Lord Thing [2014 Preservation Print]

During the 30s, the 40s, and 50s, many black people from the south poured into big cities like Chicago.

They came for a brother life.

What they got was hell.

Vicious slums where people exploited each other to survive.

The man's here! The man's here! Hey, hey, get down! The White House We're dealing in two worlds, one black and one white, or one poor, the half and the half nots.

But the guys over here in the vice floors, the people over here in the Lawndale area, want their piece of the pie.

And they're willing to do their homework, like I said again, to get it.

They're willing to have it.

There's a lot of money out there that can be invested in here that isn't.

That's being sidetracked.

It never filters down to the grassroots level.

It never gets here.

I mean, look around.

If it got here, where is it now? You know what I mean? When you invest money here, come over and see what it's doing.

The basic fact of life is the money never gets here.

You've been involved in any of these killings or any of the murders.

How do you stop the killings? How do you stop the killings? You stop the killings by giving people an investment in their community.

By making the people here know that they are a part of each other.

That by destroying each other, they're not going to solve their problems.

I'd like to reverse the question and ask, how do we stop the killings? How do we stop the suffering? For everything that happens, there has to be a reason.

The way we live, the food we eat, the amount of money we got in our pockets.

If none of this is suitable, then we're going to leave home with an attitude.

If we really look at things for what it's really worth, our problem is really not among ourselves.

Because the things that we argue and fuss and fight over, it's not coming from us.

It's coming from environment.

The brother is not his problem.

His problem comes from someplace else.

So what we're trying to create here is let's find out where our problems are coming from.

This is one of the reasons why we're trying to find out right now where the Lord stands.

See, we got some Lord, city Lord, and the Lord until they get in trouble.

The Vice Lords began in 1958 when seven young dudes got out of prison together.

Ten years later, there were 10 ,000 Lords.

There became a nation, and the nation's spokesman was Bobby Gore.

As a boy, forced out into the ghetto streets, Bobby Gore learned to fight.

Bobby was part of that first black generation on the West Side.

They banded together under names like Comanche, Tomahawk, and Vikings, and later came to be called gangs.

Well, I was about nine years old when I first became involved in the gangs.

That was known as the Vikings.

At first, we were known as the baby dragons.

It seemed that every neighborhood that we went to, if you win, you had to fight to get out.

Sometimes, even if we lost, we had to fight.

So we kind of turned a baseball team into somewhat of a humbug set by bringing strangers out of one neighborhood into another.

Stop playing! Nothing here! Mighty, mighty playboy! The humbugs have always been a fight.

Some people call it a fall.

Some people call it a road.

It's the same thing.

It was fun.

There wasn't nothing to do.

And that's how I first got involved in what was known as the street gangs.

Stop playing! Nothing here! Hey, boy! If a fellow would get hurt, they gave him something to identify with the rest of the fellows with.

Any time a guy would get hurt, he'd go to jail to put a little bit more prestige on the guy.

I love it when you're hurting people, but there's a certain amount of prestige in that too.

Because guys got a kick out of coming back saying what they had done to a particular person.

But did you see me when I hit him? It was that.

And this is to make sure that all the fellows know that he had a part in the humbug.

The reason I got in the gang is because I want to be a part of the group.

Nobody likes to be by themselves.

Companionship is one of the best things there.

There's nothing like 50 friends instead of three.

It's even better because 50 guys can find much better ways of dealing with problems than two or three can.

Now, you know, if you run into short of money, if you got 50 guys, that's 50 help caps.

You know, if you got a problem with a big guy, 50 of y 'all can easily get him to the ground.

The gang itself is something like what you may call the big brother.

Now, what the gang does for the members is the same thing a big brother does for his smaller brother.

If the gang can, the gang will feed an individual, close them, house them.

When Kenneth Parks arrived in Chicago, gangs ran the streets.

Lots of tough little gangs that were almost always at war.

Parks, who became acting president of the vicelords in 1969, didn't know what was happening, but he soon found out.

The course of his life took him through two turfs to Braves and the Van Dykes.

I can't fathom no California to Chicago.

Two weeks here, I was approached by about 10 boys one night.

I said, where you going? I said, I'm going to the store.

I said, give me a quarter.

They said, for what? I said, the Braves.

Get rid of the name of the brother.

Who was it? Braves.

What do you mean, the Braves? I was catching the California Fresno, never saw a gang.

I said, well, Jack, we running.

Who runs it? What do you mean, you running? I didn't know what you mean.

You running, Jim.

Here, man, what you doing in our hood? You get in.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on, man.

Hold on.

Let me get it, man.

No, no, no.

Hold on.

Hold on.

It's okay.

Bingo.

I found it out soon.

I've joined the Van Dykes, which was a hell of an experience.

So I asked the guys, you know, how do I become one of them? You got to fight one of the baddest cats in the club.

You jive with me.

You know, I'm not fighting the baddest cats.

Give me a week, Leonard.

So they picked the Cripple Boy.

I don't think they picked the Cripple Boy because Cripple Boy was easier for me to even win.

The Cripple Boy was a hell of a wrestler.

And by him being crippled, he had strength in his arms.

He had never crippled in his life.

So they said, you got to fight Joe Tatlin.

That was the name of the Cripple Boy.

So I said, okay, will you tell him I'll fight him two days from now? But I got to give myself a couple of times.

Because I was hip to the Cripple Cat.

I couldn't do one of his friends.

He told me the only way you can whoop his doom is to stay off of him and punch him.

Don't get up on him.

If you get up on him, he'll get his arms on you.

Throw your chips in because you're out of it.

I stayed away and I jabbed him and punched him.

And I stayed away and we punched for about 25, 30 minutes.

George, the fight was over.

Cassie, do you remember the Van Dykes? I remember.

Because you just remember.

So now it's up to you to become more of them.

Get with these cats.

Get out of the door.

Get out of the new room, out clever and be just as cold -blooded as you.

So I began it.

No! No! Everybody, Van Dykes! Van Dykes! Van Dykes! Ambitious to rise in the club, Par gave himself a good nickname, Goat.

And with his friends began a campaign of viciousness to win recognition with the leaders of the Van Dykes.

So the president said, you guys have got to stop shooting folks.

He said when you shoot people, you bring the police in.

So we said, we're dead.

We're going to shoot a whole lot of people.

Y 'all just ain't seen nobody shot yet.

Why y 'all doing this, man? You know, what's the big? We want to be the wall council.

If you don't make us the wall council, we're going to kill everybody we see, you know.

So they said, we better make these fools the wall council, you know, and get something on their minds because they're sick.

So they made us wall council, which was a horrible thing to do.

When they made us wall council, we made wall in every club that was around the general area of our club, which was the Van Dykes.

As time went on, games became stronger.

The power structure made them move on all games.

What did they do with them? They locked them up.

The power structure screened, we're breaking them up.

The boys said they broke up names.

The idea of the vicelord originated from Illinois State Training School for Boys in 1957, going into 58.

The dudes that was in St.

Charles, all the guys in St.

Charles belongs to organizations such as the Cobras, Imperial Chaplains, Clovers, the Braves, the Imperial Knights, the Imperial Dukes, Spanish Councils, Barons, several organizations.

We had common enemies at that time, but we didn't know who they were.

Now we realize the common enemies we had really was police.

95 % was the white police in the neighborhood, and the black dudes usually didn't have a chance.

We felt justice was blind, and it was their justice.

And we had lost all respect for the judicial court system.

We just figured that we couldn't get a fair shape.

We would not only destroy, but destroy everything around us.

We wanted to be the lord of all vices.

Anything that was going on on the west side that was wrong, gambling, dope, anything that was going on wrong, we wanted to be the lords of it.

We normally had said that the white man normally was the lord of all vices, so we just took their title.

You know, instead of the syndicate of the mafia, we just wanted to be vice -lords.

From the beginning of the vice -lord, there actually wasn't any neighborhood.

We was in St.

John coming out.

We originated having meetings out of the House of Sign on 21st.

And from there, we started branching out.

Now I can tell you, we branched from 27th to the Black Limitations to the north, Lasky and Cicero to the west, and Juetown, which is Austin, from the east.

The kick was, their power stood in control.

Control what? Control schools, swimming pools, movie theaters, baseball diamonds, park areas.

You needed movie theaters that the Cobra's had.

Things like more girlfriends, finer broths live across the street, than they live on this side of the street.

These are the things that we fought for.

This was our gain from the area and the turf.

Plus, to break up their gang and also gain their membership.

Because the further we reached, the more sweeter the pie became.

There was no do good then.

It was only do bad.

You only became president by being most creative towards that viewpoint of destruction.

In the past, a group would go around and check out the hood.

If you had 500 guys in the group, 50 was walking around in the area, and you had someone out there watching.

And this is where you really got your most gang bang in it.

To show their identity, their loud, their hollering, their cussing, bugging folks on the street, screaming their name out, which is the most important thing.

Right on, right on, right on.

All those thangs going down there, you know.

Yeah, let's get going.

Right on, right on, right on.

Coves ain't hitting on too much.

See? Well damn, boy.

Coves ain't hitting on too much.

Lower thangs.

Yeah, what's your problem, son? What's your problem? Lower thangs, huh? Here it comes! Have your 007.

No剛才.

No剛才! You didn't get big by how many you won and how many you lost.

You got big by how many challenges you made.

That's where the respect was at.

I forgot, no, you fought Stoke Daddy DeCobra.

No, he was bad, he was, because he wasn't even tempted to do it.

And this is what the thing was motivated around.

It was never really motivated around money and economical power.

Now they care less than hell about that.

God damn, God damn.

Each party will throw on a large control.

And bring that licking stink.

Existing, somebody come, did nobody know us.

Sometimes gangs came to our party to tangle up.

We always end up running them back home.

Mama, come here quick.

Back then I never remembered a party that was ganged where it wasn't a fight.

That's big.

Gang fighting was a sport.

The all -American ghetto passed time.

The object was not to kill people, but to prove manhood.

To command respect.

The cat with scars from humbugs was respected as a courageous cat.

Guns didn't come in until late in the gang wars.

Ghost brother was one of our top leaders.

The thing was to get the leaders.

So you had to keep proving how tough you was, you know, by defying death.

Like our ghost brother, he would see some cobras.

And he'd have a stick or something, just break up in there and get the whooping on him.

My cobras! My cobras! My cobras! My cobras! You got him, you got him.

Burn him again.

Burn him! My cobras! A ghost brother, I was with him.

He got killed, you know.

Me and him was running side to side.

He shot him in the chest.

And he failed, you know.

And I thought he had tripped.

And then they shot him again.

Me and another dude, Crazy Lord, we picked him up.

He died in my arms on 13th.

For the police wagon, he even got there.

We was being abused so badly by the white society, the white police.

We took it out on the closest thing near us, which was our black brothers.

And this was a weak way of getting even with the white society.

When all the time we was really just destroying our own neighborhoods.

But if it wasn't for the riot, I don't think the black people would have came as far as they came.

When the whites started, six to five, the people started waking up.

People started feeling a sense of pride.

They stopped worrying about being called black niggas.

They knew what they was.

They knew there was a mass race of people that was coming into power.

And they knew that the only way they could continue to come into power is to stand and govern.

The change of consciousness that brought about the riots also brought new ways of thinking, new channels for old anger.

The Cobras and the Vice -Lawyers called it truce in 1964.

The war was not renewed.

The city burned, and old patterns of self -hate slowly began to disintegrate.

One hot July night in 1964, the Lords began to turn conservative.

Bobby Gore remembers that leaders from eight of the 26 groups were together in one of their usual hangouts.

As Bobby Gore tells it, we were hanging around shooting pool and sipping wine.

Then one of the younger fellows said he wanted to take about 50 others on a fall.

We asked him why and who he wanted to fall on.

Had anyone misused him? His reply was that the older Lords had made a name, and they wanted to keep it alive.

We sat up all night, Bobby Gore said.

We told them how we saw people begging not to be hit anymore with a baseball bat or chain.

How guys got cut up.

How the people and the police would hate their guts, and how they might be the ones that got killed.

Finally, Bobby recalls, one of the younger fellows said, well, we got to do something.

We can't get jobs.

We're too old to go back to school.

We're too big to play games.

What else is there to do? That started the older leaders thinking.

They decided to try to change the conditions that make a man get a gun and hold up a store.

They make him drink scrap iron, cheap whiskey, to forget about the conditions in which he lives.

That lead a guy to hustle dope and to leave a family he wants to support but cannot.

A number of things changed, gangbangers.

Number one was civil rights.

They started to think in different ways, in different directions.

In the old structure of gangbangers, because Cat found out that I can form a group now, do something about housing or do something about schooling.

Number two, the militants come in.

Cat said, why be a gangbanger? Kill each other, you can kill all hunkies.

So really, the future changed gangbangers, more so than anything else.

What's happening now is that with what's going on here in the last, what I'll say since the assassination of King, a couple of years before the assassination of King, is that black people have become aware what they're really up against and they know that their fight is not among themselves but of the outside.

And it's really not a fight if the hierarchy would open up the doors enough to let these people share equally.

A lot of white folks say, let them niggas pull themselves up by their self.

Let them pull their own shoes up.

But how the hell can you pull your shoes up when you ain't got no shoes on? And half your toes go.

The rage black people had inflicted on each other began to turn outward towards a system that had robbed them of self -respect.

The fight for freedom was a struggle for the people of the country.

The rats and the roaches and the ports falling off the buildings with kids on them and this and this.

Ain't no way to get out of here.

Ain't nobody never said nothing.

So the way these hunkins sit down in this place down there, they think, well, everything alright.

Ain't nobody never said nothing.

And when somebody did say nothing, it wasn't but a handful of them.

But what I'm saying, that if we get together, if we get together and say something, somebody gonna listen.

I got hurt.

I went over there fighting as they say for my country.

It's not my country.

I don't have nothing in here.

Hey, Whitey is the only one that's blocking you.

Whitey done dogged our people, baby, for 400 years.

For 400 years they have dogged us.

They have made us get in every war that they have ever had.

The angry voice of the Vietnam veteran, one of the many angry voices on the West Side.

In fact, anger is unanimous.

Only tactics differ.

Some call for all our revolution.

But in the summer of 1969, the law refused to answer the call.

They were convinced revolution would mean genocide of black people.

I can't say that you fail to realize it.

But what I'm saying is that we all, we all realize it.

You've had actual experience with being in NAMM.

You understand? But we know what the problem is too.

You understand? But there is a way of dealing.

You understand? It's so many tactics.

We can all go down with our pieces in our hands.

You understand? Or we can try and deal with this cat one way or another to make sure that there will be some black survival after the thing is over.

But there is sacrifices that will have to be made.

You understand? I might very well lose my life because I'm sick of it too.

And this is one of the reasons that we're doing the things that we're doing here today and trying to create.

Instead of arming for revolution, the lawyers tried to deal with the system, the system's weight.

In September of 1967, they had became the conservative vice -lawyers incorporated.

With funds from private industry, they had opened Teen Town, a snack shop, an ice cream parlor.

In April of 1968, two days before the assassination of Martin Luther King, they went on to open two Tasty Freeze franchises and the African Lion, an African heritage clothing store.

We're doing everything we can to create jobs so we won't have to go out to Skokie or to Elks Grove.

I don't feel we should have to go out there because we ain't doing nothing but helping the deal.

I feel it's time for us to help ourselves.

And by helping ourselves, we have to create jobs to bring money in.

Then we can bring our people back.

I want to be able to run your own community, run your own thing, bring your own black banks in, your own black store.

I want our own black currency exchange.

I don't want no hunker to take my check and take 40, 50 cents.

I want a brother to take it.

If we get this to rolling and get it to going, we got our own support.

See, because I know when them hunkers taking this going back out in Oak Park, Oak Park, it's going back out there.

And they ain't doing nothing for the community or the black.

See, we all don't have a business here.

They tell somebody they're going to work there forever.

We got our business due so that we will lend you the trade of the businesses and motivate you to a self -sustaining level where you can deal with society and come self -sustaining yourself.

This is the philosophy of CBL.

I don't believe there's a man on this world, boy, that's completely dumb.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

I don't think God made a dumb man.

Graves where that night growing for years, gutted storefronts into an art studio, a clothing shop, an office, a training center, a restaurant.

This was a new thing on the West Side and the law had staked their hopes on it.

What the law was hoping for was that their enterprises, while not affecting the economic misery on the West Side very much, would pay the way for real development later.

Don't black folks is gone.

Their philosophy is dead.

Now I'm building now for my sons and kids.

Now I'm setting up the structure.

They're going to finish it and create it.

Instead of it being the old pattern of destroying and vying with Uncle Tommy, it's a new thing.

This is a new look.

While we are the founders of it, we're the founders.

We're the old men that's going to set up on porches smoking pipes.

10 or 15 or 20 years from now saying, boy God, boy you know we show stars a good thing.

It's taking place all over the country and we think it's reached that proportion where we're trying to have a cooperative program in order to set it back in order to reverse that kind of trend.

By May 1969, gang violence had dropped to its lowest point in 10 years and gang related crimes were released in areas controlled by the Black Peasstones and the Vice Lords.

It was then the city administration decided to denounce gang violence and declare its so -called war on gangs.

Some of this illegal intimidation that's going on throughout our entire city and throughout the country.

The grand jury here is the state's attorney.

We have determined through the course of the meeting in our prior weeks to establish a grand jury to investigate intimidation of students, possible extortion of students and particularly intimidation of businessmen.

That's what's been happening throughout our country.

There's been a glorification of this gang structure and that's why it's so serious today.

The basic fact of life about Mayor Daley and all of his colleagues is that they do see a threat here on the west side.

You know they give misinformation to protect their game.

Now their game is that you know there's got to be the have and the have not.

See that's the only way the structure can survive.

You know it's projected that way.

Now when people over here start getting money in their pocket and have time to think about housing, voting, all these other things that make this world go around or makes this country function, then we're a potential threat to them.

You understand what I mean? We can become a power structure that he may not be able to deal with.

You know what I mean? He's protecting his game.

He wants to get voted back in on his next term of office.

He's afraid of the gangs from a political viewpoint? He's afraid of the whole projection that they can become politically involved or forms a kind of economic base that someone else may have to deal with.

He's afraid of us growing and becoming constructive.

So what do you see as the political future for CBL? Well, now that's a wonderful question.

For CBL's political future? Well what Mayor Daley just said looks very damn.

We got too much going for ourselves.

You know, we realize this and Daley and Henry and the rest of them realize this.

This is the reason why they're trying to down with the gangs.

Because the gangs are beginning to look at things just like the politician does.

This map here shows our 26 segments of conservative vice lords.

We have up here the top war lords, King Solomon lords, Congress lords, traveling lords.

Each one of these lords, these names of them calling out in certain areas in the community on the west side of Chicago.

The vice lord nation is actually many gangs under one name.

Some were absorbed by welfare, others by negotiation.

Each group has its own leadership and is called a set.

Each set retains decision -making powers somewhat like the 13 original states in the days before the Constitution and the federal government.

It doesn't function.

Here we have the city lords, which is the red pen shows right where we are right here.

The structure and the home office, what you might call the headquarters of all of the rest of the segments that generates right into this home base.

First on our agenda should be that we would call one of the leaders of the Vanguard Ases.

Maybe you'll come up and stake the purpose.

You know we came to see what y 'all plans was for the community.

From time to time small groups rise up to challenge the vice lord's authority or to establish reputations by taking on the lords.

One such group in the summer of 69 was the Black Vanguard Ases.

It's just a few questions that I would like to add.

Like you said, there have been a lot of confusion.

As a matter of fact, there's been a number of shootings.

You know, whereas fortunately none of our fellows actually got hit.

But now we can take that with a grain of salt if we're here to iron out problems.

Another major problem among ourselves is that we were not taught to have trust and confidence in each other.

We were always taught to believe that our own brothers were out to get us in one way or another.

There was no communication link.

I've been taught to respect the white man.

But not a black brother that I was arguing with.

I don't know anything about showing him any respect or fear.

I was taught to fear the white.

So if I would eliminate him or cut his throat or shoot him or what have you, it's just like crushing the roach, man.

Well, he don't amount to nothing.

This is the worst kind of cat in the world.

He's a black cat.

He's a gang member.

So if I rip him off, then it don't mean nothing.

It's just another cat that the white folks don't have to kill.

What I'm saying, man, the things that we're doing to each other, we can't have it no more.

What we need is a stick across our backs because we ain't woke up and really saw where our problems are, man.

And we still running around here bickering and humbugging with each other.

Every time we catch some brothers that's out here dusting and misusing each other, talking about killing the run and getting their pistols, it should be a fame where 15 or 20 cats get on these dudes with sticks, man.

You understand? And just dust them till they can't go no more.

You see? Because our problem is not among ourselves.

If we don't be living in the environment in all this filth and ain't got no jobs and ain't got no food coming from nowhere, no place, this is frustration, Jack.

This creates problems.

You understand? If we don't live like we do now, then the little things that we killing each other for right now today wouldn't amount to a grain of salt.

This is Billy Washington of the Congress Lords.

I ain't got nothing but a few words to say, and that is, Jack, that I'm with the 16th Street Vice Lords.

I'm from the Congress Street Vice Lords.

I run from Pulaski and Arlington to all the way back to Madison.

Now we're back through there, Tequila, all the way back to Van Veeuwen.

Anytime you're down that way, you're welcome.

You're a Lord, you're welcome.

That's all I got to say, Jack.

That's beautiful.

They called it LSD, Lords, Stones, and Disciples.

It was a coalition, the first coalition of major black street gangs in Chicago.

First time gangs could overcome their fratricidal hatreds long enough to get together.

Every now and then, we get together as one people.

As a matter of fact, we went out as one people, closing down the construction sites in an effort to fight for $10 ,000 for black youth.

Lucas? Yeah.

Patterson? Yeah.

OG? All right, OK.

OG? Latimer? Right here.

OK, that's it.

I'm in there.

Is there anybody else? I think you should spread out.

I'm singing it out.

There's no program that the white power structure has come up with that even comes near to approaching our problems.

We got it right here.

They can jump the poverty program in all the cities and all of them.

They all in the same bag.

All the same bag.

Nothing.

The biggest crooks in this country that construct the economy, that keeps inflation, it messes up the economy, it pushes up the price of housing for our people.

In previous weeks, the Lords, the Stones, and the Disciples had closed down more than $80 million in construction around Chicago.

Today, August 13, 1969, they were marching on City Hall.

It was perhaps the beginning of a new day for a new people, when gangs that had battled each other for years could stand side by side as brothers.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Let's go.

All is well.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Let's go.

Go, go, go, country men.

Go, go, go, country men.

Go, go, go, country men.

What I say has got to be a change throughout and all over the country.

People have got to realize that the old -fashioned ways and old -fashioned ideas and old prejudices and times have ended.

People have got to start seeing that right now, you can't overlook any person, race, creed, or color.

You cannot judge people by what they wear, their appearance, how long they're hair, or how short it is.

People are going to start looking at people and dealing with people in general.

In the past, societies have always been able to look over people like C .V .L., Blackstone Rangers, S .D .S., and Black Panthers, and mark them off on the chopping board as scrap iron.

We can't be overlooked anymore.

I think that we've got to learn.

We're from the streets.

Do we start now realizing that we must deal with the future, if there is to be one? If you don't, then what we're doing now is obsolete, and the wheel's going to turn from generation to generation, and there's not going to be no peace.

We think a lot of our leader, he brought this neighborhood to life.

It was dead.

The vice -lords always holler, keep the love in the club.

The lords are a family, and the leaders often act as fathers to the younger fellows.

Nobody thinks that anything could come of this neighborhood but death and destruction.

The neighborhood was in so bad a condition that we had the impression that it would take a million dollars for anything to appear life -like ever again.

Right there where you are standing now, there were a time when that ground was hard as a sidewalk, and there was nothing but wine, glass, and bricks.

Did nobody think that it was impossible for grass to grow there? But you see grass, don't you? He did it.

This is why we think so much of him, because of the life that's in him.

He creates life within other people's, too.

He is our leader, and we love him.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Five.

Six.

Six.

Seven.

Seven.

You know what number seven is? Seven.

Yeah, okay.

One hundred.

Eight.

Eight.

Nine.

Nine.

Say nine.

Nine.

Nine.

Does anybody remember how to say ten? Ten.

Ten.

Ten.

Yes.

Miguel.

Miguel.

What's your name? Michael.

Yeah.

Miguel.

Miguel remember.

Miguel remember.

Yeah, I said that.

Miguel remember.

Yeah, I said that.

Have you ever seen the murals that they have painted in Mexico? No, I haven't.

They speak beautiful Spanish there.

Some of the greatest that they ever were made were done by a fellow by the name of Diego Rivera.

And they're on all the university buildings.

Big paintings like we have on the wall.

Big paintings like we have here.

Fantastic.

You know who this is? You know who this is? Who? Frederick Douglass.

What do you know about Frederick Douglass? He fights for the seat.

He wrote a newspaper.

He wrote a newspaper? Yeah.

He's got a little fight.

You know the man? He ran away.

He got mad.

What did he do? He got mad.

He ran away.

This was a great man.

Great man.

He did a lot of things.

Did you ever hear about him? Yes.

You know who it is? Yes.

Who is it? Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman.

Who'd you say? Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass, yeah.

You know anything about Frederick Douglass? He saw a girl and he wanted to make friends with her.

Then he walked the halls and they got married.

Then Frederick Douglass got real, real old and he was about to die.

About to die? And he did die one day.

Well let me tell you about Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass was a runaway slave.

The master did whip him, just like you said.

But he became a great statesman.

And in the days of Abraham Lincoln, he was known to sit in and talk to Abraham Lincoln before Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, you know.

Did the teacher tell you that? Who was your teacher? I had a white teacher.

And he didn't tell you that? It was a sheep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Popcorn.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Popcorn.

Like a preacher told me the other day, you're in conflict with God when you start messing over little fellas' lives like this when you can do something about it.

I like them bald.

I like them proud.

We're not going to have another generation of cats to suffer and to be fatherless and motherless and nobody to care.

We got the problem.

It's a reality.

And I'm not dealing with it for myself.

I'm dealing with it because I got kids.

When they say crush gang, they talk about crushing black folks, man.

That's what it is.

These people go to talking about extermination.

They're going to be exterminating for a long time.

And the minute they eliminate us, they're going to have some more come up.

So now they got to eliminate them until there's no more.

That was the voice of Bobby Gore, spokesman for the vicelord nation.

On November 21, 1969, as part of the City's War on Gangs, Bobby Gore was indicted for murder.

He was later convicted by an all -white jury and sentenced to 40 years.

On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was shot to death by state's attorney police.

He was in bed and best evidence indicates he was asleep.

On December 23, 1969, I was indicted for murder.

I'm Leonard Singali, spokesman for the Black Peashtore Nation.

Within the space of a month, the spokesman for the vicelords was indicted for murder.

The spokesman for the Black Peashtore Nation was indicted for murder.

And the leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party was killed.

Several community organizations managed to raise my bell and I was released.

As I was walking home, down Drexel Avenue, a young stone, what we call a June bug, yelled out, Welcome home, Singali.

Right on, little brother, I said.

No, Singali, it's right off.

Right off, right off.

Right on mean you go on and on.

We want ours right off, right now.

This little dude kind of knocked me over, made me realize something.

In the past 10 or 15 years, not much has changed for most black people in America.

We still got no jobs, rotten housing in schools, inadequate medical care and so on.

This is the same.

But black people's minds are different, especially with the kids.

They're coming up proud to be black with a sense of self -respect and the demand for justice right off.

The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the I'm.

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