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African Americans acknowledge the history of their ancestors being haunted by the harassment of white supremacists in America; however, many of them see Frank Lucas as a hero who was a self-made millionaire.  To many black people, Frank Lucas has been much more a legend than Dr. Martin Luther King (a civil rights activist), President Barack Obama (the President of the United States), Denzel Washington (actor) and many others who legitimately made history in the country.  Even after the election of President Barack Obama (first black President), many African Americans choose Frank Lucas and other notorious drug dealers as their mentors, some say it is because President Obama is part white and does not really understand the hardships of being a black man in America, which we discovered is totally untrue, because he has been harassed over 50 times a day since he has took office in the White House.  Furthermore, there has been several reports President Obama has been haunted with racial discrimination and white supremacists view him just black, although they acknowledge he has a white mother.  The average thought of a proud black man in this country, is simply they are not proud to have President Barack Obama as a mentor, but would rather admire Frank Lucas and others like him.  The millions of Frank Lucas causes a lot of black people to imagine having nice expensive things they never could afford: suburban homes, nice automobiles, planes, furs and expensive jewelry.  Although, they could obtain millions of dollars like the average millionaire, the thought of gaining riches the quick way always excites them.  Bill Gates success of building Microsoft does not give an intense excitement like becoming a drug lord.  Frank Lucas has been often called “the Bill Gates of dope.

When his movie, American Gangster hit the big screen in theaters all across America, his life story was the subject among most black people who were also thrilled to see the popular star, Denzel Washington portraying Frank Lucas.  Like all of the other movies, Denzel Washington did very well and American Gangster has been the talk in every circle of black movie fans.

The History of Frank Lucas, the Richest Drug Dealer of America.

The eldest of nine children, Frank Lucas was born and raised in North Carolina on farm land.  Frank Lucas’ parents were sharecroppers.   It was there at the age of 12, he witnessed horrific childhood memories of his cousin being murdered by the KKK for staring at a white man.  As a child, Frank was familiar with breaking the law, he was arrested for stealing a Coke and some cheese and while working in the fields like a lot of young incarcerated felons, he dodged and ran from bullets, but got away never to be found.  He ran all the way to Harlem, New York where he was amazed at all of the people who looked like him, black.  This was the era of the 1940s, first experience for Frank Lucas in the big city where he saw strong black people, a place with no “Uncle Toms”.  Harlem was the place to be for black people at that particular time.  In the 1940s in Harlem, black people were wealthy, which inspired him to hustle and gamble and he did get some of it.  This is how he met Harlem’s most powerful gangster and once, Ellsworth Bumby Johnson (l. photo), once an enforcer for the Italian mob played against him in a pool hall.  He became Bumpy Johnson’s right hand man while being his friend and got paid real good.  He learned everything about being a big time gangster from Bumby Johnson for 15 years, including the heroine trade, which grew in the early 1950s.  Heroine had became such an epidemic in the black community, by 1959, most black people were hooked on heroine.  Harlem was once known as the millionaire empire for black people.  In Harlem,  became a heroine dealer in the late 1960s and 1970s.  In the mid 1950s there were a lot of heroine attics, even jazz musicians and singers.  Some would think that would have driven him away from selling drugs to his own race while watching them suffer and die, but money was power to Frank Lucas, at any cost.  During the Vietnam war, Lucas saw how to earn millions by watching the soldiers use heroine, he discovered a drug so powerful could make him a millionaire in the United States.  He managed to smuggle drugs from Asia to the streets of Harlem.  All Italian, Mexican and various mobsters purchased drugs from Frank Lucas and saw him as the king of drugs, which made him a million a day.  Although Frank could not count money, he knew how to easily make money.  He regularly used a weight scale to help him keep balance.  People like Leroy Nicky Barnes knew of his power and became his rival when Frank Lucas refused to join his private network of dealers called, “The Counsel”.  Frank Lucas was too smart and made too much money to befriend another big time dealer.  A million a day, this sort of money in the hands of a black man was unheard of back in the day and even now.

Although, a lot of African Americans acknowledge Frank Lucas spent 40 years (and was ordered to spend more consecutive terms) in prison and lost a lot of his money, which was taken by the Federal government in 1976, including 37 million in a foreign bank account, his life on American Gangster yet fascinates them.  It is all about the millions he made, not about him getting caught and being brought to justice.  Making millions of dollars does not come easy for anyone, white or black unless you receive it through an inheritance, which happens for most white Caucasians.  For black people, the urge to quickly experience making millions of dollars can cause temptation to try dangerous things, like becoming a drug dealer.  In our recent study, there have been many black people (especially men) to admit there is much difficulty to legitimately make a better life without the conflict of racism, although the existence of diversity in America, this could possible be because of the economy.  There is still much of a division that may cause a fan of Frank Lucas to start the game all over again, just the way he did it, organized as he worked behind the scene.  For whatever reason, Frank Lucas is very much admired and will not be forgotten for many more years to come.

It is very important to mention the African Americans who admire President Barack Obama may not admire Frank Lucas and often judge him as being a thug, one who made millions of dollars destroying the black community.

Lastly, Frank Lucas encourages black people to get an education, because he has not seen any shrewd drug dealers like him.