Epilogue on the Lack of African-American (And Other)
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EPILOGUE ON THE LACK OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN (AND OTHER) ORGANIZED CRIME RESEARCH THE RELATIVE DEARTH OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ORGANIZED CRIME RESEARCH I began this research in 1992 when a colleague asked me if I could investigate the activities and networks of an African-American gangster named Jack Brown.1 My associate was particularly interested in Brown’s operations in the Philadelphia region in the 1970s. Local and federal law enforcement officials in the area did not have – or at least did not offer – much information on Jack Brown, though they did maintain extensive files on a relatively large and significant organized crime group named the “Black Mafia”. When I was first introduced to the topic, and more importantly shown the voluminous files within several agencies, my reaction was one of amazement. The files were substantial. Many of the group’s activities, as has been demonstrated in the pages above, were notorious – the DuBrow Furniture robbery/arson/murder, the Hanafi murders, the misappropriation of community “seed” money, the murder of Major Coxson, and the complex role of Philadelphia’s Black Muslim Mosque #12 – including the relationships of boxing legend Muhammad Ali to Major Coxson and to Jeremiah Shabazz. In addition to other noteworthy aspects of the group, there were the astronomical number of internecine murders, and the facts that two of the Black Mafia founding members spent time on the FBI’s Most Wanted list (which has only listed 458 people since its inception), and that for a time the group accounted for 80% of the city’s heroin market. Then there were the significant activities of Black Mafia members as they rotated in and out of the prison system over the course of approximately 25 years. Lastly, though significantly, there were the actions and relationships of high-profile attorneys and officials who were part of the social and political history of the group. The superlatives simply went on and on. And yet, despite my insatiable appetite for reading academic inquiries into the phenomenon 1 Brown was a career criminal who elevated himself into a major narcotics figure along the eastern seaboard of the United States in the mid-1950s. He had particularly strong connections in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and most significantly in New York City. Brown started in the heroin trade but over time increasingly dealt in cocaine. His main contacts in New York were higher- level dealers Benny Intersimone and Frank Moten. Like many of his compatriots, Brown spent stints in prison for narcotics dealing and eventually had a contract out on his life by others in his social network. Fearing for his safety, Brown turned himself into the FBI in Washington, DC on April 6, 1975. See the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Intelligence Division, “Criminal Profile of John Brown,” January 31, 1986. 168 EPILOGUE of organized crime, I had never heard of this group of African-American criminals (or read substantive studies of any others). As I got more and more into the research, I could not help but catch myself thinking, “If this was a coterie of Italian-Americans, is there any question regarding whether we would have known about this group?” It was a rhetorical question, of course, because I didn’t doubt for a moment that if the files were replete with Italian-Americans consorting at social clubs instead of African-Americans meeting at Black Muslim Mosques, law enforcement and academic attention would have been both immediate and extensive. With each colleague and associate who heard of my research, the response was almost identical to my initial reaction, “African- American organized crime? Could it be? And, if so, how substantial or significant could any particular group really have been, because we certainly would have read about them, right?” These have been the refrains at academic conferences by respected scholars, as well as those of my students. Thus, if African-American organized crime is an under-researched topic, as I argue and as my experience suggests, what are the possible reasons for this dearth of inquiry? While it is not possible to fully answer this question, it is useful to consider a few possibilities. Since the start of my research into African-American organized crime in general, and into Philadelphia’s Black Mafia group in particular, I have presented portions of it in numerous courses taught at Penn State University (University Park, PA) and Clemson University (Clemson, SC). Furthermore, I have presented several papers at academic conferences and have submitted papers to peer-reviewed academic forums, all of which were derived from my field research. To say the responses have been “interesting” would be an intellectually dishonest interpretation. For the most part, undergraduate and graduate students are simply curious and receptive to this new information. Of course, it is a mystery to them as to why they are not frequently introduced to extra-Italian/Sicilian organized crime in the media and in the academy. I suspect attendance at academic conferences and a perusal of reviews of my previously submitted manuscripts would solve the mystery for them to a degree. Essentially, the responses of colleagues to my African-American organized crime research fall into two categories, and they partially explain the lack of research in this area. Academicians either claim that African-Americans do not organize crime, or they suggest researching African-American organized crime is immoral (or worse) and thus should not be pursued. Below is a sampling of comments made by academic colleagues regarding the broader concept of African- American organized crime: ON THE LACK OF RESEARCH 169 African-Americans do not organize crime “Blacks don’t have the political power to organize crime.”2 (Colleague at Penn State, 1996). “Unlike ‘traditional organized crime’, African-Americans have been unable to transcend the gap between street gangsterism and organized crime.” (Anonymous journal reviewer). “Blacks don’t organize crime. They have gangs.” (Numerous colleagues, particularly reviewers for academic journals). “You realize the government was/is conspiring to imprison as many blacks as possible don’t you? Thus, this could all have been a large conspiracy against African-Americans.” (Several colleagues are convinced the government wanted people to believe African-Americans were organizing crime, and thus law enforcement was conspiring to create black syndicates on paper).3 Researching African-American organized crime is immoral (or worse) “Why are you calling them the ‘Black Mafia’ instead of the ‘African-American Mafia’?” (Numerous colleagues over the years, beginning in graduate school at Penn State). “Why are you ‘piling on’ (African-Americans)?” (Several colleagues over the years have asked this in some fashion, including this colleague at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, 2000). “Why study African-American organized crime? Why not research RJR Reynolds or the NRA?”(Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Toronto, 1999). “Why do you feel the need to bring Black Muslims into this?” (Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Orlando, 1999). “Maybe you should put more information about the victims [who were overwhelmingly African-American] to fend off possible charges of racism” (Several manuscript reviewers, 2001–2002). The latter grouping of responses makes the former head of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission appear clairvoyant in retrospect. When Frederick Martens wrote “African-American Organized Crime: An Ignored Phenomenon” in 1990, he argued 2 This comment struck me as particularly odd, if not misinformed, given the political success of African-Americans in several cities. For instance, “at one time in the 1980s, Philadelphia had an African-American mayor, City Council president, police chief and school superintendent.” Tom Infield and Maida Odom, “Putting the NAACP Back on the Local Map,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1998. Also see Tom Infield and Herbert Lowe, “Black Political Power in Phila. Has Come Far in a Generation,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 16, 1998. For a national and historical perspective on the growing political power of African-Americans, with an emphasis on metropolitan cities, see Stephan Thernstrom and Abigail Thernstrom’s, America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997). 3 Other colleagues have suggested that while such a grand conspiracy was difficult for law enforcement to draft and manage, components of the Black Mafia cases must have been dubious given the tradition of racism and persecution in the U.S. In fact, some have suggested I interview victims of Black Mafia crimes to prove the existence of the group, including interviewing relatives of the murdered victims. 170 EPILOGUE that black organized crime as a research topic had been largely dismissed. He noted “this may ... suggest that it is one topic that dare not be discussed, for fear of racism being attributed to the discussants.”4 It is difficult to quantify this line of reasoning, of course, but anecdotal evidence supports the proposition to some degree.5 Nevertheless, my experience suggests the former grouping of responses represents the larger portion of the explanation for the relative dearth of African-American organized crime research. The “African-Americans do not organize crime” argument is, of course, inter-related with the “emerging organized crime” discourse examined in Chapter 9, and grounded