In the black working class city of Oakland, The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was born. The civil rights movement was well underway, with the black power movement soon to follow. Racial and economic tensions were reshaping the public consciousness. Machinations were already underway that would affect Michael’s young adulthood. She helped to send him to West Los Angeles community college.

His mother tried hard to make sure that he had a semblance of a normal family life, as well as an alternative to what the increasingly dangerous streets of south central had to offer.

Michael’s father, who he described as a “wealthy businessman with three families,” left when the he was just five years old. She had two jobs, leaving her with very little time to watch over her son. He was raised is a single parent household by a hardworking mother. Michael Harris was born on September 20th, 1960, on West 46th Street in South Central Los Angeles. The proliferation of the cocaine trade throughout the 1980s gave many enterprising hustlers a chance to finance their dreams. While the instincts that serve one well in the streets rarely work in the “real” world, some gangsters do have legitimate business savvy that can be applied in other areas. While some do this simply as a money laundering front, others do so with the hopes of finally and completely transitioning over into the straight world. Many gangsters throughout history have invested money in legitimate businesses. The street hustler who wants to go legit is as well worn a cliché as you are likely to find in the annals of criminal lore. This is an excerpt from Straight from the Hood: Amazing but True Gangster Tales, a new book by Ron Chepesiuk and Scott Wilson that’s published by Strategic Media Books ( Michael Harris: A Convicted Drug Kingpin Who Gave One of America’s Most Respected Actors His Start on Broadway

Gangsters of Harlem by Ron Chepesiuk