My Father Was an American Gangster

Nov. 27, 2007— -- For over three decades, Francine Lucas lived in shame, hiding a secret even from her closest friends.

Nothing about this Atlanta-based mortgage broker and mother of two stood out. But last month, thanks to the blockbuster movie "American Gangster," that facade came tumbling down, revealing Lucas' traumatic past as the daughter of famed drug lord Frank Lucas.

Now she faces her past head on.

Lucas is using the movie's success to draw attention to her latest project: Yellow Brick Roads, an organization designed to help and support the children of incarcerated parents.

As the daughter of the man once known as the American gangster, Lucas describes her formative years as "very stressful" and filled with "shame." She had no idea what her father really did when the police came knocking on her family's door early one morning in 1975.

"What I remember about my father, growing up, was that he was just like any other father — I never saw the other side of him, what he did on the street or what his line of work was," Lucas said in an interview with ABC News.

"He was a regular father that came home every day. He cooked breakfast for me. He would play with me. And he taught me. It was just like a normal relationship."

Lucas also remembers the chaos that engulfed her family following her parents' arrest.

Her father was sentenced to 70 years in prison for his offenses. Her mother, Eva, spent six months in prison for throwing a suitcase, filled with tens of thousands of dollars, out their apartment window during that morning raid in 1975.

To protect her from retaliation, Lucas was placed in the federal witness protection program for a year. Her family moved to New Mexico, where she was given a different last name and told never to speak about her past.

"Being the daughter of Frank Lucas has been somewhat stressful throughout my life," she said, "I had to constantly disguise who I was."

Like many children of incarcerated parents, Lucas grew up shy and reserved, afraid to let go of relationships, always fearing the worst around every corner.

"Being a child of incarcerated parents means that you have to live with shame, because there's a lot of stigma when it comes to your parents being in prison," she said.

"That's one of the reasons I never talked about it to any of my friends, because I knew they would tease me. So, there's a lot of shame. You're depressed a lot, you're very lonely and you have a lot of feelings of loss and abandonment."

According to Yellow Brick Roads, 2.4 million children throughout the United States currently have a mother or father in prison. More than 7 million — or one in 10 of the nation's children — have a parent under criminal justice supervision, incarcerated, on probation or on parole.

Through her organization, Lucas hopes to come to the aid of these forgotten children by standing up for their rights and supporting them, both physically and mentally.

"Usually, the bad guy goes to prison or goes to jail, and that's the end of that," said Lucas.

"But they never thought that that person who broke the law has children, and those children are not being supported, and those children are going to end up being your neighbor, your child's spouse. And so, they are going to be in our society, and it's in our best interest to support them and help them."

While Lucas is the first to admit that her father should not be a role model for today's youth, she is glad that something positive has come out of his story. In the future, she plans to make Yellow Brick Roads a national organization with a chapter in every major city.

For now, it is her job to spread the word as much as possible and, in the process, come to terms with her past.

"For one thing, I was a very private person all my life, and I didn't have to come out and be public and say, 'I'm the daughter of Frank Lucas. Look at me.'" Lucas confessed, "But [Yellow Brick Roads] has changed my life, because I've seen that there are a lot of good people out there. It's helped me heal my wounds.

"I've been ashamed all my life, but people can appreciate that my father did what he did, and I'm a different person. And other children should also see that they are individuals, and that they don't have to follow in their parents' footsteps — that they can change their lives."