The Black Mafia: African-American organized crime in Chicago 1890-1960

The historical role of African-Americans in organized crime in the United States has been greatly ignored by the academic community. What research that does exist argues that black Americans played a minor role in the ethnic gambling and vice industries that existed in many American cities at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. This view is supported by the alien conspiracy theory, which argues that the participation of African-Americans and other minorities in syndicated vice and crime followed the decline of traditional Italian American organized crime groups. This research argues that sophisticated African-American organized crime groups in Chicago existed independently of Italian American organized crime and that African-Americans eventually played an important role in the activities of the Chicago Outfit, the traditional Italian American organized group in Chicago.