Racism & the Mafia in the 1920s

[yhibiki]

I'm sort of in the character-development stage of my 1920s mafia story, and I'm wondering: how likely/possible is it for an African American man to become a "made" man? This is set in Chicago, and from what I've researched the Chicago Outfit was "racially diverse" but those citations only ever mention Irish, Jews, and Greeks as being included, all

Comments

[xtricks]

Remember, 1920s was also segregated so it's much more difficult for a black person and a white one to spend time together in public.

My rather limited understanding was that the mafia essentially ... allied? ... with black organized criminals to access segregated areas. It's more likely that a black man would be runing his own criminal organization in a black neighborhood and working with a white Mafia member to interface the two organizations.

I think.

[printfogey]

I'm woefully ignorant of this, but maybe looking into the vibrant jazz scene of Chicago back then would yield any clues? Though maybe that was just black (and some white) musicians sometimes having to deal dealing with white mafioso/gangsters back stage, I dunno.

[yhibiki]

Oh my god, that link is amazing. Thank you so much~ It's definitely going to give me food for thought.

[gehayi]

You might be interested in a section of Crime Library about Black Gangs of Harlem: 1920-1939, especially the parts about Stephanie "Queenie" St. Clair and Raymond "Bumpy" Johnson

[zinnea]

It would be so unlikely that a black man would become a member of the Mafia that you're pretty much stuck write alt-fantasy if you want to pursue that thread

[inner_v0ice]

In American history one can only ever be assured of being "white" if one is of English descent. The Irish have been considered non-white.

Just jumping in: I did not, in fact, know this until about an hour ago, when I coincidentally stumbled across a blog post on this very subject:
Irish Americans -- includes the fact that they were competing with black people for the same ecological niche, so to speak, in American society. Also, an...uh, interesting diagram comparing "Irish Iberian", "Anglo-Teutonic" and "Negro" facial features from Harper's Weekly in 1899.

[hollywood666]

I agree about "white". The implication that Italians, Irish, Jews, and Greeks are all part of a single ethnic/racial group, and all white, is (from my experience) a fairly modern and probably west-coast-oriented idea.