The Numbers
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What challenges did Fannie Davis face when moving to Detroit?
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It's where we get to talk about things that we don't get to talk about here on Criminal. the alleged health benefits of small talk, neighbors suing neighbors for putting out peanuts to feed squirrels, a mass poisoning in France, airline industry gossip. We recently took a microphone to Costco, and I showed Lauren my route. We always talk about what we're reading. We invite listeners to read short stories along with us, including my favorite, Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield. At the end of each episode, we offer three recommendations of things we've been enjoying lately. You can check it out for yourself at the end of this episode. And then if you want, you can sign up for a free seven-day trial. Joining Criminal Plus also means you can listen to everything we make with no ads.
And you'll be supporting our work. Your direct support means more than you know. Learn more at patreon.com slash criminal. Now, here's the show.
The sound of the phone ringing is embedded in my sort of memory of life growing up. The phone was always ringing, and it wasn't just one phone. At one point, we had three lines ringing. And my mom tried to keep them separate, so to speak. One was a business line, one was a personal line, one was the children's phone line. But of course, you know, if people couldn't get through, and these are the days before call waiting, if people couldn't get through and they were anxious, some of them had access to a personal number and they'd start calling that one. So yeah, ringing phones.
This is Brigette Davis. Her mother, Fanny Davis, was born in Nashville in 1928. Fanny's grandfather had been born into slavery there, and her father owned a successful plastering business in the early part of the 20th century.
And that enabled him to buy property. And so he was both a businessman and a property owner. And so my mom witnessed his entrepreneurial spirit and was highly, highly influenced by him. She really admired her father's life.
Fanny grew up in Nashville and married Brigette's father when she was 18.
But like many African Americans, she decided to migrate north with her family in the mid-50s so that they could have better opportunities and more liberties. And so they chose Michigan and ultimately Detroit. And they hadn't prepared themselves for what was awaiting. One, the racism in Michigan was so virulent and distinctive from the southern sort of discrimination they'd known about that it took them off guard. They weren't prepared for that. And the way it manifested was in all the key ways. They couldn't find decent housing. They were charged exorbitant rent. My father was unable to find steady work. And so these things really plunged them into poverty. So she very early realized she'd have to step in and figure out something.
Fannie Davis found a way to take care of her family. She started small, but built a robust and lucrative operation. A business that a lot of people knew about, but no one talked about. Which happened to be illegal. It was called The Numbers. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.
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.
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