channels,
can't operate through official channels, you build unofficial ones. Because when
you build unofficial ones. Because when the system denies you authority, you
the system denies you authority, you create parallel authority that functions
create parallel authority that functions just as effectively, even if it's never
just as effectively, even if it's never officially acknowledged. By 1932, this
officially acknowledged. By 1932, this parallel authority was undeniable. You
parallel authority was undeniable. You could map it. You could document it. The
could map it. You could document it. The NYPD certainly tried. Their surveillance
NYPD certainly tried. Their surveillance files from the early 1930s contain
files from the early 1930s contain hundreds of photographs, thousands of
hundreds of photographs, thousands of reports, detailed documentation of who
reports, detailed documentation of who met, with whom, where, when. They were
met, with whom, where, when. They were trying to understand the structure,
trying to understand the structure, trying to find the hierarchy, trying to
trying to find the hierarchy, trying to identify the leader they could arrest to
identify the leader they could arrest to collapse the whole system. But there was
collapse the whole system. But there was no leader. No hierarchy in the
no leader. No hierarchy in the traditional sense. There were multiple
traditional sense. There were multiple power centers that balanced each other
power centers that balanced each other through competition and cooperation.
through competition and cooperation. Remove one and the others adjusted. It
Remove one and the others adjusted. It was decentralized authority, networkked
was decentralized authority, networkked governance. And it was remarkably stable
governance. And it was remarkably stable precisely because it wasn't centralized.
precisely because it wasn't centralized. This is what made it threatening. Not
This is what made it threatening. Not crime, not violence, not even the
crime, not violence, not even the millions of dollars flowing through
millions of dollars flowing through shadow economy. What made it threatening
shadow economy. What made it threatening was that it proved black people could
was that it proved black people could govern themselves, could build
govern themselves, could build institutions, could exercise authority,
institutions, could exercise authority, could create order without permission
could create order without permission from white power structures. And if that
from white power structures. And if that was possible in Harlem, it was
was possible in Harlem, it was theoretically possible anywhere, which
theoretically possible anywhere, which meant the entire justification for
meant the entire justification for exclusion was false. That realization,
exclusion was false. That realization, that possibility was more dangerous than
that possibility was more dangerous than any criminal operation because criminal
any criminal operation because criminal operations could be shut down. But proof
operations could be shut down. But proof of capability,
of capability, that persisted. [music]
that persisted. [music] That changed how people understood what
That changed how people understood what was possible. That created precedent.
was possible. That created precedent. And precedent once established is almost
And precedent once established is almost impossible to erase. The black elite of
impossible to erase. The black elite of Harlem had established precedent. They'd
Harlem had established precedent. They'd proven that parallel power structures
proven that parallel power structures were viable. that excluded populations
were viable. that excluded populations could organize effective governance.
could organize effective governance. That authority didn't require official
That authority didn't require official recognition to function and that
recognition to function and that precedent would last decades beyond the
precedent would last decades beyond the specific individuals who created it.
specific individuals who created it. Because the idea once demonstrated
Because the idea once demonstrated couldn't be undone. You couldn't make
couldn't be undone. You couldn't make people forget that it had worked. That
people forget that it had worked. That for a while in one neighborhood, black
for a while in one neighborhood, black people had governed themselves without
people had governed themselves without asking permission. And it had functioned
asking permission. And it had functioned better than many legitimate governments.
better than many legitimate governments. That's the legacy of Harlem's elite. Not
That's the legacy of Harlem's elite. Not the money they made, not the political
the money they made, not the political influence they wielded, not even the
influence they wielded, not even the cultural renaissance they funded. The
cultural renaissance they funded. The legacy was the demonstration, the proof
legacy was the demonstration, the proof of concept, the evidence that was
of concept, the evidence that was impossible to ignore even when people
impossible to ignore even when people wanted to ignore it. But that legacy
wanted to ignore it. But that legacy came with a cost because parallel power
came with a cost because parallel power structures are inherently unstable. They
structures are inherently unstable. They exist in the gaps between official
exist in the gaps between official systems. And when official systems
systems. And when official systems decide to close those gaps, parallel
decide to close those gaps, parallel structures collapse. The question was
structures collapse. The question was never whether Harlem's elite would last
never whether Harlem's elite would last forever. The question was how long they
forever. The question was how long they could maintain power without formal
could maintain power without formal authority, how much they could
authority, how much they could accomplish in that time, and what would
accomplish in that time, and what would happen when the official system finally
happen when the official system finally decided to intervene decisively.
decided to intervene decisively. That intervention was coming. Not yet.
That intervention was coming. Not yet. Not in 1932.
Not in 1932. But the pressures were building. Federal
But the pressures were building. Federal attention was increasing. Media scrutiny
attention was increasing. Media scrutiny was intensifying. And most dangerously,
was intensifying. And most dangerously, success was attracting attention from
success was attracting attention from people who wanted to take what had been
people who wanted to take what had been built. The Italian mob had backed off
built. The Italian mob had backed off temporarily. But they hadn't given up.
temporarily. But they hadn't given up. They were watching, waiting, planning,
They were watching, waiting, planning, looking for weakness, for opportunity,
looking for weakness, for opportunity, for the moment when Harlem's elite made
for the moment when Harlem's elite made a mistake that would allow white
a mistake that would allow white organized crime to finally take what
organized crime to finally take what they'd wanted all along. The envelope
they'd wanted all along. The envelope arrived at Hubert Delaney's office on a
arrived at Hubert Delaney's office on a Tuesday morning in March 1933. No return
Tuesday morning in March 1933. No return address, handd delivered by someone who
address, handd delivered by someone who didn't wait for a signature. Inside was
didn't wait for a signature. Inside was a single sheet of paper with three
a single sheet of paper with three pieces of information. A name, a date,
pieces of information. A name, a date, and an address. Nothing else. No
and an address. Nothing else. No explanation, no context, just data. The
explanation, no context, just data. The name was Marcus Thompson. The date was
name was Marcus Thompson. The date was March 18th. The address was a location
March 18th. The address was a location in the Bronx where the NYPD 41st
in the Bronx where the NYPD 41st precinct conducted interrogations.
precinct conducted interrogations. Delaney looked at the information for
Delaney looked at the information for exactly 3 seconds before picking up his
exactly 3 seconds before picking up his phone. He made four calls. The first to
phone. He made four calls. The first to Raymond Jones, the political fixer, the
Raymond Jones, the political fixer, the second to William Andrews at the
second to William Andrews at the Amsterdam News, the third to a bail
Amsterdam News, the third to a bail bondsman he'd worked with for years. The
bondsman he'd worked with for years. The fourth to Stephanie St. Clair. Each call
fourth to Stephanie St. Clair. Each call lasted less than 2 minutes. He didn't
lasted less than 2 minutes. He didn't explain everything, didn't need to, just
explain everything, didn't need to, just provided specific information to
provided specific information to specific people who knew what to do with
specific people who knew what to do with it. By Wednesday afternoon, Marcus
it. By Wednesday afternoon, Marcus Thompson, who'd been arrested on
Thompson, who'd been arrested on suspicion of running numbers in the
suspicion of running numbers in the Bronx, was released. No charges filed.
Bronx, was released. No charges filed. The evidence had disappeared. The
The evidence had disappeared. The arresting officers suddenly couldn't
arresting officers suddenly couldn't remember details. A judge had made a
remember details. A judge had made a phone call and Thompson walked out of
phone call and Thompson walked out of the precinct confused but free with
the precinct confused but free with Delaney waiting outside to drive him
Delaney waiting outside to drive him back to Harlem. Thompson never knew who
back to Harlem. Thompson never knew who sent that envelope. Never knew which
sent that envelope. Never knew which police officer tipped off Delaney about
police officer tipped off Delaney about his arrest before it was processed.
his arrest before it was processed. Never knew which politician called which
Never knew which politician called which judge. Never knew which newspaper editor
judge. Never knew which newspaper editor threatened which police captain with an
threatened which police captain with an expose if this arrest proceeded. He just
expose if this arrest proceeded. He just knew that the system, which usually
knew that the system, which usually crushed people like him, had somehow
crushed people like him, had somehow worked in his favor this time. That's
worked in his favor this time. That's how the network functioned
how the network functioned operationally, not through formal
operationally, not through formal organization. Through distributed
organization. Through distributed response, someone in the police
response, someone in the police department saw an arrest that would
department saw an arrest that would affect Harlem's interests. They
affect Harlem's interests. They anonymously warned someone in the legal
anonymously warned someone in the legal community. That person activated
community. That person activated appropriate resources, political
appropriate resources, political pressure, media threat, legal
pressure, media threat, legal intervention, bail coordination, and the
intervention, bail coordination, and the system which looked impenetrable from
system which looked impenetrable from outside suddenly developed flexibility
outside suddenly developed flexibility for people connected to the right
for people connected to the right network. This happened dozens of times
network. This happened dozens of times annually. Not for everyone, not for
annually. Not for everyone, not for random arrests, but for people who
random arrests, but for people who mattered to the network's interests.
mattered to the network's interests. Numbers runners who worked for protected
Numbers runners who worked for protected operations. Business owners who paid the
operations. Business owners who paid the right tributes. Community members who
right tributes. Community members who had connections through churches, clubs,
had connections through churches, clubs, or family relationships. The network
or family relationships. The network didn't save everyone, but it saved
didn't save everyone, but it saved enough people that everyone in Harlem
enough people that everyone in Harlem understood there was a difference
understood there was a difference between being connected and being alone.
between being connected and being alone. And connection wasn't just about knowing
And connection wasn't just about knowing the right people. It was about being
the right people. It was about being valuable to the right people,
valuable to the right people, contributing to the ecosystem, following
contributing to the ecosystem, following the unwritten rules that maintained
the unwritten rules that maintained collective security. The network
collective security. The network protected its members, but membership
protected its members, but membership required something in return.
required something in return. information, loyalty, discretion, and
information, loyalty, discretion, and most importantly, understanding that
most importantly, understanding that individual actions affected collective
individual actions affected collective interests.
interests. When someone violated those rules, the
When someone violated those rules, the network responded, not dramatically, not
network responded, not dramatically, not publicly, just quietly, effectively,
publicly, just quietly, effectively, permanently. In 1932, a nightclub owner
permanently. In 1932, a nightclub owner named James Peterson started cooperating
named James Peterson started cooperating with federal investigators. He wasn't
with federal investigators. He wasn't formally arrested or charged. He just
formally arrested or charged. He just started talking, providing information
started talking, providing information about who owned what, who paid whom, how
about who owned what, who paid whom, how money moved through Harlem's economy. He
money moved through Harlem's economy. He thought he was being careful, thought he
thought he was being careful, thought he could inform without being detected.
could inform without being detected. Within a week, his suppliers stopped
Within a week, his suppliers stopped delivering liquor. His best employees
delivering liquor. His best employees quit without explanation. His police
quit without explanation. His police protection evaporated. Health inspectors
protection evaporated. Health inspectors suddenly found violations. Fire marshals
suddenly found violations. Fire marshals found code issues. Within a month, his
found code issues. Within a month, his club was closed. Within two months, he'd
club was closed. Within two months, he'd left Harlem. Not because anyone
left Harlem. Not because anyone threatened him, because the network
threatened him, because the network simply stopped functioning for him.
simply stopped functioning for him. Every relationship dissolved
Every relationship dissolved simultaneously.
simultaneously. Every connection broke. He became
Every connection broke. He became invisible to the system that had
invisible to the system that had previously sustained him. No one
previously sustained him. No one explicitly ordered this. No one
explicitly ordered this. No one coordinated it formally, but everyone
coordinated it formally, but everyone understood. Peterson had violated the
understood. Peterson had violated the fundamental rule. You don't expose the
fundamental rule. You don't expose the network to outside authority. You don't
network to outside authority. You don't help the official system understand how
help the official system understand how the parallel system functions. Once you
the parallel system functions. Once you do that, you become a threat to everyone
do that, you become a threat to everyone and threats get isolated, expelled,
and threats get isolated, expelled, removed from the ecosystem. This is why
removed from the ecosystem. This is why the network was stable. Not through
the network was stable. Not through violence, though violence existed as
violence, though violence existed as backup. Through mutual dependence,
backup. Through mutual dependence, everyone benefited from the systems
everyone benefited from the systems continued functioning. Numbers bankers
continued functioning. Numbers bankers needed political protection. Politicians
needed political protection. Politicians needed financial support. Newspapers
needed financial support. Newspapers needed information access. Lawyers
needed information access. Lawyers needed clients. Ministers needed
needed clients. Ministers needed community resources. Club owners needed
community resources. Club owners needed police tolerance. Each person or group
police tolerance. Each person or group controlled a piece of the
controlled a piece of the infrastructure. remove any piece and the
infrastructure. remove any piece and the system became less functional for
system became less functional for everyone. So they protected each other
everyone. So they protected each other not altruistically, pragmatically
not altruistically, pragmatically because individual survival depended on
because individual survival depended on collective stability. This is what
collective stability. This is what distinguished Harlem's elite from
distinguished Harlem's elite from traditional criminal organizations. The
traditional criminal organizations. The mafia had hierarchy, bosses, cappos,
mafia had hierarchy, bosses, cappos, soldiers, a clear command structure
soldiers, a clear command structure where orders flowed downward and money
where orders flowed downward and money flowed upward. But Harlem's elite
flowed upward. But Harlem's elite network was horizontal. Different power
network was horizontal. Different power centers of roughly equal strength,
centers of roughly equal strength, coordinating through negotiation rather
coordinating through negotiation rather than command, maintaining balance
than command, maintaining balance through mutual interest rather than
through mutual interest rather than subordination.
subordination. Take the relationship between Stephanie
Take the relationship between Stephanie Stlair and Adam Clayton Powell, Senior.
Stlair and Adam Clayton Powell, Senior. They operated in completely different
They operated in completely different spheres. She ran numbers. He ran a
spheres. She ran numbers. He ran a church. Their activities never directly
church. Their activities never directly intersected, but they had aligned
intersected, but they had aligned interests. St. Clare needed moral
interests. St. Clare needed moral legitimacy. Powell needed financial
legitimacy. Powell needed financial resources for community programs. So St.
resources for community programs. So St. Clare donated to church programs. Not
Clare donated to church programs. Not directly to Powell. That would be too
directly to Powell. That would be too obvious. But to specific initiatives,
obvious. But to specific initiatives, youth programs, food banks, elder care,
youth programs, food banks, elder care, donations that were publicly announced
donations that were publicly announced and praised. Powell accepted those
and praised. Powell accepted those donations and acknowledged St. Clare's
donations and acknowledged St. Clare's community contributions without ever
community contributions without ever discussing where her money came from. In
discussing where her money came from. In return, when St. St. Clair faced legal
return, when St. St. Clair faced legal troubles. Powell's congregation showed
troubles. Powell's congregation showed up, not at his direction officially,
up, not at his direction officially, just through word of mouth, through the
just through word of mouth, through the informal communication networks that
informal communication networks that churches excel at maintaining. Suddenly,
churches excel at maintaining. Suddenly, 50 respectable church members would be
50 respectable church members would be in the courtroom providing visual
in the courtroom providing visual evidence of community support. Character
evidence of community support. Character witnesses would emerge. Letters would be
witnesses would emerge. Letters would be written to judges. Powell never
written to judges. Powell never explicitly coordinated this. He just
explicitly coordinated this. He just made sure his congregation understood
made sure his congregation understood that St. Clare was a valued community
that St. Clare was a valued community member and left the implications
member and left the implications unspoken. This was mutually beneficial
unspoken. This was mutually beneficial exchange without explicit transaction.
exchange without explicit transaction. Neither person commanded the other.
Neither person commanded the other. Neither could compel the others
Neither could compel the others cooperation, but both understood that
cooperation, but both understood that maintaining good relations served their
maintaining good relations served their interests. So they maintained those
interests. So they maintained those relations carefully, publicly with
relations carefully, publicly with enough distance that no one could prove
enough distance that no one could prove coordination. but enough connection that
coordination. but enough connection that benefits flowed both directions.
benefits flowed both directions. Multiply this dynamic across dozens of
Multiply this dynamic across dozens of relationships and you begin to
relationships and you begin to understand how the network functioned.
understand how the network functioned. Casper Holstein and Langston Hughes.
Casper Holstein and Langston Hughes. Holstein funded Hughes's poetry and
Holstein funded Hughes's poetry and Hughes provided cultural legitimacy to
Hughes provided cultural legitimacy to Holin's money. Raymond Jones and various
Holin's money. Raymond Jones and various city council members. Jones delivered
city council members. Jones delivered votes and councilmen delivered zoning
votes and councilmen delivered zoning variances. William Andrews and multiple
variances. William Andrews and multiple politicians. Andrews provided favorable
politicians. Andrews provided favorable coverage and politicians provided
coverage and politicians provided information access. Hubert Delaney and
information access. Hubert Delaney and everyone. Delaney provided legal
everyone. Delaney provided legal services and everyone provided clients,
services and everyone provided clients, information, and protection for his
information, and protection for his legitimate business interests.
legitimate business interests. Each relationship was individually
Each relationship was individually logical. Each exchange was mutually
logical. Each exchange was mutually beneficial. But aggregated together,
beneficial. But aggregated together, these relationships created a network
these relationships created a network that was greater than the sum of its
that was greater than the sum of its parts. A network that could solve
parts. A network that could solve problems no individual could solve.
problems no individual could solve. Coordinate actions no organization could
Coordinate actions no organization could coordinate. Exercise power no official
coordinate. Exercise power no official structure could wield. Consider a
structure could wield. Consider a specific example. The 1933 zoning
specific example. The 1933 zoning dispute. The city announced plans to
dispute. The city announced plans to reszone part of central Harlem for
reszone part of central Harlem for industrial development. On the surface,
industrial development. On the surface, this was a municipal planning decision,
this was a municipal planning decision, legitimate government authority
legitimate government authority allocating land use. But the real impact
allocating land use. But the real impact would be displacement of black
would be displacement of black residents, reduction of available
residents, reduction of available housing stock, and demolition of
housing stock, and demolition of buildings owned by numbers bankers who'd
buildings owned by numbers bankers who'd been using real estate as capital
been using real estate as capital storage. The elite network responded on
storage. The elite network responded on multiple fronts simultaneously. Powell
multiple fronts simultaneously. Powell mobilized his congregation. Suddenly,
mobilized his congregation. Suddenly, 500 people showed up at a city council
500 people showed up at a city council meeting, flooding the room, demanding to
meeting, flooding the room, demanding to speak, turning a routine planning
speak, turning a routine planning session into a political event. Andrews
session into a political event. Andrews ran stories in the Amsterdam news,
ran stories in the Amsterdam news, framing the reasonzoning as racist urban
framing the reasonzoning as racist urban policy designed to shrink Black Harlem.
policy designed to shrink Black Harlem. The stories included specific details
The stories included specific details about which councilmen supported it,
about which councilmen supported it, which developers stood to profit, which
which developers stood to profit, which banks had provided financing, details
banks had provided financing, details that made it clear someone with inside
that made it clear someone with inside information was feeding the newspaper.
information was feeding the newspaper. Jones worked the political machinery
Jones worked the political machinery from inside. He identified which
from inside. He identified which councilman had close electoral margins.
councilman had close electoral margins. He calculated how many votes opposition
He calculated how many votes opposition to the resoning would cost them. He made
to the resoning would cost them. He made sure those councilmen understood the
sure those councilmen understood the political calculus. Not through threats,
political calculus. Not through threats, through information, just sharing data
through information, just sharing data about their district's demographics,
about their district's demographics, voting patterns, the percentage of their
voting patterns, the percentage of their constituents who would be affected,
constituents who would be affected, letting them draw their own conclusions
letting them draw their own conclusions about what supporting this resoning
about what supporting this resoning would cost them. Delaney filed legal
would cost them. Delaney filed legal challenges, procedural objections,
didn't accept exclusion as permanent, they built power anyway, exercised
they built power anyway, exercised authority anyway, governed anyway. And
authority anyway, governed anyway. And though they ultimately failed, though
though they ultimately failed, though their institutions collapsed, though
their institutions collapsed, though their independence was lost, they
their independence was lost, they demonstrated that it was possible that
demonstrated that it was possible that excluded populations could build what
excluded populations could build what official systems denied them. That
official systems denied them. That parallel governance could function, that
parallel governance could function, that communities could serve themselves when
communities could serve themselves when official institutions wouldn't serve
official institutions wouldn't serve them. That demonstration can't be
them. That demonstration can't be undone, that knowledge can't be erased,
undone, that knowledge can't be erased, that precedent can't be eliminated. It
that precedent can't be eliminated. It exists. It happened. And every excluded
exists. It happened. And every excluded population that learns about it [music]
population that learns about it [music] learns that they have options. Difficult
learns that they have options. Difficult options, dangerous options, options that
options, dangerous options, options that likely end in suppression or absorption,
likely end in suppression or absorption, but options nonetheless. Alternatives to
but options nonetheless. Alternatives to waiting, alternatives to accepting,
waiting, alternatives to accepting, alternatives to permanent exclusion from
alternatives to permanent exclusion from power. That's what Harlem's black elite
power. That's what Harlem's black elite gave us. Not through what they
gave us. Not through what they accomplished, though that was
accomplished, though that was considerable. through what they
considerable. through what they demonstrated that governance without
demonstrated that governance without permission is possible, that it's
permission is possible, that it's fragile, that it's provisional, that it
fragile, that it's provisional, that it won't last forever, but that it's
won't last forever, but that it's possible. And sometimes possibility is
possible. And sometimes possibility is enough. Sometimes demonstration matters
enough. Sometimes demonstration matters more than duration. Sometimes proving it
more than duration. Sometimes proving it can be done is more important than
can be done is more important than [music] how long it lasts before it's
[music] how long it lasts before it's destroyed. Harlem wasn't lawless. It was
destroyed. Harlem wasn't lawless. It was governed, just not by people America
governed, just not by people America elected. And for a while that worked.
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