1965: Bumpy Johnson Refused To Leave A Police Station — A Judge Acquitted Him

In 1965, Harlem's most famous gangster staged a protest no one expected. Tired of being picked up and questioned by police again and again, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson walked into a police station and refused to leave. He was charged with loitering — and a judge acquitted him. This documentary tells the story behind Bumpy Johnson's "sit-in": the decades of police harassment that led to it, his reputation as both a feared enforcer and a Harlem folk hero, and what the episode reveals about how Bumpy used the law, the press and the public to his advantage. Using newspaper archives and historical accounts, we separate the legend of Bumpy Johnson from the documented record. Subscribe to Bloody Reports for new true crime documentaries every week. #TrueCrime #HarlemHistory #BumpyJohnson