When Detroit Played the Numbers

The payoffs are many in Felicia B. George's deeply researched social history, which manages to be both engrossing and illuminating—placing Detroit's often maligned numbers community within the rich context it so rightly deserves. Even as the child of a numbers runner, I learned more than I ever knew and gained a better understanding of what I thought I knew. Honestly, I couldn't put this fascinating book down.

~Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers

When Detroit Played the Numbers is the best researched and most comprehensive case study of one city's numbers games. Full of fascinating details about gamblers and game operators, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in gambling, the history of Detroit, African American culture, or the story of the American Dream.

~Jonathan D. Cohen, author of For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America

Professor George tells the lively story of those archetypal minority entrepreneurs who used the gambling industry to build their role as community influentials and make a place for themselves in an economy structured by racial inequality. Charting the rise and fall of the black numbers business in Detroit, from its early roots into the late twentieth century, her book sheds light on the interconnections between the city's underground economy, politics, community building, and race.

~John J. Bukowczyk, professor of history, Wayne State University

Although it is seemingly a book about a guessing game that people played with small change, this book is in fact a complex and fascinating history that will be of great value to scholars of race, migration, capitalism, American leisure, and crime. Most importantly, it is a book that allows readers to better understand the city of Detroit.

~Matthew Vaz, assistant professor of history, The City College of New York

George illustrates how numbers gambling was not just an underground, illicit activity, but a network of support for individuals and communities. The numbers enabled entrepreneurial success, funded families during economic hardship, and helped Detroiters navigate a segregated and classist landscape on their own terms.

~Michigan History magazine