KINGS The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings

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For all of the prosperity associated with the legacy of Bronzeville, the era had strong roots in what the world today knows as the "Lottery." But make no mistake about it, in the first half of last century the lottery was known by its true name, "Policy", and flourished, albeit illegally, in nearly every Black community in the United States. It is a significant chapter in African American history-- little known and less talked about.
Policy became the biggest Black-owned business in the world with combined annual sales sometimes reaching the $100 million mark and employing tens-of-thousands of people nationwide. In Bronzeville, Policy was a major catalyst by which the black economy was driven. In 1938 Time magazine reported that Bronzeville was the "Center of U.S. Negro Business", and more than a decade later, Our World magazine reported that "Windy City Negroes have more money, bigger cars and brighter clothes than any other city. The city which has become famous for the biggest Policy wheels, the largest funerals, the flashiest cars and the prettiest women, has built that reputation on one thing, money". Those attributions, however, were largely due to Policy, a business conceived, owned, and operated by African American men known by many names including "Digit Barons", "Numbers Bankers", "Sportsmen", "Digitarians", and "the 1-2-3-4 Guys"; but more often than not they were called "Policy Kings".
From: 'KINGS'
The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings
and Numbers Racketeers
An Informal History by Nathan Thompson
Published by The Bronzeville Press @
POLICY KINGS

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LifeStyles of the Rich and Famous Policy Kings
By 1937, only four short years since the launch of the Policy Syndicate, the Policy Kings had amassed enormous wealth by any standards. The Jones brothers alone kept millions of dollars, reputedly in as many as twenty-five different banks, and acquired considerable real estate holdings including several multi-unit apartment buildings and commercial storefronts throughout Bronzeville. Plus, there was the beautiful 10acre family estate on Joliet Road in Lemont, Illinois, complete with a pond and tennis court; and four summer homes in Idlewild, Michigan, playground for the Black elite.
Policy had been good to Ed Jones and his cronies, and when they weren't paying off some cop, judge, politician, or otherwise working, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor in the grandest of ways. Their circle of friends did everything together from making the rounds to hot spots like the Ritz Club and the Grand Terrace Cafe, to vacationing in Idlewild and Havana. Often, Big Jim Martin, Mack and some of the other guys, would buy out two or three club cars on the Illinois Central and take scores of people on rail parties bound for Pittsburgh, California, or the Zombie Club in Detroit. Harlem was always a favorite stop for clubs like the Ubangi, 101 Club, Jack Dempsey's, spots along Seventh Avenue, and on some occasions the Cotton Club. In the case of the Cotton Club, where Blacks were not allowed as patrons, Ed Jones, Jim Martin and John Wooley, however, were among the few exceptions.
But there was no place like home where the boys could show off their flashy new cars, like Wooley's Lincoln Zephyr and Mack's 12 cylinder flamed colored coup; and the wives and girlfriends showed off their imported fur coats. And when they weren't at home they still enjoyed the same comforts as if they were, literally. Case in point; on one occasion Mack shipped his 12-Cylinder coup to New York so Jean could get around. "That kind of thing was typical in those days, of them [Policy Kings]," as one old timer recalled. There were always regular rug-cutting parties and pool games at the Jones brothers six-flat with regular overnight guests who happened to be among the greatest entertainers in the world; among them, the legendary Ada "Bricktop" Smith and Duke Ellington...

From: 'KINGS'
The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings
and Numbers Racketeers
An Informal History by Nathan Thompson
Published by The Bronzeville Press

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In the 1930s and '40s, there was a National Brotherhood of Policy Kings that permeated practically every Black community in the country but especially Chicago, the "Policy Capital of the World," home of the 5th Police District, Wabash Station, and the 28th Municipal Circuit Courthouse, commonly known as Wabash Court.
In the world of Policy, its Kings were the original "Good Fellows", not because they were gangsters, which they were not, but because they fed the hungry and clothed the naked as virtual "Robin Hoods" and gave their people a sense of security. In the 1920s, when Robert Abbott founded the "Chicago Defender Good Fellows Club" to feed the needy, many of its members were Policy men. Policy also played an important role in the professional sector as well. Policy Kings underwrote the establishment of several private dental and medical practices for professionals facing lack of placement options due to racial discrimination.
Chicago was special in those days because it was a wide-open town where anything went, and everybody who wanted a piece of the action got it, so long as that person supported the right political agenda. That, however, wasn't a problem for the Policy Kings because they controlled the Black vote, a vote that was growing stronger every day since Robert Abbott launched the Great Northern Drive in 1917, known today as the Great Black Migration. It caused hundreds of thousands of sharecrop-era Blacks to leave the South bound for Chicago and other parts north, and every arrival represented another vote in a changing political climate. With the Kings in control of that vote, Policy became the biggest political football in town. Ruthless political-battles-of-the-parties were fought over the Black vote, resulting indirectly in one Chicago mayor's murder. It was the last days of the Prohibition era and the last days of the underworld's principle source of income, bootlegged liquor. To make up for part of that lost income, White underworld bosses across the country launched bloody gun battles against the Policy Kings for control of the lucrative gambling rackets in America's Black Belts.
In Harlem the enemy was Dutch Schultz, in Cleveland the Mayfield Road Gang, in St. Louis it was Egan's Rats and in Bronzeville it was renegade factions of the Al Capone mob. Harlem and Cleveland both knuckled under early, but in Bronzeville the Policy Kings organized, fought back, and kept their rackets. Word spread fast that "Bronzeville's Policy Kings didn't take shit from anybody," as many still recall, and thus earned this Black metropolis its reputation as the "safe haven." As such, Bronzeville grew strong and remained the only African American Policy stronghold until the 1950s when the Mafia took over. Years later the state government took it from the Mafia and the Illinois State Lottery was born. Until that time, it was the same old story that it had been since the Anti Policy Act of 1905: Police, Politics and Policy.

From: 'KINGS'
The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings
and Numbers Racketeers
An Informal History by Nathan Thompson
Published by The Bronzeville Press ISBN: 0972487506

POLICYKINGS.COM

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Nathan Thompson, Author of KINGS

POLICYKINGS.COM