The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of an American Gang - Hardcover

Moore, Natalie Y.; Williams, Lance

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556528450 ISBN 13: 9781556528453

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011

Synopsis

In gangster lore, the Almighty Black P Stone Nation stands out among the most notorious street gangs. But how did teens from a poverty–stricken Chicago neighborhood build a powerful organization that united 21 individual gangs into a virtual nation?

 

Natalie Y. Moore and Lance Williams answer this and other questions in a provocative tale that features a colorful cast of characters from white do-gooders, black nationalists, and community organizers to overzealous law enforcement. The U.S. government funded the Nation. Louis Farrakahn hired the gang—renamed the El Rukns in a tribute to Islam—as his Angels of Death. Fifteen years before 9/11, the government convicted the gang of plotting terrorist acts with Libyan leader Mu’ammar Gadhafi; currently, founding member Jeff Fort is serving a triple life sentence.

 

An exciting story about the evolution of a gang, the book is an exposé of how minority crime is targeted as well as a timely look at urban violence

About this title

About the Author:

Natalie Y. Moore reports on issues of race for Chicago Public Radio. Her work has appeared in Essence, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Tribune. She is coauthor of Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation. The son of a former Vice Lords gang member, Lance Williams is an assistant professor at Northeastern Illinois University, the assistant director of the Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, and a youth advocate and activist.

From Booklist:

The Almighty Black P Stone Nation, one of the most notorious teen gangs in 1960s Chicago, evolved from a youth gang involved in petty crimes into a major operation engaged in drug dealing and defrauding an antipoverty program aimed at youth employment. Journalist Moore and scholar Williams, the son of a former member of a rival gang, draw on interviews, newspaper accounts, and court records to examine the rise and fall of the gang that started as the Blackstone Rangers and later morphed into the El Rukns. The gang, led mostly by Jeff Fort, adapted through the civil rights and black nationalism eras and was later caught up in charges of domestic terrorism for its connections to Libya. Moore and Williams explore the elements that brought the gang to life: the expansion plans of the University of Chicago versus resistance from community groups following the tenets of community organizer Saul Alinsky. Fort led the gang through turf wars and rivalries, political machinations, and changes in the economic and social landscape of Chicago neighborhoods plagued by youth violence, housing segregation, and racial hostility. --Vanessa Bush

About this edition

• Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1556528450
• ISBN 13: 9781556528453
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272