Cracker Johnson: King Of Black W. Palm
In honor of Black History Month, we’ll revisit three people or places who’ve made historical contributions. From a Feb. 11, 2004, column:
Cracker Johnson was the king of black West Palm Beach.
James J. Johnson, born in 1876 or 1877, was a son of a mixed marriage. He earned his nickname because he could pass as white. He came to West Palm Beach in 1900 and started spending money.
He bought a building on Banyan Street — a rooming house upstairs, pool tables downstairs.
Climbing onto the real estate boom, he built the Dixie Theater on Rosemary Street, along with homes and rental operations, and bought more property statewide.
He opened the “Florida Bar” and a club for “colored gentlemen.”
Many who couldn’t borrow from white-owned banks borrowed from him.
He made pals with white business leaders and lawmen, at the same time reportedly smuggling liquor during Prohibition and running the bolita numbers game.
Johnson, who couldn’t read or write except to sign his name, reportedly raked in up to $10,000 a week by the 1940s.
Local newspapers mostly ignored blacks unless they were arrested or murdered, and so it was with Cracker.
On July 2, 1946, he saw a friend being attacked behind his bar. He rushed to help and was mortally wounded in a gunfight. One of the attackers, who were brothers, was killed; the other was later captured. The death prompted a brief news story.
Cracker Johnson’s funeral was standing-room-only. Hundreds of people, both black and white, came to bury a king.
Tags: African Americans, Black history month, black icons, notorious crimes
