Stephanie Queenie St. Clair Stephanie

Stephanie "Queenie" St. Clair

Stephanie St. Clair went by many names, "Queenie St. Clair," "The Queen of Policy" and even "Madame Queen." She is one of the most well-known African-American women of the Harlem Renaissance, yet she was not a prolific writer, a folk, artist, a musician or even a famous dancer, she was a master of the numbers game in Harlem. She was what was referred to as a policy maker and her life was a marker of an era. (Jacobson, "The Return of Superfly" website) "Madame Stephanie St. Clair was born in Martinique and moved to the United States from Marseilles via Canada in 1912" ("Madame Stephanie St. Clair" Hoodlum History website) the history of the numbers game or what was known as the policy game is substantially influential in the life of St. Clair.

The numbers gambling racket has been called the "poor man's insurance policy." The term "policy" is used synonymously with numbers. In numbers gambling a player selects one, two, or three digits from 0 to 9 in any combination thereof. If the player picks the correct digits and their sequence, the payoff is 600 to 1.

(Kelly, 2000, p. 226)

The numbers game was a quick way for a marginal citizen to earn money and St. Clair recognized this right away. St. Clair helped build this illegitimate lottery system that fed the local economy. (Bailey & Green, 1999, p. 105) (Numbers Game Hoodlum History website)

Within 5 years of her arrival in New York, the Queen had amassed $10,000 cash to begin bankrolling a numbers operation. To further protect her growing empire, she hired the legendary young gangster, Bumpy Johnson, who played a substantial role in coveting the Harlem Numbers Game, keeping it in their community where it bolstered the economy. ("Madame Stephanie St. Clair" Hoodlum History website)

St. Clair was a substantial contributor to the economic growth of Harlem and the economic subsistence of the African-American community in New York. Though her contribution was largely illicit she was a respected member of the community.

St. Claire (whose name he identifies as __St. Clair__) was considered __a positive influence in the community.__ He points out that she contributed weekly editorials to the Amsterdam News in which she spoke out about community concerns, including police brutality. She even wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt about the problem (Gray, 33).

(Bailey & Green, 1999, p. 109)

St. Clair demonstrated incredible creativity and reached far above the standard, for a woman of color and a recent immigrant to the U.S. Initially her choice of careers was unchallenged, as those who were associated with the more serious and substantially financially successful illicit works were not interested in the nickel and dime numbers game. Yet, as prohibition came to an end and the bigger white gangsters started looking around for ways to fill the void the numbers game began to look pretty good.

A during the Prohibition years when money flowed as easily as the illegal liquor that created it. However, with the "Noble Experiment" in its death throes in the early 1930s, mobsters were looking at other sources of income and the Harlem numbers / policy rackets drew the attention of the Dutch Schultz gang. ("Harlem Policy Rackets" website)

When this interest began to peak St. Clair fought back, lobbying other independent policy bank owners, and many local and national officials for the right to retain not only her own policy bank but the banks of others and the continued economic impact for Harlem. The fight ended in St. Clair being arrested and prosecuted for what she considered unfounded crimes. Dutch Schultz used his influence to nearly destroy St. Clair.

One popular African-American female policy banker, Stephanie St. Clair, * known as "Madame Queen of Policy," testified in 1930 before the Seabury Committee that she operated a policy bank from 1923 to 1928 and that the police took her money and kept arresting her runners. (Kelly, 2000, p. 5)

St. Clair was fighting against a force much larger than her, but that did not stop her from trying to regain and continue to hold on to her hard earned business.

Outraged by the unscrupulous behavior and male chauvinism of the police department, she placed several paid advertisements in local Harlem newspapers and made serious charges of graft and corruption against them. Almost immediately she was arrested on what she termed a "framed charge" and was sent to jail for eight months. (Kelly, 2000, p. 5-6)

The arrests and harassment did not end there as when she was released from one sentence she was again harassed arrested and charged. There is some difficulty with the real amount of time she actually spent in prison but is very clear that it was a significant sacrifice. Additionally, her voice in the Seabury investigation also changed her life forever, as a hit was put on her head and followed her for the rest of her life.

In 1929, she was sentenced to three years on Welfare Island and paroled one month later. She appeared at the Seabury vice squad investigation where she brashly "squealed" on a well-known District Attorney, two judges, scores of police bondsmen and numerous political fixers of graft. She gave names, dates and amounts paid --a deadly mistake. This single act placed her name on death contracts throughout the nation for the rest of her life. ("Madame Stephanie St. Clair" Hoodlum History website)

Even though the number of days St. Clair spent in jail, for her cause is not completely clear one biographical website states the total number of days as 820, and almost more importantly she spent an estimated fortune on her defense. "By the end of her war with Schultz, the Queen had spent 820 days in jail and three quarters of a million dollars." ("Madame Stephanie St. Clair" Hoodlum History website) St. Clair was a stanch advocate of the economic growth of the African-American community and though many would say her choice of professions took money from the needy rather than putting it back into them, the money that she made staid in Harlem rather than being spent on other things that would have contributed to the white community.

St. Clair was married to another strong contributor of the Harlem Renaissance

St. Claire was the wife of the political activist Sufi Abdul Hamid. Gray (1993: 24) describes her as __so influential that the New York Police Department and the syndicated mob made constant attempts to _remove_ her from the Harlem community.__" (Bailey & Green, 1999, p. 109) Though her marriage to Hamid was rather short lived, from 1935-1938 when Hamid died prematurely in an airplane crash, it seems to have been a marriage that was well matched and very loving, as they both gave up much to be together. (Greenberg, 1997, p. 125) (Ottley, 1943, p. 118)

Another influential man in St. Clair's life was 'Bumpy" Johnson, whom she hired early on as a runner and then as a trusted bodyguard. "Bumpy," eventually inherited St. Clair's business and continued to protect it from the more serious racketeers. (Arnold, 1997, p. 12)