Stephanie St. Clair

Stephanie St. Clair (December 25, 1897 in Guadeloupe, French West Indies – December 1969) was a racketeer who ran numerous enterprises in Harlem, New York, in the early 20th century. She ran a successful numbers game in Harlem and was an activist for the black community. Her nicknames included: Queenie, Madame Queen, Madame St. Clair and Queen of the Policy Rackets.

Early life Stephanie St. Clair was born of African descent in the West Indies to a single mother, Félicienne, who worked hard to send her daughter to school. According to St. Clair's 1924 Declaration of Intention, she gave Fort-de-France, French West Indies (present-day Martinique, West Indies) as her place of birth.

When St. Clair turned 12, her mother became very ill and St. Clair had to leave school. She managed to save some money and, after the death of her mother, left Martinique for Montreal, likely coming as part of the 1910-1911 Caribbean Domestic Scheme, which brought domestic workers to Quebec. She used the voyage and subsequent quarantine to learn English. In Harlem she fell in love with a small-time crook, Duke, who soon tried to prostitute her but was shot in a fight between gangs. After four months, she decided to start her own business, selling controlled drugs with the help of her new boyfriend, Ed.

After a few months, she had made $30,000 and told Ed she wanted to leave him and start her own business. Ed tried to strangle her and she pushed him away with such force that he cracked his skull against a table and died. For months afterwards, she employed her own men, bribed policemen, and on April 12, 1917, invested $10,000 of her own money in a clandestine lottery game in Harlem. As a result of her success running one of the leading numbers games in the city, she became known throughout Manhattan as Queenie, but Harlem residents referred to her as Madame St. Clair.

Numbers game involvement St. Clair was involved in policy banking, which for her was a mixture of investing, gambling, and playing the lottery. Many banks at this time would not accept black customers, so they were not able to invest legally. Policy banking wasn't legal, but it was one of the few options offered to black Harlem residents who wished to invest their money. It was also a predominantly black industry which allowed many bankers to have a sense of agency that would not be possible in white-dominated fields.

Police corruption St. Clair was known to put out ads in the local newspapers educating the Harlem community about their legal rights, advocating for voting rights, and calling out police brutality against the black community. Several times she complained to local authorities about harassment by the police. When they paid no heed, she ran advertisements in Harlem newspapers, accusing senior police officers of corruption.

The police responded by arresting her on a trumped-up charge and she spent eight months in a workhouse. In response, she testified to the Seabury Commission about the kickbacks she had paid police officers and those who had participated in the Harlem numbers game.

The marriage officially ended in January 1938 when St. Clair shot Hamid during a fight over his relationship with Futtam and was sentenced to two to 10 years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York. A character named Queeny with a narrative similar to St. Clair was in the CBC/BET series "The Porter". 2022 "The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built America", 2022 docuseries on the History Channel.

Theater Fulani Haynes played St. Clair in a 2007 production of 409 Edgecombe Ave, The House on Sugar Hill by Katherine Butler Jones.

Comic books The 2022 comic book series Harlem by Mikaël centers on St. Clair's numbers game racket in the 1930s The 2021 graphic novel Queenie, la marraine de Harlem (Queenie: Godmother of Harlem) by Elizabeth Colomba and Aurélie Lévy

Video games She appears as a playable character in the strategy game Empire of Sin. A caricature of her likeness is featured as a mask the player can wear in the heist themed first person shooter Payday 2.

Board games She appears as a playable character as a mob boss running the Black Wolves Gang in the board game Scarface 1920 by Redzen Games.