[hider=Black Jack Rawlins]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/I8pFQmJ.jpg?1[/img]

[b]Name:[/b] John Rawlins, “Black Jack”

[b]Age:[/b] 55

[b]Occupation/ Cover:[/b] Appliance store owner and repairman.

[b]Racket:[/b] Rawlins has a successful racket as a fence for illegal merchandise, stolen guns. Run out of the back of Black Jack's, everything from jewels to car parts are bought and sold by Rawlins. In addition, Rawlins oversees a hijacking crew that operates on the highways and waterways of the Gulf Coast. He does so under the protection of Étouffée Jones, the black godfather of New Orleans. 

[b]Public Goals:[/b] Black Jack is a community leader of Buck Nelly, O'Connor County's black community. He's known to give money to those in need and help out where he can. He privately works in more progressive areas. It's been eighteen years since Brown v. Board of Education, and eight years since the Civil Rights Act, but still O'Connor County remains segregated. Black Jack is a silent member of a small activist group that seeks to integrate O'Connor County. 

[b]Private Goals:[/b] A rough childhood in the Jim Crow south has led Rawlins to crave respect more than anything else. He has more money than he or his family will ever be able to spend and is treated with deference by the black people of his county, he's still a second class citizen to the white people of O'Connor County. 


[b]Supporting Cast:[/b]

John "Jimmy" Rawlins -- Black Jack's oldest son and right hand man. Ambitious and looking to expand the family business.
Joseph "Joe" Rawlins -- Black Jack's youngest son. Currently enrolled at Alcorn State.
Amanda Rawlins -- Black Jack's wife and seasoned money launderer. 
"Little" Walter Wade -- Bank robber and member of Black Jack's crew.
Cecil "Coochie Bug" Waters -- Member of Black Jack's crew. The best safecracker in the southeast.


[b]Personal History:[/b] 

Jack Rawlins was born in 1917, the fifth child of nine. His father and mother were sharecroppers, and his grandparents had been slaves. As soon as he was tall enough he was sent out in the field to pick cotton with his parents and brothers and sisters. What little schooling he received came from a rundown old school house a few miles from the family farm. Jack was nine when he stopped attending school and focused on helping the family year round. 

A lifetime of hard work and never getting ahead had hollowed Jack's parents from the inside out. His mother withered away and died of a heart attack by the time she was forty-five while his father developed a drinking problem and physically abused his children. One night, Jack's father got his hands on some moonshine that had been cut with turpentine. He got blind drunk and then went blind. Jack's oldest brother took over control of the family farm while the younger children still helped out. Jack saw his opportunity to get out during WW2. He volunteered for the Army and went overseas to join the grand adventure.

But Jack's war was a dull one. Like almost all the black soldiers during the war, he was relegated to menial jobs well behind the front line. Jack was stationed in Europe in the motor pool division. Despite not seeing any action Jack received the education of a lifetime. A fellow motor pool solider from New York nicknamed Slim started a contraband business on the side and cut Jack in on the scheme. Despite not having a formal education, Jack found he had a strong grasp of basic supply side economics and how to get things done in the Army. Under Slim's tutelage Jack thrived as a black marketeer. If it could be gotten, the two men could supply it. Everything from canned peaches to girlie mags to morphine could be procured by them at a price. After the war Jack was discharged with a nice nest egg of a five thousand dollars.

He returned back home to O'Connor County excited for the future. The war had been fought in the name of freedom and democracy. Countless black soldiers had fought and died for those ideals. It was time for his country to live up to those ideals. Unfortunately, O'Connor County remained as segregated as ever. Jobs were to be had for veterans returning home, as long as those veterans were white. Jack and his new wife, Amanda, had enough money to get by for a little while, but after the birth of their son they were on the verge of destitution.

Jack looked up his old war buddy Slim and found out his post-war years were those of plenty. He was now a bigshot in New York's underworld. Slim made some introductions to a man in New Orleans who could help. Étouffée Jones liked what he saw of Jack. He took the younger man under his wing and taught him the art of armed robbery. Between 1947 and 1950, Jack robbed sixteen banks through the Southeast as a member of Jones' crew. Black Jack was by Jones' side as he made his play on the black underworld of New Orleans and emerged as the top dog. The money Jack earned became the seed money for his new business. Under Étouffée's protection, Black Jack's Appliance & Repair became known through the Gulf as the place to go if you needed to move something hot or find something hot. And Black Jack earned a reputation as a man who could steal anything he wanted.

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