Running The Numbers: Race, Police, And The History Of Urban Gambling (Historical Studies Of Urban America),New

Every Day In The United States, People Test Their Luck In Numerous Lotteries, From Staterun Games To Massive Programs Like Powerball And Mega Millions. Yet Few Are Aware That The Origins Of Todays Lotteries Can Be Found In An African American Gambling Economy That Flourished In Urban Communities In The Midtwentieth Century. In Running The Numbers, Matthew Vaz Reveals How The Politics Of Gambling Became Enmeshed In Disputes Over Racial Justice And Police Legitimacy.As Vaz Highlights, Early Urban Gamblers Favored Lowstakes Games Built Around Combinations Of Winning Numbers. When These Games Became One Of The Largest Economic Engines In Nonwhite Areas Like Harlem And Chicagos South Side, Police Took Notice Of The Illegal Businessand Took Advantage Of New Opportunities To Benefit From Graft And Other Corrupt Practices. Eventually, Governments Found An Unusual Solution To The Problems Of Illicit Gambling And Abusive Police Tactics: Coopting The Market Through Legal Staterun Lotteries, Which Could Offer Larger Jackpots Than Any Underground Game. By Tracing This Process And The Tensions And Conflicts That Propelled It, Vaz Brilliantly Calls Attention To The Fact That, Much Like Education And Housing In Twentiethcentury America, The Gambling Economy Has Also Been A Form Of Disputed Terrain Upon Which Racial Power Has Been Expressed, Resisted, And Reworked.