Brigette Davis

And so these things really plunged them into poverty.

So she very early realized she'd have to step in and figure out something.

What were the numbers?

The numbers.

The numbers are an underground lottery business or operation that has been in place since the early 20s.

It moved across the country and it was designed by, created by a black man in Harlem and really was a black business.

It thrived.

It was a true economy, actually.

You get to choose a three-digit number.

And if that number is the winning number, you actually win a 500 to 1 payout.

So if you bet a dollar on that three-digit number and it came out, as we call it, then you actually would get $500.

And so my mom knew about the numbers.

Most black Americans knew or know about the numbers.

And she played a bit herself.

She played a few coins on numbers.

But she noticed in her community where she was living in Detroit that people were playing those numbers a lot.

And she thought, hmm, they could actually give me their bets.

So she was very small scale at first, what she called a penny business, and eventually worked as a bookie for a large banker.

So there were hundreds of bookies.

You are a bookie if you take other people's numbers.