The year was 1929 and the Great Northern Drive was twelve years old. By the close of the decade, Chicago's Black population would reach one quarter of a million, claiming 14% of the city's total population. The year was ushered in with the roar of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and would close with the crash of Wall Street, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression.
Big Bill Thompson and his top cop, Bill Russell, were on their way out. With two years left to serve as mayor and the city in chaos, Thompson again took exile leaving Sam Ettleson to run the city. Like most Americans, Chicagoans lost confidence in the Republican Party's ability to govern, thus setting the stage for a major shift of power in the political arena and a subsequent shift of power over the politically protected Policy racket. When the smoke cleared, one up-and-coming soldier in the regular Democratic organization would emerge as the driving force behind the historic swinging of the Black vote. He too would emerge as the man who would transform Policy Sam's nickel and dime, street corner hustle into a mega-million dollar industry: the always charming, fast-talking, well-connected, mostly frugal Ed Jones.
Born Edward Perry Jones Jr. on November 14, 1897, in Greenville, Mississippi, Ed was the oldest of the soon-to-be-known-as world famous Jones brothers: Edward, George, and
McKissack (Mack). The Jones brothers ran a Policy station from the rear of their Jones
Brothers Tailor Shop at 4312 South Indiana Avenue and wrote Policy for most of the big
wheels like the Springfield and the Tia Juana. Like most station operators, the Jones brothers made 25% commission on everything they wrote. Ed's ambitions and drive, however, reached far beyond a simple 25% Policy station. At this point Ed was ready to become a wheel "owner" and had the tenacity, wit, financial genius and bankroll to do it with.
Here begins the story of how the Jones brothers cornered the market in Policy, becoming the richest African American family in the country with holdings in some of the country's most powerful corporations, cash in twenty-five different banks, and real estate holdings around the world in America, Europe and Mexico. Along the way Ed would marry a gorgeous Cotton Club dancer, George would choose a vivacious society woman while Mack picked out a sexy star of stage and song. Astonishingly, as the Kings of Policy Kings, the Jones brothers would lead the way in "race progress."