YOUR LUCKY NUMBER: The Secret Language of Policy and Magic

By Michael Theobald

The numbers one selected to play in policy were filled with significance. People would play the license plate numbers of cars they saw. They would play important dates. They would even play the badge numbers of the policemen who raided the policy shops.

Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay wrote, “As the game gripped the imagination of the Harlem masses, the business of numbers magic flourished. Negroes became canny about numbers. Any number seen, or which came to one’s mind under unusual circumstances, would be played.”

An elaborate code rose around numbers that became a language unto itself. Policy shops hung signs in their windows that read “4-11-44,” numbers that were synonymous with lotteries at least as far back as the Civil War. Minstrel shows included songs with that title.

In 1930, blues singer Blind Blake recorded “Policy Blues,” which playfully (and obscenely) used many of these coded messages:

Numbers, numbers ’bout to drive me mad
Numbers, numbers ’bout to drive me mad
Thinkin’ about the money that i should have had

I dreamed last night the woman I loved was dead
I dreamed last night the woman I loved was dead
If I’d have played the Dead Row I’d have come out ahead

I acted the fool and played on 3, 6, 9
I act’ the fool and played on 3, 6, 9
Lost my money and that gal of mine

I played on Clearing-House, couldn’t make the grade
I played on Clearing-House, couldn’t make the grade
Lord, think of the money that I should have made

I begged my baby to let me in her door
I begged my baby let me in her door

Wanted to put my 25, 50, 75 in her 7, 17, 24

I want 15, 50, and 51
I want 15, 50, and 51
I’m gon’ keep playin’ policy ’til some good luck come

The code was mainly distributed through Dream Books like The Japanese Fate, Policy Pete’s, Aunt Sally’s and many others. These books consisted mainly of long lists of things one might dream and their corresponding numbers. For instance, dreaming about being in an accident meant the numbers 1-37-50. Dreaming about seeing an accident, on the other hand, indicated the numbers 4-31-50. In many cases, the books were actually published by policy operators, a nice side business.

The dream books and associated beliefs connected policy to the older afro-southern hoodoo beliefs. Fortune tellers, spiritualists and witch doctors were all part of the greater policy economy and were the purported authors of many of the dream books. In addition to dispensing lucky numbers, these folk magic practitioners also sold lucky powders, potions, and jinx removers. One “Astro-Numerologist” quoted in Black Metropolis said, “Why many persons are not successful in games…is because they are crossed with the evil influences and bad wishes of someone else. Before one can be successful, this condition must be removed. The word jinx means the evil works of a would-be friend, and representative of the Devil. I advise them to search themselves, find out what the trouble is, and get rid of it. All advice is free.”

The jinx removing candle he would sell you, however, was not.

While policy died out, the dream books did not. Several are still published today and are used to select lottery numbers. And anyone who has opened a fortune cookie lately will find a string of “lucky numbers,” one more echo of the glory days of policy.