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1928: "ILLITERATE BLACK MAN EARNED MILLIONS-KILLER HIRED TO MUR
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1928: "ILLITERATE BLACK MAN EARNED MILLIONS-KILLER HIRED TO MURDER HIM"
James Jerome Johnson (1877-1946)
“Cracker Johnson”James Jerome "Cracker" Johnson lived before and during the Harlem Renaissance in Palm Beach County. Cracker Johnson had a tremendous influence not only in the county but also throughout the state as a result of his “business activities” including gambling and bootlegging.
While his education was limited and he could not read or write, he amassed a fortune during the late teens and twenties and continued to develop projects that brought even more money than he would make in his “business activities”. He was shot and killed on July 2, 1946, allegedly by a hired killer of a white mob interested in breaking his financial hold on Palm Beach County.
“Flapper Days” was the era in which Cracker Johnson created his financial empire in spite of the stock market crash in 1929 and the depression that followed. The depression had no effects on his earnings and he became the employer of many of those who were jobless.
He was born in Savannah, GA in 1877 and at age 16 became a cabin boy on a freighter. This job provided the opportunity for him to travel and see other cities. He then worked as a constable before moving to Florida where he established a moonshine business in 1899. He also developed a gambling and pawn brokering business and used the money to purchase real estate all over Florida. Cracker Johnson built a red brick jail in 1921 at the corner of Second Street and Rosemary Avenue, which housed Blacks only.
When Blacks were arrested, they were jailed outside the city because of segregation. Cracker Johnson provided for the money for the strained city budget to purchase tools and equipment to use while incarcerated, and he later loaned the city $50,000 to balance the budget. Cracker Johnson owned and operated the Florida Bar on Rosemary Avenue where the employees were required to dress in cut-away dinner jackets, tuxedo trousers, winged collared dress shirts with studs and cufflinks and bow ties.
Cracker Johnson married Ella Johnson Quincy, FL and they had two daughters, Marguerite and Edye. Ella was educated and owned quite a bit of property and had a white father and Black mother. According to tax records his earnings in 1926 was $687,000; in 1927 it was $792,000 and in 1928 it was $971,000. At the time of his death, in 1946, Johnson was worth $10 million dollars ($40 million in today's dollars).
His church, the Boy and Girl Scouts, his lawyers, that seeking college education, and anyone who was in need, knew him as a philanthropist. Cracker and his wife traveled extensively and often took friends with them from New York, Detroit, Chicago, Palm Beach, and Los Angeles and to Cub to attend the Jack Johnson
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