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| Founded | Late 19th century |
|---|---|
| Founding location | United States |
| Years active | Late 19th century–present |
| Territory | Active in most United States metropolitan areas |
| Ethnicity | African American |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, robbery, contract killing, money laundering, racketeering, extortion, illegal gambling, murder |
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African American organized crime emerged following the first and second large-scale migrations of African Americans from the Southern United States to major cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and later the West Coast. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling (e.g. the numbers racket) and speakeasies were seen in the post-World War I and Prohibition eras. Although the majority of these businesses in African-American neighborhoods were operated by African-Americans, it is often unclear the extent to which these operations were run independently of the larger criminal organizations of the time.