Former Featherweight World Champion & Atlantic City Crime Boss

By Matt Goldstein

Boardwalk Empire’s Chalky White is the criminal boss of the African American community in Atlantic City.  Chalky is loosely based on professional boxer and world champion Albert “Chalky” Wright who also worked for and was great friends with actress Mae West.  In Boardwalk Empire, working with Nucky Thompson rather than for him, Chalky rarely let’s a moment go by without letting Nucky and others know his value and power.  Played by Michael Kenneth William’s who also played the legendary Omar Little on HBO’s the Wire, Chalky White’s role in the show is expanding in season 2 with illustrating just how powerful Chalky White is.  Chalky is the de facto mayor of Atlantic City’s urban poor.

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Chalky White Facts & Timeline

• Chalky White’s father was lynched, murdered and hung from a tree; a fact that drives Chalky’s mission for recognition, equality and money.

 

• Chalky White is a former boxer from the south with a knockout shot, and most likely made his criminal contacts in the corrupt boxing community controlled by gangsters.

 

• Chalky waters down smuggle liquor for Nucky Thompson and rebottles it 6 times over.

 

• Chalky and his criminal enterprise are under attack and opposing factions use race to marginalize White’s enterprise.

 

 

• When Chalky doesn’t agree with Nucky’s handling of a KKK leader, Chalky demands more money from Nucky and gets it.

 

• Chalky is a business man, he’s in it for the money.

 

• The real life Chalky White, A.K.A. Albert “Chalky” Wright is considered one of the biggest punchers all time and became featherweight champion of the world in 1941.

 

• In season 2 of Boardwalk Empire, Chalky White will have a much bigger role in the drama, perhaps standing by Nucky as they go to war against The Commodore, Eli Thomson and Jimmy Darmody.  How’s about that for a prediction?

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