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Speaker 1: Novel. Before we begin, a content warning. The following episode

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Speaker 1: contains difficult themes and violence. The Manhattan Courthouse is surrounded.

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Speaker 2: There were over one thousand people who showed up outside

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Speaker 2: the courtroom. They had snipers on the roofs in Foley Square.

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Speaker 2: They had police officers with riot guns in the hallway.

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Speaker 1: Inside Courtroom one forty eight, smoke stained shades do all

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Speaker 1: they can to block out the sun and any industrious

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Speaker 1: lucky loose hoping to get a peek inside, and who

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Speaker 1: could blame them.

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Speaker 3: At the time, it was called the Trial of the Century.

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Speaker 3: It really was national news.

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Speaker 1: Men in dark suits crowded every available seat.

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Speaker 2: The entire gallery during the trial was full.

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Speaker 1: Of press their hats, rest on their knees or turn

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Speaker 1: in their hands. Some fidget, some slouch, others sit ramrod straight.

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Speaker 1: Everyone is focused on the scene in front of them,

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Speaker 1: a man with a carefully groomed mustache walking confidently toward

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Speaker 1: the stand.

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Speaker 2: He was very aggressive and very ambitious.

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Speaker 3: That was his personality. Dewey loved being in the spotlight.

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Speaker 1: Thomas E. Dewey, famed investigator of the crime syndicates, casting

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Speaker 1: a menacing shadow across America.

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Speaker 4: How do you take this random mayhem of violence and

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Speaker 4: bring it under the law.

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Speaker 5: Thomas Dewey enters the picture on that platform.

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Speaker 1: His assistant attorney's shuffle papers. The courtroom leans closer towards

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Speaker 1: the main attraction. The man facing Dewey on the stand

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Speaker 1: he is.

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Speaker 3: Called sometimes the boss of bosses.

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Speaker 5: Slender, slightly darker skin tone of Sicilian extraction.

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Speaker 1: A suit jacket covers tattoos on the defendant's forearms.

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Speaker 5: All symbols of luck. He took great effort to keep

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Speaker 5: those tattoos out of the public light. At the time,

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Speaker 5: tattoos were not exactly the upstanding citizen kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: A silk shirt and gold watch mark him as a

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Speaker 1: man with expensive taste. He wipes a handkerchief over his

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Speaker 1: brow and meets the eyes of the courtroom. Everyone can

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Speaker 1: see it. Charles Lucky Luciano, one of the most feared

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Speaker 1: mafia leaders anyone ever knew, is sweating. Maybe he was flustered.

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Speaker 3: Maybe the government really did put him on edge.

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Speaker 1: He used to be so sure of himself, but now

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Speaker 1: things don't seem so certain anymore.

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Speaker 6: Luciano really never stands a chance.

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Speaker 2: He never should have taken the stand. That was the

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Speaker 2: nail in Lucky's.

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Speaker 1: Coffin a few blocks from the courthouse, on the fourteenth

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Speaker 1: floor of Manhattan's gothic Woolworth Building, there is an office

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Speaker 1: serviceable tidy inside sits the woman responsible for putting Lucky

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Speaker 1: Luciano on trial, Eunice Hunting Carter, thirty six years old

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty six, bright eyes the kind of quietly

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Speaker 1: amused expression that makes you think she's laughing at a

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Speaker 1: joke she can't share. She's New York's first black female

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Speaker 1: prosecutor for the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan. This is

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Speaker 1: the biggest case of her career. But as Lucky Luciano

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Speaker 1: squirms on the stand, Eunice Hunting Carter is not there

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Speaker 1: on center stage. Her name never appears in court transcripts.

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Speaker 1: Why not. There would be no trial of the century

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Speaker 1: without her. But Unice's work on this case is far

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Speaker 1: from over. Destiny has more in store for the trial's

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Speaker 1: key players, uniting them forever in unexpected ways. Lucky, Dewey

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Speaker 1: and Unice, all born within five years of each other,

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Speaker 1: similar ages, similar ferocious ambitions, and.

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Speaker 2: Their lives intersect in a courtroom for one month in

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty six.

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Speaker 1: But only two we're given the opportunity to stand out.

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Speaker 1: Lucky and Dewey will go down in history. Eunice was

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Speaker 1: kept from the spotlight. Maybe it's not surprising that in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six a black woman was not given room

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Speaker 1: to share the stage, But nearly ninety years later, Eunice

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Speaker 1: Hunting Carter still isn't the hose household name. And that

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Speaker 1: is surprising, or at least I think it should be,

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Speaker 1: because recently I've come to learn about Unice Hunting Carter

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Speaker 1: and she wasn't just the engineer of this one defining

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Speaker 1: moment in mob history. Eunice was a pioneer across all

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Speaker 1: kinds of spheres that have come to shape America. Eunice

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Speaker 1: was there navigating worlds designed to hold her back, often

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Speaker 1: leaving them transformed. So I've been talking to some people

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Speaker 1: who have remembered her name, people who can help me

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Speaker 1: tell her story.

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Speaker 2: Unice Carter was the spark that started the.

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Speaker 1: Fire, a black woman who took on one of the

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Speaker 1: country's most notorious mobsters. I want more people to hear

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Speaker 1: what she did, even more than her achievements. I want

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Speaker 1: to understand who she was.

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Speaker 7: It's not even just that not everyone remembers Unis, but

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Speaker 7: that people don't even believe she could have existed.

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Speaker 3: She was really active in the Harlem Renaissance.

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Speaker 8: Eunis ran for office. People thought she was going to win.

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Speaker 1: She didn't back down in an argument.

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Speaker 3: This is a straight shooter who will say something and

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Speaker 3: mean it. But I think she was guarded.

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Speaker 1: I did wonder if she felt stifled. All around us today,

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Speaker 1: from school rooms to halls of legislation, Black American history

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Speaker 1: is being erased. Remembering Eunice Hunting Carter feels more urgent

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Speaker 1: than ever. But is that even possible when so many

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Speaker 1: years of erasure and forgetting lie in our way. I

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Speaker 1: want to find out to try to put Eunice Hunting

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Speaker 1: Carter back in the spotlight.

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Speaker 3: And I'm going to ask first Missus Eunice Carter to

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Speaker 3: tell us some of the things that she has on

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Speaker 3: our mind.

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Speaker 4: This is awesome, Well, Missus Roosevelt, I have to agree,

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Speaker 4: and our association agrees with what doctor Malack just said.

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Speaker 4: We are concerned more though, with the implementation of human

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Speaker 4: rights for all mankind.

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Speaker 1: I'm Nicole Perkins and from the teams at iHeartRadio and Novel,

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Speaker 1: this is the Godmother Episode one, Atlanta, nineteen twenty four

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Speaker 1: replica by Eunice ROBERTA.

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Speaker 9: Hunting noonday sun scorched a treeless ribbon of brick red road.

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Speaker 9: A breeze, hot and languid, stirred, fitfully angry, red dust

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Speaker 9: rose in great puffs, only to settle back heavily on

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Speaker 9: all who dared the road. And then impasse for the

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Speaker 9: way ended quite suddenly in according of vehicles, a ford,

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Speaker 9: shining anew rubbed shoulders, with a road mender's pitch cart.

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Speaker 9: They were all there, these and dozens of others, barricading

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Speaker 9: the entrance to a grove of Georgia oaks.

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Speaker 1: Long before I moved to New York and became a writer,

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Speaker 1: I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. This was during the

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Speaker 1: eighties and nineties, and when it came time for me

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Speaker 1: to go to college, I knew I wanted to stay

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Speaker 1: in the South. I wanted the familiar, soupy heat, the

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Speaker 1: magnificent magnolia and oak trees. Schools in Atlanta were some

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Speaker 1: of the first I applied to. The city was the

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Speaker 1: place to be for American black folks. Atlanta was about

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Speaker 1: four hours away, the perfect destination for weekend trips and

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Speaker 1: date nights for the black bourgeoisie and those who wanted

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Speaker 1: to be It was where we went to shop for

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Speaker 1: luxury brands that hadn't made it to Nashville yet. It

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Speaker 1: was one of the top places in the country for

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Speaker 1: black people who wanted wealth and education without leaving the South.

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Speaker 1: The Atlanta I knew about a city that held so

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Speaker 1: much promise for black people was shaped by the lives

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Speaker 1: of those who arrived over one hundred years before. In

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, but the

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Speaker 1: Jim Crow laws of the late eighteen hundred It's established

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Speaker 1: a new form of segregation, and so to foster their

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Speaker 1: own success, black people began creating communities like in Nicodemus, Kansas,

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Speaker 1: or Greenwood, Tulsa. And in Atlanta.

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Speaker 8: Hundreds, if not thousands, of African Americans migrated from rural

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Speaker 8: areas of the state and elsewhere to Atlanta. They saw

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Speaker 8: it as a place where they could make a life

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Speaker 8: for themselves. That was really the first phase of Atlanta

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Speaker 8: being viewed as a mecca for Black America.

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Speaker 1: The Huntings are among those drawn to Atlanta. William Alfaez

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Speaker 1: Hunting Senior and Addie Waite Hunting met in Norfolk, Virginia

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Speaker 1: before moving there. William is thirty six Atty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: It's eighteen ninety nine and they've just had a daughter.

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Speaker 1: This was ADDIE's third pregnancy, and a difficult one. They've

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Speaker 1: already lost two babies. They aren't sure this child will survive.

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Speaker 1: For the first few weeks of her life, William and

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Speaker 1: Addie just call her Sugar. But she's strong, healthy, and

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Speaker 1: once her parents are sure she'll survive, they name her Unice.

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Speaker 1: As Unice's childhood begins, the Hunting's are part of a thriving,

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Speaker 1: regenerated Atlanta. They lived in the Auburn Avenue neighborhood.

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Speaker 8: Auburn Avenue would be come by near twentieth century what

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Speaker 8: Fortune magazine called the richest Negro street in the world,

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Speaker 8: not just in the country, but in the world.

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Speaker 1: It's close to the white part of town and near Peachtree,

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Speaker 1: the Lively business district. I try to imagine Unice as

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Speaker 1: a child, watching brick buildings go up around her, holding

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Speaker 1: her mother ADDIE's hands as they walk downly paved streets.

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Speaker 1: Units probably sees people from all walks of life, postal workers, seamstresses, accountants, reporters, bakers, tailors,

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Speaker 1: hat makers.

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Speaker 8: Whatever business that was needed by the black community was

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Speaker 8: provided by black business people who catered to the needs

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Speaker 8: of black residents and also in many cases, catered to

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Speaker 8: the needs of whites.

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Speaker 1: Off Peachtree, her family can do all their shopping knowing

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Speaker 1: they're supporting black businesses and that the money remains in

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Speaker 1: this community, lifting some families out of poverty.

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Speaker 8: In the city, the majority of black people lived in poverty,

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Speaker 8: as was the case in much of the South, but

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Speaker 8: you had a strong emerging black middle class and upper

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Speaker 8: middle class, and Atlanta became a magnet that drew these

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Speaker 8: people who wanted to, of course find wealth, but I

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Speaker 8: also wanted to aid in the uplift of the black community.

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Speaker 1: The house that the Hunting's live in, it's big enough

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Speaker 1: to require a maid, a cook, and a gardener. I'd

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Speaker 1: love to have a maid and a cook right now.

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Speaker 8: The Hunting family had a very nice home, like twelve

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Speaker 8: to fifteen room home on Houston Street. Houston Street's where

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Speaker 8: you had many prominent African Americans.

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Speaker 3: I think they liked to have pleasant surroundings. But the

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Speaker 3: most important thing to them was learning about the world.

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Speaker 3: I get the impression that you would be surrounded by books,

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Speaker 3: you'd be surrounded by bookcases.

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Speaker 1: Unlike literally ninety nine percent of the Black community at

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Speaker 1: that time. Unice's parents have been to college.

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Speaker 3: Her father, William, was really active in his job, traveling

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Speaker 3: through the South in the United States. He was gone

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Speaker 3: a lot.

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Speaker 1: William Huntson is the first Black Secretary of the International.

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Speaker 3: YA, trying to integrate and establish the YMCA for Black People.

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Speaker 10: And Addie hunting She was a social activist in her

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Speaker 10: own right, one of the founders of the National Association

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Speaker 10: of Colored Women and then eventually one of the founding

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Speaker 10: members of the Council of Negro Women.

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Speaker 1: Addie writes long articles and gives speeches in front of

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Speaker 1: packed crowds, and her audience hears a message of responsibility,

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Speaker 1: how the first duty of black women is to their

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Speaker 1: homes to focus on their families and children, and their

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Speaker 1: next duty was to uplift the race. But Addie isn't

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Speaker 1: really practicing what she preaches, just like her husband, her

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Speaker 1: career often takes her away from Unice and her home,

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Speaker 1: and as she begins to work with the National Association

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Speaker 1: for the advancement of colored people. She starts taking even

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Speaker 1: more trips away from her family.

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Speaker 8: She alone, black woman would travel to various cities in

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Speaker 8: which there have been unrest, attacks on the black community,

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Speaker 8: attacks on those who attempted to establish branches of the NAACP.

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Speaker 1: These trips were dangerous journeys, especially for a black woman.

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Speaker 1: I can only imagine the kind of responses she got

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Speaker 1: from strangers. To me, it speaks to her determination and dedication,

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Speaker 1: her passion to be more than what society expects.

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Speaker 8: She went to explore, to find out, to gather evidence,

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Speaker 8: to talk to those to encourage individuals in those cities

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Speaker 8: to establish the branches, and she was quite successful of it.

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Speaker 8: She did so without fear.

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Speaker 1: This makes me think of my own mother, because she

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Speaker 1: sacrificed her own ambitions for our family. She made sure

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Speaker 1: to tell my older sister and I to do more

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Speaker 1: with our lives. As much as she loved us, she

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Speaker 1: wanted us to pursue our dreams. I wonder if Addie

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Speaker 1: had similar talks with unus. Addie seemed to sacrifice her

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Speaker 1: home life for her larger ambitions at such a young age.

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Speaker 1: Did Yunus understand that sacrifice or was she resentful of it.

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Speaker 1: Eunice's parents are trying to help build a world where

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Speaker 1: black people have rights and opportunities, a South where they

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Speaker 1: can thrive racial uplift, but not everyone is thrilled by

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Speaker 1: that vision. As a small child, perhaps staring wide eyed

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Speaker 1: at a city being built around her, at her parents

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Speaker 1: making waves in Black America, Unice cannot possibly know that

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Speaker 1: she is standing in the middle of a tinder box.

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Speaker 1: In July nineteen oh six, Eunice Hunting is seven years old,

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Speaker 1: and she's got a younger brother to keep her busy.

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Speaker 1: Now al Faeus, they're about four years apart. But you know,

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Speaker 1: she's doing what little girls do, probably wanting toys or

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Speaker 1: trips to the candy store, maybe even the library. She's

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Speaker 1: definitely not thinking about who's going to be elected governor,

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Speaker 1: which is a campaign happening around her in Atlanta that year.

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Speaker 1: That election is just a few months away. Both candidates

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Speaker 1: are Democrats.

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Speaker 8: Pake Smith and Clark Howell. These were the owners publishers

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Speaker 8: of Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution newspapers, two separate newspapers

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Speaker 8: at that time, and each of those newspapers wrote sensational

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Speaker 8: and largely false stories on a daily basis.

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Speaker 1: So these two white men are stirring up a lot

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Speaker 1: of racist unrest and flat out lying in order to

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Speaker 1: make white Georgians afraid of the power of the black vote,

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Speaker 1: which across America is still just a few decades old.

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Speaker 8: African Americans were also granted the right of citizenship. The

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Speaker 8: fourteenth Amendment and the fifteenth Amendment guaranteed voting rights for

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Speaker 8: African American men, and so when African American men were

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Speaker 8: given the right to vote declared citizens, it signaled to

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Speaker 8: them a new day in terms of opportunities.

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Speaker 1: And that threatened Smith and Howell, especially because when black

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Speaker 1: men did turn out to vote, they were not voting

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Speaker 1: for men like them, men whose families had defended slavery.

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Speaker 8: African Americans were able to garner a degree of political power.

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Speaker 1: White democrats like Smith and Howell were afraid of black

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Speaker 1: voting power.

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Speaker 8: They considered African Americans an economic threat because they felt

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Speaker 8: they were in competition against these black businesses that were

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Speaker 8: doing very well.

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Speaker 1: At this point. As Atlanta heads into the twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: black businesses are thriving, which is not what the country

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Speaker 1: is used to. There are wealthy black people in places

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Speaker 1: like Tulsa and Charleston, but you have to go looking

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Speaker 1: for them. In Atlanta, segregation is still everywhere, but those

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Speaker 1: black businesses exist side by side, So the growing prosperity

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Speaker 1: of the black community is unavoidable. Why should black people

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Speaker 1: have the same or better lives than the white citizens

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Speaker 1: of Atlanta.

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Speaker 8: It was during that time that the newspapers began to

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Speaker 8: literally create stories that black men were assaulting white women

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Speaker 8: in an attempt to really fan the flames of racism.

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Speaker 8: The leadership of the white power structure really pulling the

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Speaker 8: strings and manipulating their constituency.

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Speaker 1: Meanwhile, at the Hunting home, letters arrive from both Addie

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Speaker 1: and William Hunting from their work travels on the road.

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Speaker 1: William revels and news of Unice. How smart she is

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Speaker 1: even as a little girl, but still just seven years

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Speaker 1: old in that summer of nineteen oh six. I wonder

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Speaker 1: if she's picking up on the rising tensions. Does her

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Speaker 1: mother hold her hand tighter when white men come by

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Speaker 1: on the street. Do they have a cold word in

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Speaker 1: case they need to run? Whether or not Yunus understands

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Speaker 1: what's happening around her. William and Addie have a crystal

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Speaker 1: clear read of the situation.

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Speaker 8: Black people were highly aware that something was about to happen.

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Speaker 1: The black community in Atlanta is now preparing for the worst.

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Speaker 8: They clandestinely ship in on train's weapons arms guns so

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Speaker 8: they could protect themselves.

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Speaker 1: It's the evening of September twenty second, nineteen oh six,

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Speaker 1: a week and a half before the Smith Howell election.

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Speaker 8: A Saturday evening. People were leaving work. People were coming

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Speaker 8: into the downtown area to go to restaurants or the theater.

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Speaker 8: People were going into the city to start work if

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Speaker 8: they had night shifts or whatever.

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Speaker 1: It may be the end of September, but summer in

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Speaker 1: the South likes to linger, and Atlanta is a bowl

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Speaker 1: of humidity.

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Speaker 8: The streets were crowded and the street cars were crowded.

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Speaker 1: It's also time for the latest edition of the evening

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Speaker 1: newspapers to unleash their new fictions.

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Speaker 8: The Atlanta Evening News on that day had just published

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Speaker 8: an edition that screamed headlines about more texts on white women,

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Speaker 8: newspaper boys out in the street, going extra, extra extra.

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Speaker 8: This was an extra edition of the Atlanta Evening News.

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Speaker 8: It was timed to really spark the animosity that was

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Speaker 8: already building up they knew that there would be a

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Speaker 8: number of people in the streets.

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Speaker 1: Everybody black and white are crowded together on the street cars,

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Speaker 1: bumping against each other on the sidewalk. It's hot.

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Speaker 8: These newspaper boys yelling out black men, rapes, white women.

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Speaker 1: People are irritated.

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Speaker 8: The street cars were supposed to be segregated. You could

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Speaker 8: imagine at the end of a day, when it's crowded,

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Speaker 8: you got a long day at work, you don't really

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Speaker 8: want to get up and give up your seat to somebody.

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Speaker 1: People are getting in each other's faces.

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Speaker 8: The animosity, that sense of urgency had been building.

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Speaker 1: Up, and then the violence starts on the street. Things

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Speaker 1: get ugly fast.

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Speaker 8: People said we're gonna kill every black person in sight.

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Speaker 8: Then they say every black person. They used the N word,

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Speaker 8: whether it's a man, whether it's a woman, whether it's

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Speaker 8: a child. They did not care whether that person was

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Speaker 8: just simply trying to get home and get away from

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Speaker 8: the crowd, or that person was taking a stand and

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Speaker 8: said I'm not gonna let anybody intimidate me. They would

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Speaker 8: grab that person, pull them off the street cars, first

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Speaker 8: of all, run them down if they were walking in

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Speaker 8: the streets. And now it's time to essentially rid ourselves

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Speaker 8: of as many black people as possible.

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Speaker 1: Mobs of white men are now roaming around downtown Atlanta.

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Speaker 8: The mob of terrorists grew to about ten thousand men

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Speaker 8: and boys. They knew exactly where.

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Speaker 2: To go.

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Speaker 1: Across the Peachtree Business District. Straining with rush hour, they

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Speaker 1: wreak havoc.

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Speaker 8: There was a young black man named Frank Smith who

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Speaker 8: was a messenger, and he was trying to get back

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Speaker 8: to wherever his office was in the business district. They

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Speaker 8: grabbed him, they murdered him. They threw one man off

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Speaker 8: the for Side Street bridge onto the railroad track. They

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Speaker 8: pulled people off street cars and beat them, killed them.

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Speaker 1: It's nightfall now.

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Speaker 8: This assault, this murder, this pillage continued. They dragged bodies

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Speaker 8: of their victims to the base of the statue that

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Speaker 8: still exists on for Syde Street of Henry Grady.

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Speaker 1: Grady was another white supremacist journalist.

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Speaker 8: He was revered by white citizens in Atlanta, particularly.

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Speaker 1: A precursor to Smith and Howell.

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Speaker 8: He was a symbol of what they were a to

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Speaker 8: achieve in terms of leadership, in terms of dominance of

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Speaker 8: white Atlantas in the city of Atlanta and really Georgia

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Speaker 8: and throughout the South.

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Speaker 1: In the Atlanta night, the vicious crowd spreads out from

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Speaker 1: downtown towards residential areas of the city.

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Speaker 8: The terrorists were actually headed to the Auburn Avenue community.

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Speaker 1: That's Eunice's neighborhood. Her home is right on the border

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Speaker 1: between white and black Atlanta. There the Hunting's wait trapped inside.

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Speaker 8: They were in their home looking out the window, and

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Speaker 8: mister Hunting, who was ready to defend his family, defend

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Speaker 8: his home against the rioters if necessary.

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Speaker 1: I wonder where Unice is at this time. Are she

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Speaker 1: and her brother hiding someplace? Does she hear the crowd

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Speaker 1: of angry men? Is she peeping through the shutters? At

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00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: the last minute, the mob suddenly stops a few houses

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Speaker 1: before her home. The ringleaders declare that homes in this

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Speaker 1: part of town seem too nice for negroes to live in,

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Speaker 1: and so the mob moves on, bringing destruction and violence

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Speaker 1: to someone else's door.

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Speaker 8: So it moved east to what's called the Fourth War

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Speaker 8: in Atlanta that's populated by working class and poor blacks.

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Speaker 8: This is thousands of attackers moving into that community to

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Speaker 8: essentially destroy homes kill people. The residents repel the angry mob.

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Speaker 8: They were also in their homes, weapons in hand, ready

380
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Speaker 8: to defend themselves if the mob should get to them.

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Speaker 1: The terror in Atlanta lasts for another three full days.

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Speaker 8: Many many more were killed.

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00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 1: Eventually, Georgia's governor calls in the militia and the violence

384
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Speaker 1: in the center of the city starts to die down.

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Speaker 8: No one really knows how many African Americans died. The

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00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 8: estimate is between fifty to one hundred, and perhaps even more,

387
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:20,199
Speaker 8: and in many cases the bodies were spirited away, they disappeared.

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Speaker 8: People did not want their dead to be associated with

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Speaker 8: the riot because even though they were the victims, they

390
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Speaker 8: feared that there would be consequences.

391
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Speaker 1: The fallout of the attacks in Atlanta went well beyond

392
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Speaker 1: those three days in late September.

393
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Speaker 8: Even after the carnage and the murders, you still had

394
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 8: the repercussions of the trauma of having experienced.

395
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: That Atlanta could rebuild, It could become the place I

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Speaker 1: would excitedly visit as a teenager many years later. But

397
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,080
Speaker 1: what about the idea of Atlanta. It had become a

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Speaker 1: place that was no longer safe. It's clear Atlanta and

399
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: its Black community would never be the same.

400
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 8: Most people think about the Great Migration as being a

401
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 8: movement of African American men, women, and children from the

402
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:19,159
Speaker 8: rural south to the urban north, but you had variations

403
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,479
Speaker 8: of that. You had what occurred and the aftermath of

404
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 8: the nineteen oh six Atlanta race massacre. African Americans moving

405
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 8: from the urban south on north to the meccas to

406
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 8: the big cities where they felt they could be safer,

407
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,920
Speaker 8: even though for sure racism was present in the North,

408
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 8: but they felt they would not be under the constant

409
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 8: threat of assault that they were in the South.

410
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Speaker 1: More than five thousand black people left the city as

411
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Speaker 1: a result of the massacre. The Huntings never returned to Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: When I try to understand the impact the events in

413
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 1: Atlanta had on seven year old Unis, I think back

414
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: to a night I experienced in my own childhood when

415
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 1: my family home burned to the ground. I was fifteen,

416
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: so a little older than Unice, and the fire was

417
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 1: an accident. But what I remember is not having time

418
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 1: to grab clothes for my brother, so he was standing

419
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,000
Speaker 1: outside in his underwear. I remember that it took a

420
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,719
Speaker 1: long time for the fire department to show up but

421
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 1: my mother says they arrived quickly. It didn't feel like it.

422
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: These kinds of events always change you in some way.

423
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: I keep a full outfit in my purse near my

424
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: bedside now in case of emergencies. The details of the

425
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: fire have softened in my memory, but the results of

426
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: the night remain sharp. The Huntings joined millions of others

427
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: in a great migration away from the South. Addie and

428
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:04,719
Speaker 1: William packed up their family for New York. Unus may

429
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 1: have been too young to know the full significance of

430
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: what has happened, but Atlanta will stay with her. She'll

431
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:13,960
Speaker 1: later recall the proximity of the attacks of family members

432
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: and write vividly about the Georgia she'd experienced all around

433
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: her before the violence of that night made it disappear.

434
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: For both Eunice and her little brother Alphaeus, their experiences

435
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 1: here would seem to shape how they approach their futures,

436
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:47,960
Speaker 1: albeit in very different ways. At the turn of the

437
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: twentieth century, America enters an era of transition never seen

438
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: before or since. And in two bedrooms in Brooklyn, New York,

439
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,640
Speaker 1: in the winter of nineteen oh seven, two children from

440
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 1: two sides of the Swell of that movement are asleep.

441
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: One is an eight year old Unice with her family,

442
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: The Hunting's Addie William and her baby brother Alphaeus, all

443
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: arrived in New York for the next chapter of their

444
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:24,720
Speaker 1: lives just a few months before. But black people escaping

445
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 1: violent racism weren't the only people on the move during

446
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: this era. Millions of new immigrant families are reaching US

447
00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: soil too, also looking for new chapters, many of them

448
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: via New York. A few streets away from Unice, in

449
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,959
Speaker 1: Brooklyn that winter night sleeps a young Italian boy and

450
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: his family.

451
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 5: Lucky Lucciano, arrives in the United States as a young

452
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,360
Speaker 5: boy from the western coast of Sicily.

453
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: Lucky is just ten years old when he comes to Brooklyn.

454
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: These two sleeping children aren't destined to cross paths just yet.

455
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: They'll both awake to very different realities before their two

456
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:13,440
Speaker 1: paths come together, and soon Lucky's family will be off again,

457
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: this time just a few miles across the Hudson to

458
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: Manhattan's Lower East Side.

459
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 5: Lower East Manhattan is crammed with immigrants. At this point

460
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 5: in time, it was predominantly Jewish and Italian extraction, all

461
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 5: shoved into one tiny area of ten story and more tenements.

462
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 1: If you've seen films like Gangs of New York or

463
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 1: Once Upon a Time in America, you can probably picture

464
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 1: Lower East Manhattan at this time, overcrowded, noisy, new people

465
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: appearing daily in a neighborhood becoming known as Little Italy.

466
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: Lucky's family has come to New York in the midst

467
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: of what's known as the Great Arrival. Millions more Italian

468
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 1: immigrants will relocate to the US, most from the south

469
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: of Italy, escaping epidemics and natural disasters. Many are in

470
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: Little Italy, essentially looking for the same thing the Huntings

471
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 1: are in their move to Brooklyn, a new page, fresh opportunities.

472
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 1: But immigrants arriving in Little Italy instead find a disappointing familiarity, poverty,

473
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 1: and a new threat too constant suspicion.

474
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 5: The ones already established assimilated New Yorkers Americans at large

475
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 5: viewed as a threat. Were these foreigners speaking these foreign

476
00:33:53,720 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 5: languages with different religions. It wasn't an easy climb for

477
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 5: those people to come up the ladder.

478
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 1: Black upward mobility in cities like Atlanta was stopped in

479
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 1: its tracks because of white fear and jealousy. Many immigrants

480
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,399
Speaker 1: ran into the same white supremacy in the form of xenophobia.

481
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: But soon after arriving in Little Italy, Lucky, who at

482
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,799
Speaker 1: this point is still known as Salvatore Lukanya, which has

483
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:26,919
Speaker 1: a nice ring to it, actually shows he's not going

484
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:30,279
Speaker 1: to accept that this new reality is all American life

485
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:31,440
Speaker 1: can offer him.

486
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 6: Very early on, he starts getting into trouble. He's kind

487
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 6: of a rough kid. He's kind of a moody kid.

488
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: Before long, Lucky's spending most of his days out on

489
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: the bustling streets of the Lower East Side, playing truant

490
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: from school and looking for action.

491
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 5: Like many of his peers in Lower East Manhattan in

492
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:57,440
Speaker 5: the early twentieth century, coming from poverty. Yeah, it's the

493
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 5: same old story, but very true. They wanted more.

494
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,920
Speaker 1: I picture Lucky and other neighborhood kids dodging the crowds,

495
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:07,120
Speaker 1: taking chances.

496
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:13,000
Speaker 6: He begins pickpocketing. He begins extorting younger kids for protection money,

497
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 6: stealing kids lunch money.

498
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 1: Deprived of the opportunities available to wider society, they're responsible

499
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:20,800
Speaker 1: for their own education.

500
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 6: By the time he's a young teen, he has dropped

501
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 6: out of school. Both his parents and the state of

502
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,760
Speaker 6: New York have sent him to Truancy School, but doesn't work.

503
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,760
Speaker 1: While Lucky has been finding his way to Truancy School, Unie,

504
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 1: with her college educated parents, has been shown a very

505
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: different path where education leads to success. First, she's taken

506
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 1: away from Brooklyn to live in Germany with Addie and Alfais,

507
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: while William remains on the road traveling with his career.

508
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 1: Eighteen months later, Unics is back and at one of

509
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 1: the best schools for black students in New York, and

510
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,000
Speaker 1: then on again to become one of the first black

511
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:05,800
Speaker 1: women to attend the prestigious Smith College. With her parents' example,

512
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 1: she has a path to respectability and to success that

513
00:36:10,719 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 1: Lucky just doesn't have, even with a monster of racism

514
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: keeping her from certain avenues. So while she's in class

515
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:22,840
Speaker 1: learning how to become the exception to the rule in

516
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,279
Speaker 1: order to get ahead, Lucky Luciano continues his education in

517
00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 1: a very different way.

518
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:36,279
Speaker 5: He, like many of his peers, changed or altered their

519
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 5: names to be more easily pronounced or more Americanized. He

520
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:47,440
Speaker 5: went with Luciano, and even still there were people had

521
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:50,799
Speaker 5: a difficult time pronouncing it. He finally changed it to

522
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,359
Speaker 5: Lucky keep it simple.

523
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 1: He learns how to circumvent the rules.

524
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,319
Speaker 6: Luciano gets involved with the Five Points gang as a

525
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 6: teenager selling drugs.

526
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,320
Speaker 5: Lucky did have some jobs. He worked as a hat

527
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:10,840
Speaker 5: delivery boy, but he was pinched at age sixteen for

528
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:13,359
Speaker 5: delivering a hat box with heroin in it.

529
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:17,240
Speaker 1: This would be Lucky's only arrest for the next two decades,

530
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 1: but it's a significant one. With a record, he is

531
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 1: now prevented from entering many so called respectable trades. The

532
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 1: die has been cast, and soon Lucky ends up under

533
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,720
Speaker 1: the wing of some of the era's underworld leaders.

534
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:42,400
Speaker 5: He's already been mentored by financer Arnold Rostein for a

535
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 5: tutelage in organized crime.

536
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 1: But there's still nothing here to suggest the notorious gangster

537
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 1: America will be reading about in newspaper headlines in the

538
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 1: coming decades, even less so that he and Unice will

539
00:37:56,719 --> 00:38:02,360
Speaker 1: somehow connect through the world of vice and crime. With

540
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 1: her smith college education and her parents' legacy behind her,

541
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 1: she's far from that life. For all her experiences and advantages.

542
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: By the time America reaches the nineteen twenties, Unice is

543
00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 1: kind of separated from the realities of average Black American life.

544
00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:27,400
Speaker 1: But that's about to change because Unice is headed uptown

545
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 1: towards Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance. By the nineteen twenties,

546
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: Harlem was referred to as being the capital of the

547
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:42,319
Speaker 1: Black world, also known as the Mecca. Unice's education can

548
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:45,760
Speaker 1: only shield her for so long. She's about to discover

549
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 1: a world that was much more familiar to Lucky Lugiano

550
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:50,279
Speaker 1: than it was to her.

551
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,680
Speaker 8: Black Harlem was not wealthy or elite as in other

552
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:57,240
Speaker 8: parts of the country. The majority of the black community

553
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 8: were imparvished and struggling.

554
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 1: How much of what we know about Eunice's childhood comes

555
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 1: from her parents' letters sent to each other and to friends.

556
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,680
Speaker 1: It's a frustrating distance to observe her from, but by

557
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, Unice begins writing her own story very carefully,

558
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:21,799
Speaker 1: and in doing so, she also changes American history. That

559
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: chapter of her life too often ends up as a

560
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:28,400
Speaker 1: footnote in someone else's story, and frankly, that's a shame.

561
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:36,319
Speaker 1: Eunice's life deserves more than a quick skim. That's coming

562
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 1: up in episode two of The Godmother. On episode one

563
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:52,760
Speaker 1: of The Godmother, you.

564
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 3: Heard Marilyn Greenwald. I'm a professor Emerita of journalism at

565
00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 3: Ohio University, and I'm the author of bi biograph, including

566
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:02,760
Speaker 3: one of Eunice Hunt and Carter.

567
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:08,479
Speaker 8: My name is doctor Clarissa Merik Harris, and I am

568
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:15,360
Speaker 8: a tenured professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

569
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 8: I am a native Atlanta and so that sparked curiosity

570
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,520
Speaker 8: in me the stories that I should know that I don't,

571
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 8: and I wanted to learn those stories and share that history.

572
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,880
Speaker 6: I am Claire White and I am the director of

573
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 6: Education at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas. I

574
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,440
Speaker 6: grew up in Las Vegas, which kind of gives me

575
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,319
Speaker 6: a leg up in that regard, although the number of

576
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 6: organized crime groups that we've had in our city certainly

577
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:46,359
Speaker 6: will never rival a city like New York.

578
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:50,120
Speaker 5: My name is Christian Sipolini and I am an author

579
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:54,520
Speaker 5: and a historian with a specialty in the fields of

580
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:58,240
Speaker 5: true crime, organized crime, and cartel history.

581
00:40:58,800 --> 00:40:59,800
Speaker 1: My name is Leah Carter.

582
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 7: I am Eunice Carter's great granddaughter. Her son Lyle is

583
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:09,760
Speaker 7: my dad's father. Unis influenced my grandfather and he influenced

584
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 7: my dad, and my dad influenced me, not that I

585
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:13,800
Speaker 7: have a grand unified theory of that exactly.

586
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:24,359
Speaker 1: The Godmother is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more

587
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:29,880
Speaker 1: from Novel, visit novel Dot Audio. The Godmother is hosted

588
00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:34,360
Speaker 1: and written by me Nicole Perkins. Our producer is Leona Hamid.

589
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:40,240
Speaker 1: Additional production from Ajuajima Broumpong, Ronald Young Junior and Zianna Yusuf.

590
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 1: Our editor is Ajua Jima Broumpong. Additional story editing from

591
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:49,240
Speaker 1: Max O'Brien and Mitha Lee Raw. Our researcher is Zianna Yusuf.

592
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: Additional research from Mohammad Ahmad. David Waters is our executive producer.

593
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 1: Field production by Tnito Romani and Pallas Shaw, Sound design,

594
00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:04,239
Speaker 1: mixing and by Nicholas Alexander. Our score was written, performed

595
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:08,839
Speaker 1: and recorded by Jeff Parker. Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander

596
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 1: and David Waters. Production management and endless patients from Sharie Houston,

597
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:18,640
Speaker 1: Sarah Tobin and Charlotte Wolfe. Fact checking by Fendel Fulton

598
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 1: and Dania Suleiman. Story development by Madeline Parr, Jess Swinburne,

599
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:28,840
Speaker 1: Aseana Yusuff Willard Foxen is our Creative Director of Development.

600
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:33,759
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Leah Carter, Stephen Carter, Angela J. Davis,

601
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:39,680
Speaker 1: Andrew Fernley, Marilyn Greenwald, Sondra Lebtty, Katherine Godfrey, Nadia Maidie,

602
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:45,880
Speaker 1: Amalia Sortland, Sean Glenn, Neil Krishnan, Julia Bromberg, Katrina Norvelle,

603
00:42:46,160 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 1: Carly Frankel, and all the team at w Emmy Novel