The Black underworld in the South haven't received much historical research compared to Midwestern, East Coast , and a minor degree to West Coast sections. The Black bootleggers of prohibition had setup shop in neighborhoods of small towns and large cities via mom & pop stores, gas stations, motels, clubs & hole in the wall joints especially. Using these businesses as a front to sell to their clientele and bribe/kickback a portion of their earnings to the local sheriffs/police in their area. Mississippi is well known for having a long history of bootlegging/moonshining with prohibition ending in 1966. Major hubs for the bootlegging racket in Mississippi was the Delta, River towns next to Louisiana border, Gulf Coast & Gold Coast ( Rankin County area known as East Jackson). Black bootleggers was known to network with white bootleggers despite the racist climate of that time. A Gold Coast hotel operated by 2 Black brothers had doubled as a nightclub with bootlegging and gambling activities as well.
Illegal gambling have been a major racket in the Black underworld of the South with Policy/Numbers being active in New Orleans, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville, & other locations. In Nashville's Black underworld the racketeers gain significant prominence with political backing. Even in the 1960s it was mentioned in a Nashville paper that there was a dozen or so Black Kingpins netting millions from the numbers racket. Nashville' s history with Numbers racket lasted a long time until the city legalized the lottery in 2004. Atlanta authorities referred to the policy/numbers racket as the Bug racket, everytime one shutdown another opens and numerous, and it tended to be highly competitive between different enterprises often engaging in conflicts over business. New Orleans Black underworld was fill with policy wheels. Some Black underworld locations preferred cards/dice games than polucy/numbers such as Mississippi cities. Overall, During the 1920s-1960s the most lucrative rackets waa Bootlegging, Gambling, and lesser degree Prostitution. As the 1950s to 1990s arrived so does a shift in rackets takes place. Mainly drug trafficking along with gun trafficking & fraud.
Drug Trade grew to replace bootlegging and gambling as a major racket in Southern Black underworlds. New Orleans had Black drug kingpins as early as the mid 50s with the New Orleans crime family taking a back seat to the drug trafficking. Black traffickers was traveling to Chicago for the source and dealing to other local traffickers. The locations of New Orleans heroin market shifted to the housing projects in central city. DTOs & local crews proliferated in the city during the 60s-90s. Atlanta, Houston, & Miami continues to be well known distribution hubs and many Black racketeers in these locations gained large revenues and network with other traffickers from different Black underworlds. One of the most common links Southern Black underworlds share with the other regional Black underworlds is the historic migration. The racketeers know how to engage in certain cities in part to family connections in which allow a flow of racketeering activities between different regions.
