Stephanie St. Clair

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Lore & Background

St. Clair was born of African descent in the West Indies to a single mother, Félicienne, who worked hard to send her daughter to school. According to St. Clair's 1924 Declaration of Intention, she gave Fort-de-France, French West Indies (present-day Martinique, West Indies) as her place of birth. When St. Clair turned 12, her mother became very ill and St. Clair had to leave school. She managed to save some money and, after the death of her mother, left Martinique for Montreal, likely coming as part of the 1910-1911 Caribbean Domestic Scheme, which brought domestic workers to Quebec. She immigrated to the United States from Montreal, arriving in New York in 1912. She used the voyage and subsequent quarantine to learn English. In Harlem she fell in love with a small-time crook, Duke, who soon tried to prostitute her but was shot in a fight between gangs. After four months, she decided to start her own business, selling controlled drugs with the help of her new boyfriend, Ed. After a few months, she had made $30,000 and told Ed she wanted to leave him and start her own business. Ed tried to strangle her and she pushed him away with such force that he cracked his skull against a table and died. For months afterwards, she employed her own men, bribed policemen, and on April 12, 1917, invested $10,000 of her own money in a clandestine lottery game in Harlem. As a result of her success running one of the leading numbers games in the city, she became known throughout Manhattan as Queenie, but Harlem residents referred to her as Madame St. Clair. St. Clair was involved in policy banking, which for her was a mixture of investing, gambling, and playing the lottery. Many banks at this time would not accept black customers, so they were not able to invest legally. Policy banking wasn't legal, but it was one of the few options offered to black Harlem residents who wished to invest their money. It was also a predominantly black industry which allowed many bankers to have a sense of agency that would not be possible in white-dominated fields. In this way, St. Clair used the underground economy in Harlem to address race politics. At this time, the numbers game in Harlem was male-dominated, and St. Clair was one of the few women involved. She helped the black community in Harlem by providing many with jobs such as numbers runners. Part of the numbers bankers' activity was financing otherwise legitimate small businesses which took players' bets. She also helped her community by donating money to programs that promoted racial progress. Because of her success in the numbers game, she lived a lavish life, making over $20,000 per year in the 1920s. St. Clair was known to put out ads in the local newspapers educating the Harlem community about their legal rights, advocating for voting rights, and calling out police brutality against the black community. Several times she complained to local authorities about harassment by the police. When they paid no heed, she ran advertisements in Harlem newspapers, accusing senior police officers of corruption. The police responded by arresting her on a trumped-up charge and she spent eight months in a workhouse. In response, she testified to the Seabury Commission about the kickbacks she had paid police officers and those who had participated in the Harlem numbers game. The commission subsequently fired more than a dozen police officers. After the end of Prohibition, Jewish and Italian-American crime families saw a decrease in profits and decided to move in on the Harlem gambling scene. Bronx-based mob boss Dutch Schultz was the first to move in, beating and killing numbers operators who would not pay him protection. St. Clair and her chief enforcer Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson refused to pay protection to Schultz despite the violence and intimidation by police they faced. St. Clair responded by attacking the storefronts of businesses that ran Dutch Schultz's betting operations and tipping off the police about him. This resulted in the police raiding his house, arresting more than a dozen of his employees and seizing approximately $12 million (about $190.6 million in 2021 currency). St. Clair never submitted to Dutch Schultz, unlike many others in Harlem. After St. Clair's struggles with Schultz, she had to become legitimate and stay away from the police, so she passed on her criminal business to Johnson. Eventually her former enforcer negotiated with Lucky Luciano, and Lucky took over Schultz's spots, with a percentage going to 'Bumpy'. The mafiosi then had to go to 'Bumpy' first if they had any problems in Harlem. Luciano realized that the war in Harlem was bad for business. Schultz was fatally wounded in a shooting ordered by The Commission in 1935; St. Clair, though uninvolved in the hit, sent an infamous telegram to Schultz on his deathbed that read 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap.' The telegram reportedly made headlines across the nation. By the 1940s, Johnson had become the reigning king in Harlem, and St. Clair became less and less involved in the numbers game. After St. Clair retired from the numbers game, she started a new era of her life as an advocate for political reform. In the late 1930s, she met her husband Sufi Abdul Hamid, an African-American religious and labor leader. Hamid is best known for his role in the early 1930s business boycotts in Harlem that were designed to draw attention to discriminatory employment practices of white, mainly Italian and Jewish, business owners. St. Clair and Hamid's marriage went downhill quickly when he allegedly had an affair with a fortune teller known as 'Fu Futtam' (Hamid went on to marry Futtam, whose real name was Dorothy Matthews, in April 1938, and they founded a Buddhist temple together). The marriage officially ended in January 1938 when St. Clair shot Hamid during a fight over his relationship with Futtam and was sentenced to two to 10 years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York. After she was released from prison in the early 1940s, St. Clair lived a secluded life and was reported as having successfully transitioned from underworld figure to a legitimate 'prosperous business woman'. She continued to write columns in the local newspaper about discrimination, police brutality, illegal search raids, and other issues facing the Black community. St. Clair died quietly and still wealthy in 1969, shortly before her 72nd birthday. 'Bumpy' Johnson, who had come back to live with her and to write poetry, had died one year earlier. However, her death was not mentioned in any newspaper of the era.

Reader's Guide

Stephanie St. Clair's significance lies in her dual role as a successful criminal entrepreneur and a vocal activist for the black community in early 20th-century Harlem. She operated in the underground economy of policy banking, which provided investment opportunities and jobs for black residents excluded from mainstream finance. Her public denunciations of police corruption, including advertisements and testimony before the Seabury Commission, led to the firing of over a dozen officers and highlighted systemic racism in law enforcement. Her resistance to Mafia encroachment, particularly against Dutch Schultz, made her a symbol of defiance and local legend. After retiring from the numbers game, she became an advocate for political reform, writing columns about discrimination and police brutality. Her legacy is reflected in numerous media portrayals, including films, television, comic books, and video games, cementing her as a notable figure in Harlem's history.

Did You Know?

• St. Clair invested $10,000 of her own money in a clandestine lottery game in Harlem on April 12, 1917.
• She made over $20,000 per year in the 1920s from the numbers game.
• After being arrested on a trumped-up charge, she testified to the Seabury Commission, leading to the firing of more than a dozen police officers.
• She sent a telegram to Dutch Schultz on his deathbed reading 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap,' which reportedly made headlines across the nation.
• St. Clair shot her husband Sufi Abdul Hamid in January 1938 and was sentenced to two to 10 years at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility.