A common theme throughout Blood Relations was heavily focused upon in chapters four and five. This theme is that everyone belongs to something. In chapter four, we were introduced to the many different religious sects, benevolent societies and community gatherings that helped establish an identity for many of the incoming Caribbean immigrants and native southern blacks. I had some idea about the religious sects prior to reading this text as many different migrating peoples formed small communities based around religion all throughout history. What was completely new to me were all of the societies and brotherhoods that were at the disposal of many immigrants. To focus on a few, there were a couple societies focused on different states. Some examples were the Sons and Daughters of New York and the Sons and Daughters of Virginia. These two societies provided many southern migrants with different benefits, but they were both fairly discriminatory. For the Sons and Daughters of Virginia, members had to have been a Virginian by “birth or parentage” to become a part of the brotherhood. To me, this uniting of southern migrants felt like a way of native blacks trying to compete with Caribbean immigrants. By the late 1920s there were already many fraternities based around Caribbean countries of origin, such as the Bermuda Benevolent Society and the Grenada Mutual Association. These groups definitely did not want native blacks as members, leaving many southern migrants searching for their own source of community.

Although native blacks and Caribbean immigrants found it very easy to unite amongst themselves along ethnic and cultural backgrounds, both parties never could cross over and come together over political grounds. Differing political ideas did plenty to keep Harlem scrambled, but the gerrymandering of voting districts didn’t help and the outright refusal to allow some people to vote only worsened the situation. Something that came across as completely idiotic to me was the lack of effort to recruit native blacks to vote, at first. Many of the political machines that, at one point, ran New York did all that they could to indoctrinate incoming European immigrants and have them vote for their parties. Yet, there were plenty of Harlemites who were ready and willing to side with certain Tammany Hall politics, but since they were black, they were turned away at the voting booths.

Skipping ahead a couple of chapters, I would like to talk about the lottery. The New York State lottery that millions participate in weekly did not begin until 1967. It was only the third modern US Lottery at the time, behind Puerto Rico and New Hampshire. As discussed in chapter nine, a betting game called “numbers” or “policy” was blowing up Harlem. People from all different walks of life would chip in their spare change in hopes of having their random number come up big and being able to walk away with a few dollars. Now, these betting rings were not necessarily legal, and for the most part, they weren’t run by the friendliest of people, specifically Dutch Schultz. Yet, many of the Harlem bakers who headed various numbers rings, such as Alexander Pompez and Casper Holstein, did so with good intentions. Pompez, known mostly for his owning of a local New York Cuban baseball team, supported many communities with his athletic endeavors. He built sporting complexes for his community and even bought the Dyckman Oval, one of the largest sports arenas in New York. Casper Holstein gave away a lot of his money to the community as well. Holstein would donate hundred of baskets of food and gifts at Christmastime to many different charities while also giving money to the UNIA. Select individuals no longer run lotteries illegally, but many of these bankers’ actions had a significant impact on our lottery today. A large portion of the NYS lottery earnings goes to supporting our school systems, mirroring the many men and women who were put through college on “numbers” winnings.