Crime

Forest Whitaker portrays gangster Bumpy Johnson in ‘Godfather of Harlem’

ROLLINGOUT.COM — During times of oppression in the Black community, there have arisen both men and women who can best be described as an “anti-heroes.”

Published

6 years ago

April 3, 2019

Mo Barnes

By Mo Barnes

During times of oppression in the Black community, there have arisen both men and women who can best be described as an “anti-heroes.” Among the most notorious, was legendary Black gangster Ellsworth Raymond Johnson, known on the streets of Harlem as Bumpy Johnson, the “Godfather of Harlem.” Now, Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker will play Johnson in a new mini-series on the Epix cable channel entitled “Godfather of Harlem.”

Mo Barnes

Bumpy Johnson has been the subject of many popular movies over the decades, with variations of his name and life. In the original 1971 movie Shaft, iconic actor Moses Gunn played a character based on Johnson named Bumpy Jonas. The most recent portrayal of Johnson was as a major character in the movie American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington. In that movie, Johnson was portrayed by Clarence Williams III and showed how Washington’s character, Frank Lucas, was mentored by the aging gangster to become his successor.

In Harlem, Johnson worked against the Italian Mafia as it battled to take over the illegal gambling racket known in the Black community by various names including “the bug,” “policy,” or more colloquially as the “numbers game.”

Gangsters like Johnson were the brains and the muscle behind the racket and became rich. So rich they gave back to the community in several ways, from giving out turkeys on Thanksgiving, protection from crooked cops and even helping with funeral costs. The problem is, in some cases, Bumpy Johnson was the reason for the funeral in the first place.

But when the mafia decided that they wanted a piece of the action, Bumpy Johnson fought back with a fury. It resulted in a negotiated treaty and allowed Johnson to make money from the heroin trade in Harlem. Johnson’s criminal activities saw him arrested more than 40 times, including two federal arrests that saw him serve serious time. After a ten year sentence, he

Ellsworth Raymond Johnson, aka Bumpy Johnson (Source: USP Leavenworth /Federal Dept. Of Corrections)

returned to Harlem and saw the streets in turmoil. Not only did he need to get his criminal empire back in order, he realized he needed to help the community. Johnson even met with Malcolm X to handle situations regarding police abuse and corruption.

Bumpy Johnson died on July 7, 1968, at the age of 62. He was having a meal that included coffee, a chicken leg, and grits, at Wells Restaurant in Harlem at 2 a.m. He clutched his chest and died of an apparent massive heart attack as his meal was being served. Frank Lucas, his successor to the title of “Godfather of Harlem,” told rolling out during a July 2016 interview, “God bless Bumpy Johnson. He showed me the way. I went in with both feet from the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta, [to] the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Burma, Rangoon, Hong Kong and Malaysia until I got what I wanted.”

The trailer “Godfather of Harlem” can be viewed via the link below:

This article originally appeared in Rollingout.com.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

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Bo Tefu

California Assembly Passes Bill to Strengthen Penalties for Soliciting Minors

The revised version of Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), now allows prosecutors to file felony charges against adults who solicit sex from a 16 or 17-year-old, provided the accused is three or more years older than the minor. If the offender is within three years of the minor, the charge would remain a misdemeanor.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

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By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California State Assembly has agreed to amend a controversial bill that would increase penalties for adults who solicit sex from minors ages 16 or 17, following a wave of criticism from Republicans and concerns raised by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” Krell said in a statement supporting the amended bill.

The new amendments also include provisions for a state grant program aimed at improving the prosecution of human trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as a support fund for survivors partially funded by increased fines on businesses that enable or fail to address human trafficking.

The bill faced significant opposition last week after the Assembly removed a provision that would have treated solicitation of 16 and 17-year-olds as a felony for all offenders.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.