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Organized Crime   Reference library

Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present

...of similar networks run by white syndicates. Frank Lucas serves as a leading exemplar of such “entrepreneurial developments.” After gaining an extensive criminal history in North Carolina, he moved to Harlem and worked as a numbers- and drug-runner for Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (a black crime boss there who, for decades, had enjoyed working relationships with the Genovese crime family). Toward the end of the Vietnam War, Lucas exploited previous North Carolina military connections to make direct links with Vietnamese, Thai, and other Southeast...

St. Clair, Stephanie (1886–1969)   Reference library

Elwood Watson

Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography

...and fierce temper. The earliest numbers banks, an illegal lottery also known as the “policy racket,” first flourished in New York City in the early 1920s. They were primarily located in Harlem and operated by African Americans, such as the South Carolina–born Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson, and Caribbean blacks, notably the Virgin Islander Casper Holstein. St. Clair was operating one of the banks by 1922 , which required starting capital of $10,000. While some speculated that she had raised the capital through prostitution, others claimed that she had taken...

Colson Steve   Reference library

Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4 ed.)

...Davis , Richard Davis , Benny Golson , Leroy Jenkins , Oliver Lake , George Lewis , Branford Marsalis , T.S. Monk , Butch Morris , Hannibal Peterson , Rufus Reid , Max Roach and Henry Threadgill . Colson worked with Roach and Amiri Baraka on their bop opera, Bumpy Johnson , and collaborated with Baraka and Richard Wesley on a commission from the New Jersey Chamber Music Society. He was also conductor and arranger of the music of Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith as a part of the Lost Jazz Shrines project. Colson has been very active in jazz education...

bad adj.   Reference library

Green's Dictionary of Slang

... Black Players 171: A really ‘bad nigger’ is so aggressive that he inspires fear in Blacks as well as Whites. 1994 N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler ( 1995 ) 67: Feeling like I was the baadest nigger on the East Coast. 1999 ‘ Master Pimp ’ Pimp's Rap 88: He said Bumpy Johnson was one bad nigger. 2006 F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 111: They say he's one bad nigga. 2 ( Aus. ) an Aborigine who refuses to cooperate with the authorities; also attrib. 1910 Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 14/1: Although he had travelled through country infested with...