{"id":705,"date":"2012-06-02T01:27:03","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T01:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/?page_id=705"},"modified":"2014-09-04T22:35:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T22:35:26","slug":"bris-collins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/people\/bris-collins\/","title":{"rendered":"Bris Collins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bris Collins came to Peoria\u2019s North Washington area around the same time as the Pryors, and became a lifelong friend to the family. Over the years he had many legitimate and illegitimate businesses in town: he ran clubs, a<a title=\"2 Women Entertainers Slain In Motel\" href=\"http:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/1968\/09\/20\/2-women-entertainers-slain-in-motel\/\"> motel<\/a> and a barbeque joint at the same time that he had his hand in narcotics, <a title=\"Bris Collins\u2019 Tap Raided, Closed; Baseball Pool Czar Fined $1,000\" href=\"http:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/1953\/05\/23\/bris-collins-tap-raided-closed-baseball-pool-czar-fined-1000\/\">gambling,<\/a> and <a title=\"Collins Gets Year, Day On Money Count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/1954\/07\/02\/collins-gets-year-day-on-money-count\/\">counterfeiting<\/a>\u00a0operations. His less legal enterprises landed him in prison at times, but he remained a fixture in the underground entrepreneurial set of black Peoria.<\/p>\n<p>Collins was known as a serious hustler whom one did not want to cross, a well-armed and no-nonsense operator who was happy to throw his weight and money around. But he was also firmly committed to Peoria\u2019s African American community. In his tavern and clubs <a title=\"John Clark Discovers Negroes Now Talking\" href=\"http:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/1952\/10\/11\/john-clark-discovers-negroes-now-talking-ike-gets-suggestions\/\">he refused to serve liquor from local distilleries<\/a> with racist hiring practices. He supported the Carver Center financially.\u00a0And when <a title=\"Harold\u2019s Club\" href=\"http:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/1960\/01\/01\/harolds-club\/\">Harold\u2019s Club<\/a> lost its liquor license and had to close, he gave Richard Pryor a lifeline with a $72 a week gig. His mixture of hard-nosed business practices and generosity suggests the entanglements of crime and community on North Washington Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bris Collins came to Peoria\u2019s North Washington area around the same time as the Pryors, and became a lifelong friend to the family. Over the years he had many legitimate and illegitimate businesses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":690,"menu_order":60,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"categories-test.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-705","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6195,"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/705\/revisions\/6195"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.becomingrichardpryor.com\/pryors-peoria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}