WEBVTT - Mama and Her Numbers 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:06.640 Family Secrets as a production of I Heart Radio. One day, 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.959 I decided to organize mama's number running materials and went 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:15.720 through the house, gathering everything together into one shallow cardboard box. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:21.600 I was enamored of my own organizational skills and decided 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:25.320 to add one final touch on the side of the box. 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.880 Using bright pink nail polish, I carefully painted in boxing 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.920 letters Mama's numbers. I probably showed this to my mother, 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:40.640 impressed with myself for remembering the possessive apostrophe. She took 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.959 one look and said, you can't put my business out 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:48.559 in the street like that. Looking back, this was the 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.800 moment when I became consciously aware that I must keep 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:58.360 my admiration from my mother's work a private experience. Before 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.480 I had known to keep her livelihood of secret, but 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.679 hadn't yet formed an opinion of feldny pride in when 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.920 Mamma actually did for a living. Now I understood that 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:13.040 my pride for her also had to be kept a secret, 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:23.520 as did all the evidence of her work. That's Brigette M. 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.800 Davis reading from her memoir The World according to Fanny Davis. 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.319 Fanny is Brigette's mom, and Fanny was a numbers runner 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.240 in Detroit in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies. This 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.280 is how she supported her family in style and provided 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.720 for their future. And Brigette grew up knowing one thing 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.919 for sure. Never ever was she to breathe a word 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.000 to a soul about what her mama did for a living. 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.480 I'm Danny should euro and this is family secrets, the 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.240 secrets that are kept from us, the secrets we keep 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:11.440 from others, and the secrets we keep from ourselves. At 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.360 the time I was experiencing it, I thought it was 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:21.639 normal my childhood because there were many rituals that happened regularly. 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.560 I could listen to my mother on the phone every 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.000 day taking her customers beds, and it was like a 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.240 daytime lullaby. I loved it. It didn't seem odd to 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.720 me at all to hear this recitation of numbers right 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:38.640 by her, and then every evening we were all going 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.399 to wait to hear what the day's winning numbers were. 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:43.800 And that's how it worked if you were in a 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.520 household where your parents, in my case, my mom was 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.760 actually a numbers runner. It was simply a precursor to 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:55.519 the lottery, and it existed decades before the state got 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.520 around to taking it over, So that was the way 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.080 that you lived in that kind of elsehold. And I thought, 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.440 in an odd way, the structure was comforting because I 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.839 knew it. To count on, Let's go all the way back, 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:16.520 literally though, to Detroit the house here. We were in 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:22.240 this home that was a colonial, four bedroom brick house. 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.720 It was very traditional looking and for us, extremely spacious. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.680 There was seven of us and all the sisters shared 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.359 a room. My brother had his own room, and then 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.760 there was my parents room, so we all had our space. 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.440 And what I loved about it as a child is 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:47.320 that it really did have this incredibly fascinating addict where 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:52.400 I could go up and just play and imagine all 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.360 kinds of things. I was as many writers as a child, 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:00.440 I was very caught up in my own imagination. I 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.440 could spend hours in my own head, and the attic 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.120 was a great place to do that because I could 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.080 look out that window and see everything in front of me, 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.440 the entire goings on of the street. But the basement 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.440 was the same way. It was this gorgeous space that 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.080 it turns out my mother had uh she renovated it 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.000 so it became like a lounge. And it was the sixties, 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.039 so there was wood paneling, there was a wrap around 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:32.400 bar that was you know, necessary back then. And because 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.760 I had all these siblings who were teenagers, there were 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.320 what I thought was parties every night. When I looked back, 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.680 it couldn't have been every night, but in my memory 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.200 it was. It was all of my siblings friends coming 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.719 in the side door and running down the steps and 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.719 listening to lots of Motown. You know, we were in Detroit, 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:56.679 so Motown was our soundtrack, and those records were spinning 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:02.720 regularly constantly, and I remember laughter and people playing cards 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.839 and smoke and you know, this sort of sense that 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.400 it was a social hub. So that was happening, and 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:15.360 at the same time, my mother was also inviting lots 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.839 of people into the home because she was a magnet 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.040 for people. They loved being around her. She really was 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.839 what we call a pillar of the community, but no 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.400 one used that term. She was just Fanny, Miss Fanny, 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.520 and her doors were open, so people who were really 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:33.600 wanting to come over and have a meal knew they 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.480 could do that at Fanny's house. If they needed advice, 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.240 they could come to her. If you know, a young 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:41.880 woman was struggling in her marriage and things were a 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.000 little crazy. My mother would say, why don't you stay 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.400 here a few days until things cool off. So there 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.200 were always these people in the house. My sister used 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.960 to call a Grand Central station. The doorbell was always ringing, 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.200 the doors were swinging open, the phone was going off 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:04.200 all the time. Describe Fanny for me, I mean, what 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.800 did she look like, what did she wear, what was 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.680 her style, what her voice sounds. So my mom was 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.880 really pretty. I often say that everyone thinks their mother 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:19.479 is beautiful, but mine really was. And we would say it. 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.560 The girls would say, Mama is prettier than any of us. 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.200 You know. She got the looks, but she wasn't in 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.640 any way arrogant or vain. She was just self assured 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.400 and she was pretty simple in her style in the 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.640 sense that my mom really only wore makeup if she 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.240 was going somewhere special. She wasn't someone to wear makeup. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.960 She had this beautiful, naturally long, thick hair, which some 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.520 days she would comb and some days she wouldn't. And 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.040 the days she didn't want to comb her hair as 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:51.880 she put an Aramis scarf around it and cover it up. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:59.120 She didn't shy away from luxurious things. She loved minx 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.640 and she liked beautiful leather purses before it was a thing. 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:09.000 She also liked to lounge around the house in these 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.600 gorgeous I call them ensembles, but they were basically beautiful 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.600 gowns and matching robes, and she had an array of them, 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:22.520 and they were so pretty. My favorite was just lace 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:27.560 trimmed with this ribbon woven through it. Gorgeous, you know, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:33.000 white with pink trim. Yeah, sitting there looking lovely but 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:38.720 taking care of business. Brigette and her family lived in 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.960 the heart of Detroit. Fanny bought the house in from 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.800 a man named Mr. Prince during a time of white flight. 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.040 Whites were leaving the city and droves and they were 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.200 selling their homes to blacks. So this was a neighborhood 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.160 called Russell Woods, upscale, but not as tony as Gross Point, 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:01.560 where the automagnates lived. In the nine sixties, the auto 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:03.960 industry in Detroit was doing what it was supposed to do, 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.760 creating a solid middle class, and much of that middle 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.920 class was black, backed by strong unions and able to 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:15.560 buy their own homes. Then, as the sixties progressed, and 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.360 the civil rights movement really got a foot. Um. You 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.600 could see, you could feel the changes. I was just 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.800 a child, but I could feel this thing that was rumbling. Um. 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.200 This these tensions that I couldn't have given a name to, 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.840 but they were there, these racial tensions happening in the city. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:42.480 And of course it all combusted in ninety seven with 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.719 the race riots, as they've called them in the media. 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.160 Detroitters called the uprising or the Great Rebellion. But that 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:55.120 was the moment when um, things really as in many 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.880 other cities, urban centers, in the city, in the country, Uh, 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.439 things really came to a head. And there were riots 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.160 that lasted across five days. And you have memories of this. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.040 I have memories. You were a little kid. I was 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:11.600 a kid, but I definitely remember it. It was sixty seven, 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:16.320 forgive me, you know, King was assassinated and the rise 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.280 of sixty seven, and those years collapsed for me because 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.160 they were both traumatic, and I was seven and eight, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.520 and I remember them almost as though they merge in 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:31.000 my mind. One long year of just trauma. Yeah, that's 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:35.960 what trauma does. We're going to pause for a moment. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:46.880 So there's a story about the way Fanny was able 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.280 to buy that house from Mr Prince, a story that 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.120 Brigette really only learned when she began to do research 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.160 for her book. It says something about the way our 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.120 parents present our lives to us, and the way as 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.960 children we don't tend to question this stories we received. 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.520 In Brigette's case, all her life, what she knew was 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:08.040 that her mother bought their beautiful family home on contract, 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:12.680 as it was called. She essentially went into this arrangement 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.280 one on one with the seller Mr Prince, and didn't 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.680 involve a bank, and essentially bought it from him that way, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.199 so that she paid him a mortgage. Every month paid 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.640 on the mortgage, and when she was done paying for it, 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.400 it was hers. And it seemed to me that she 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.000 was making that choice because she had this unorthodox profession. 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.080 I always thought, well into my adulthood that well, she 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:46.320 couldn't show a pay stuff. My dad wasn't able to work, 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.920 he was disabled, so she had to figure out this 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.720 creative way to buy home. It was only years later, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.160 while working on this book that I found out that, 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:03.120 in fact, because she was a quote unquote Negro woman, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.559 she wasn't allowed to get a mortgage in the ways 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:12.000 that most Americans can because there was this thing called redlining, 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:18.439 and it it enabled the Federal Housing Authority to impose 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:23.839 these boundaries around so called high risk communities and neighborhoods. 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.560 What made it high risk? If one black family lived 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.200 in that community, it was high risk. So what did 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.760 that mean? They wouldn't ensure the loans that banks were lending. 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.200 So banks could say, we're not lending to you because 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:40.679 we can't get this loan insured by the f h A. 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:45.720 It's too risky. And so it trickled throughout the real 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:50.079 estate community. Right realtors wouldn't show homes just two blacks 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.960 and certain communities, or sell their homes to them, sell 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.920 certain homes to them. And so imagine having the means, 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:01.040 but not being able to buy a house only because 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.920 of the color of your skin. You know, this thing 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.319 that is the symbol of your American dream. It really 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.680 is your foothold into the middle class. And so that 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.280 infuriated me when I learned it. Never did I hear 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.199 my mother talk about it that way or in that context. 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.520 But I have to tell you, it's pretty predatory because 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:25.760 it is essentially like renting your home, so you have 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.520 all the risk of renting and none of the none 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.520 of the benefits of owning. You put a huge deposit 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:36.880 down and you never actually build equity in the home. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.920 The seller continues to hold the title and you don't 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.439 get the d to the property until you've completely paid 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:50.000 for it um And so if you, for instance, can't 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.720 make one payment, if you're late one month, the seller 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:59.720 can take the house back. So in fact, Fanny was 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.960 creating this, there was tremendous risk, and what she was 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.080 doing it was the only thing she could do to 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.320 buy a house. But there was this tremendous risk, and 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:15.120 yet you and your siblings I didn't know it. We 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:19.320 didn't know it was. It was there somewhere, you know, 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:24.120 thrumming in the underbelly of it all. Yeah. I suspect 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:29.880 my older siblings understood more because they were older. Now, 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.040 what I felt was Mr Prince coming to our home 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.840 every month to collect his mortgage payment. And I look 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.000 back on that and I thought, did he not trust 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.960 her to send him a check, you know, or he 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.720 was still checking on his investment in a way. While 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.520 there you go, there's that possibility too. And I didn't 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.640 know why, but I just felt every month that he 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.120 came that I was almost holding my breath until he 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.680 left to be able to say, okay, everything's all right. 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.400 It was serious business. Fanny had bought this home in 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.679 a risky manner and she had to trust that Mr 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.600 Prince would do right by her. On top of this, 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.959 her livelihood was risky when it came to her income. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.240 There were no guarantees and she didn't have the space 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:18.400 to miss a single payment or she could lose everything. 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:27.120 Describe what running the numbers is for the uninitiated. Running 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:32.800 the numbers is a a way of being engaged in 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:41.040 this entirely underground but sprawling lottery business that proliferated throughout 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:47.440 much of the country underneath the radar, and it generated 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.800 millions of dollars in many cities throughout the country. It 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:56.280 was literally exactly like today's lottery in that today you 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.840 can go and play a lottery at any corner bodega 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.160 and you can say, here's three digits, I want to 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.560 play nine too, and I want to play them for 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.400 a dollar, And if those numbers come out, it's all 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.440 electronic now, so they just randomly choose those numbers. If 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.120 the number comes out, you could win five dollars because 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:22.880 the payoff is five one. Here's how it worked back then. 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.840 The winning numbers were arrived at using a convoluted system 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.160 involving the racing forms from certain race tracks like the 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.720 fair Grounds in New Orleans or Aqueduct in New York. 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.960 Once the winning numbers were determined, someone high up in 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.200 Detroit's racket received it through a long distance call from 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.320 the numbers service boss in Chicago. The winning numbers hit 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.520 the streets and spread by word of mouth. Numbers men 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.280 told their bankers, who told their bookers, who told their customers, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.960 who told other customers, and so on. One of Brigette's 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.080 jobs was to call her mother's customers and give them 0:15:56.080 --> 0:16:00.960 the winning combination. That system, which either way in New 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:06.360 York they called numbers, is exactly what my mom was 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:10.480 doing back in Detroit as a numbers runner. She and 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:16.480 many many others were basically engaged in and sort of 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:23.360 unofficial knows. I like to call it an informal lottery system. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.200 You know, there was a precursor to even the numbers. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.840 There was a game called Policy that was completely invented 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.880 by and run by whites, and it proliferated throughout the 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.120 country prior to this new game that was introduced by 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:42.840 one man in Harlem who came up with an elegant system, 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.520 a lot less complicated than what had come before it. 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.920 So this black man creates the numbers, and it thrives 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.040 in Harlem, and it moves across the country, and yes, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.400 within a very short amount of time, others wanted in 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:02.200 because it generated millions of dollars. We saw it as 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:07.760 this communal business that was turning dollars over in the 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.880 community many times, right, and providing all of these legitimate 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:16.520 services through that money. Um. So it's like I knew 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:18.760 that it was. I now know that it was happening 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:24.120 everywhere and in many communities. Before they moved to Detroit. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.520 Before the numbers running and began, Brigette's parents, like millions 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.480 of other blacks, migrated north as part of the second 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.280 wave of the Great Migration. This was the mid nineteen fifties, 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.600 and at that point they had three small children. When 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.000 they arrived in Detroit from Nashville. Brigette's father thought he'd 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.600 find work in the factories, which he did, but it 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.919 was difficult, inconsistent. Eventually he became disabled and couldn't work regularly. 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.040 So what was Fanny to do. My mom has these 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.520 young children, she's left her home. You know, all they've 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.399 ever known was in Nashville, air she her family had 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:05.280 been for generations. My mom's grandfather was born into slavery 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.840 in Nashville. That's how far back their roots went. So 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:13.639 she's in this new northern city, tough place. The discrimination 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.000 has its own flavor, and she's not prepared for it. 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.840 And she checks out the landscape and realizes that se 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.400 Detroit's black women are either doing day work, which means, 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.760 you know, cleaning white women's homes, or they are in 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.840 really low wrong jobs in these factories, making less than 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:40.880 the men, or they're cleaning offices at night. And as 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.919 she used to say, it seemed risky to her to 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:48.000 not figure out something else, because the idea of leaving 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.680 her children at home while she took one of these 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:55.320 jobs for very low pay and letting them raise themselves 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.520 was not an option. And so she started looking for 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.360 something else to do. And she didn't have to look 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.560 that far actually, because my mom was pretty observant. She 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.680 was a quick study, and everywhere around her her neighbors 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.240 were playing the numbers, you know, betting their fifty cents, 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.040 their quarter, their dollar, not a lot of money, but 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:19.640 she saw that it was a brisk business. So as 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:24.440 a child, you I know your mom is running numbers, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.840 and it's not remotely hidden from you or your siblings. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.520 It's it seems like it's almost sort of command central 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.360 of the home. You know she's there and and this 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.000 is her job, and she's not remotely ashamed of it. 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.560 Um none of you are, but you also know that 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.080 it must be kept a secret. Yes, I've been asked, 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.920 how is it that your mother never got caught? And 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:52.800 I don't have an actual answer for that. I think 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:57.000 she was lucky. But also my mother was really cautious 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.360 and really smart, and I think there were a few 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.000 things that she did to really mitigate, you know, the 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:08.040 risk of exposure. And one of them was my mother 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:13.200 only had customers through word of mouth, so she'd only 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.480 take your business if you came highly recommended. There was that, 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.439 and even though we had a household that felt like 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.600 grand central station, my mother was actually careful about who 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.000 came into the house. So there was that piece as well. 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.199 And also she wasn't flashy. She loved beautiful things, but 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.280 she was understated. I think that was really important too, 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.960 and then she had to take some very practical measures. 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:43.400 My mother had a lovely I say it's lovely because 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.440 I thought it was safe that she kept in her 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.680 bedroom closet. It was a metal safe with the combination lock, 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.080 and that's where she kept the day's proceeds. That's where 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.719 she kept the business. The cash was all in that 0:20:55.800 --> 0:21:00.280 combination lock in her bedroom closet. She also carried a 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.520 pistol in her purse, and there was another one that 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.400 remained in the house in the linen closet underneath the 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:14.679 islet trimmed table claws and the lace napkins, and we 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.560 all knew it was there, and we understood. We actually 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.199 felt safer knowing it was there, because my mom was 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.800 not only worried about exposure and risk that could lead 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:27.800 to arrest, she also had to worry about being in 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.960 a cash business and and it getting out that that 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.639 maybe there's a lot of cash and family's house, and 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.119 so there was that precaution as well. You know, she 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:43.720 was really constantly trying to safeguard against a lot of 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:49.160 different things. We're going to take a quick break. We'll 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:56.760 be back in a moment. Brishette grows up in a 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.679 mixed race neighborhood and goes to a mixed school. She 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:01.840 lived on the street that's around the corner from Diana 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.920 Ross and the Supremes. They've all just begun to rise, 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.560 to start them, and all three of the supremes decided 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.600 to buy homes on the same block. Diana Ross gets 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.080 the big corner home. So it's a neighborhood of contrasts 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.919 and also of tensions simmering beneath the surface. I was 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.000 in first grade and I was just in my class, 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:26.040 showing my teacher and assignment, and she said to me, 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:29.240 literally out of nowhere, you sure do have a lot 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:33.920 of shoes. And the thing that was striking is that 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.200 the week before, she had asked me what my father 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:40.240 did for a living. I'm six years old. I said 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.200 the truth. I said, he doesn't work, which because by 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:49.280 then he really had become disabled. And then she said, well, 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:54.760 what does your mother do? Oh my goodness, Um, I 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:59.000 told her I didn't know, which wasn't true, but I 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:02.040 knew enough to not tell her the truth. But I 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:06.480 was nervous. So when she mentioned these shoes the next week, 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:09.919 you know, you know, even as a child, you have 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:14.080 a sense of things. Something's not right here. I thought, 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:16.520 all right, just not and you don't know what else 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.440 to do, Just not when she tells you that. And 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:23.160 then she really surprised me and said, before you sit down, 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.240 I want you to name every pair of shoes you have, 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:30.320 and you know, trying to be a good girl. I thought, well, 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:32.320 this is a test and I don't want to get 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:35.320 it wrong. I'm so anxious. Let me just really try 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:38.480 to picture all the shoes that line my closet shelf. 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.640 And I started listening them, all of them, the black 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:43.960 and white, polka dotted once with the bow tie and 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:48.280 the buckle ruby red ones, you know, And I managed 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:53.520 to come up with I recall ten pears. That teacher 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.960 Ms Miller said to me, what tim pears is an 0:23:57.000 --> 0:23:59.960 awful lot. And then she just told me to take 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.200 my seat. But I could hear that thing in her voice. 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:04.960 I didn't know what to call it then, but it 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:09.359 was totally disdained, you know. I thought that was it. 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:12.720 And the next day she called me back to her 0:24:12.760 --> 0:24:16.680 desk and she said to me, you did not tell 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:20.439 me you had white shoes. I looked down at my feet, 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:22.480 and sure enough, I was wearing a pair of white 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:25.320 shoes that I had forgotten to mention, and I thought, 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:29.520 I've been calling a lie. I thought, I have so 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:33.440 disappointed my teacher, and I hope I'm not in trouble. 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:36.600 I was really worried, and that's why I went home 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:39.520 and told my mother what happened. I just thought I 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:42.280 have to let her know. And I confessed, that's what 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.199 it felt like. I was confessing that I forgot to 0:24:45.200 --> 0:24:49.320 tell miss Miller about the eleventh pair of shoes. My mom, 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:52.040 I had never seen her get this angry. I mean, 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:55.359 I mean her eyes flashed with anger like I had 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:58.400 never seen, and I thought I'm about to get a spanking. 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:02.040 But that's not what happened. She looked at me and said, 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:05.080 that's none of her damn business. Who does she think 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:09.440 she is? So I'm relieved that I'm not in trouble. 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:12.400 But then she said to me, get your code, let's go. 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:17.160 I thought, please God, I hope we're not going back 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:20.080 to school to come front miss Miller. But we weren't. 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:23.720 My mom put me in the car and drove me 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:27.640 to Saxoforth Avenue and then took me to the children's 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:32.800 shoe department and pointed to the most beautiful pair of 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.199 like yellow patent leather shoes that I've ever seen in 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:38.600 my life. She pointed to them and said, those are pretty, 0:25:39.760 --> 0:25:42.240 and then she bought them for me. She pulled out 0:25:42.280 --> 0:25:45.199 a one dollar bill and pay for those shoes. And 0:25:45.240 --> 0:25:48.080 I still remember how the saleswoman looked at me and 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:51.080 her that saleswoman looked at my mom the way that 0:25:51.080 --> 0:25:54.920 that Miss Miller I looked at me. My mom didn't 0:25:54.920 --> 0:25:58.400 seem to even notice. She just said to me, you're 0:25:58.400 --> 0:26:01.520 gonna wear these school tomorrow, and you better tell that 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:03.960 damn teacher of yours that you actually have a dozen 0:26:04.000 --> 0:26:07.640 pair of shoes. You hearing me, So what could I do? 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:12.280