African American Organized Crime: A Social History

by Rufus Schatzberg, Robert J. Kelly

Overview

While stories of organized crime most often dwell on groups like the Mafia and Chinese Triad or Tongs, African Americans also have a long history of organized crime. Why have scholars and journalists paid so little attention to African American organized crime? What can a history of these criminal networks teach us about the social, political, and economic challenges that face African Americans today? What is specific to African American organized crime, and how do these networks differ from the criminal organizations of other racial and ethnic groups? How can a historical study of African American organized crime enrich our understanding of all criminal activity?

Rufus Schatzberg and Robert Kelly take us through almost a century of African American organized crime. Chapters focus on the numbers gambling that took place in New York City from 1920 to 1940, the criminal groups that operated in ghettos from the 1940s to the 1970s, and the gang activities that began in the 1970s and continues today. While providing a compelling analysis of African American organized crime, the authors also challenge existing stereotypes of African Americans and demonstrate the importance of studying any criminal activity within its historical and social context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813524450
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	03/01/1997
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

RUFUS SCHATZBERG, PhD, is a retired New York City detective first grade, is the author of Black Organized Crime in Harlem: 1920-1930.

ROBERT J. KELLY Broeklundian Professor of Social Science at Brooklyn College and professor of criminal justice at the Graduate School, City University of New York. He is author of Deviance, Dominance and Denigration and Organized Crime: A Global Perspective.

Together, Schatzberg and Kelly edited Handbook on Organized Crime in the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Organized Crime in America
3. The Second Diaspora: African-American Migrations in the United States
4. The Underground Economy: Informal Infrastructures
5. Between the Wars, 1920-1940
6. Racial Servitude and Mutiny in the Underworld, 1940-1970
7. The Tragic Crescendo of Drugs
8. Urbicide: A Tale of Three Cities
9. Summary and Conclusions
Epilogue
Index

Editorial Reviews

Comprehensive and objective, this study argues that organized crime in the United States results from the struggle to attain the elusive American Dream to achieve success at any cost by any means. The authors examine the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions that fostered growth of criminal groups and organizations in African American communities from the post-Civil War era to the ghettoes of today.

BCALA Newsletter

[Kelly and Schatzberg] are obviously two highly knowledgeable individuals. Their book is both perceptive and compelling. Anyone interested in this subject, whether scholar or layperson, should find this social history most useful. Highly recommended.

Reference Book Review

A precise and scholarly work co-authored by Kelly (criminal justice, City U., New York) and Shatzberg (retired New York City Police Department detective), presenting a social history of organized crime in general, and specifically in the African-American community. They argue that the constrictions of racism and economic deprivation fostered the evolution of organized crime, examining African-American history and urban migration in relation to crime, the formation of an underground economy, drug and vice organizations, and their relationship to present day gangs and gang activity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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