The Godfather of Harlem
Interest in Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson has seen a revival after the TV series Godfather of Harlem was released, with Forrest Whitaker in the role of Johnson. From the early 1930s until his death in 1968, the real-life Bumpy Johnson was Harlem’s most feared criminal and crime boss. Born in South Carolina in 1905, he got his nickname from a bump in the back of his head. When he was ten years old, Bumpy’s older brother killed a white man and fled to the north to escape a lynch mob.
Bumpy’s temper and refusal to abide by the day’s racial codes, particularly the deference to whites part, stood out and alarmed his parents. They feared that he would follow in his older brother’s footsteps, and kill somebody, or get lynched. So when he turned fourteen, Bumpy was sent to live with a sister in Harlem. There, he joined a protection racket that shook down local stores. Eventually, Bumpy got his big break when he was hired as a leg breaker by Madam Saint Clair, at the time Harlem’s biggest bookmaker and crime queen.