Mayme Johnson - A Little About Me
(more than you probably want to know!)
I was born in North Carolina, not far from Ashville. My parents were sharecroppers, and we were poor. Very poor. And I knew from a very early age that I didn’t like being poor. And people started telling me, at a very early age, that with my looks I wouldn’t have to be poor long. I was what they called light, bright, and damn near white, with straight light-brown hair that hung down my back. By the time I was 14, men were already beginning to notice me. Problem was, there in the backwoods of North Carolina, the men who were noticing me weren’t about anything, and had no prospect of ever being about anything. I wasn’t what you called a “bad girl,” but I was certainly looking for a way out of North Carolina and away from the smell of wet tobacco. I had a series of “male callers,” and like many young girls getting a lot of male attention, I made some mistakes. One of them resulted in me being a single mother at age 20. And let me tell you, being a single mother in 1934 was a lot different than being a single mother in 2004. My family was scandalized, and people would whisper and point, and discourage their young daughters to being around because I was “fast.” It was hard but I swallowed their crap, but never my pride, and kept my head high. I think that’s when I learned to just ignore what people said and to just keep on keeping on. It served me well later on in life.
In 1938 my father died, and we had to borrow money to bury him since he didn’t have life insurance. I was working as a live-in domestic in Durham, at the time, making four dollars a week. My sister, Lucille, lived in New York City, and she encouraged me to come up North because I could make more money which I could then send home to the family to help pay off the burial debt. So, I left my daughter, Ruthie, with my mother and headed to Harlem.
From the new book Harlem Godfather: The Rap on My Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (copyright Feb 2008 - Mayme Johnson)
Why I'm Writing This Book (aka Frank Lucas is a jerk!)
About the Author - Mayme Johnson
"Madame Queen" Stephanie St. Clair
Karen E. Quinones & Bumpy (why Karen agreed to co-author)
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
Hoodlum, Cotton Club, American Gangster
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