The Rufus Buck Gang was an outlaw gang whose members included African Americans, mixed-race (black and Indian), and Native American teenagers and young adults from the Creek (Muscogee) Nation. The group’s brief but horrific crime spree occurred in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) between July … Read MoreRufus Buck Gang (1895-1896)
Frank “Black Caesar” Matthews was called one of the biggest heroin and cocaine traffickers in United States history by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Born on February 13, 1944 in Durham, North Carolina, he became involved in several criminal incidents from a young age. Matthews was raised by … Read MoreFrank Matthews (“Black Caesar”) (1944- ?)
Larry Hoover is a founder and former leader of the Chicago street gang the Gangster Disciples, and was the Vice President of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation when he combined his gang with the Black Disciple Nation temporarily. Hoover was born on November 30, 1950 in Jackson, Mississippi. … Read MoreLarry Hoover (1950- )
Best known as the co-founder of the Crips, the largest street gang in the United States, Stanley Tookie Williams lived in a life of crime and violence. He was born on December 29, 1953, in New Orleans, Louisiana to a mother who was seventeen years old at the time of … Read MoreStanley (“Tookie”) Williams, III (1953-2005)
The Bloods are a predominantly African American street gang that originated in South Central Los Angeles, California in 1972. The genesis of the Bloods street gang is traced to the intense street violence that consumed the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Much … Read MoreThe Bloods (1972 – )
The Crips are a predominantly African American gang that originated sometime between the mid-1960s and 1971 in South Central Los Angeles, California. The origin of the Crips is highly mythologized and facts are difficult to separate from myth. One of the most common versions involves … Read MoreThe Crips (ca. 1971- )
Isom Dart, born enslaved in Arkansas in 1849, and originally known as Ned Huddleston, gained a reputation as a late 19th Century Wyoming Territory outlaw. He had many aliases including “Black Fox,” “Tan Mex,” and “Calico Cowboy”. At the age of twelve Huddleston accompanied his … Read MoreIsom Dart (1849-1900)
The Blackstone Rangers are a street gang formed in the late 1950s on Blackstone Street on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. The Blackstone Rangers were founded by two teenagers, Jeff Fort and Eugene Hairston, while they were at the Illinois School for Boys in … Read MoreBlackstone Rangers/ Black P. Stone Nation/El Rukns (ca. 1957-ca. 2000)
Stephanie St. Clair was born in Martinique, an island in the East Caribbean on December 24, 1897 and came to the United States via Marseilles, France. In 1912 fifteen-year-old St. Clair arrived in Harlem and eventually by the 1920s became known for her deep involvement … Read MoreStephanie St. Clair (1897–1969)
Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson was an American gangster in Harlem, New York in the 20th century. He has been the subject or character of a number of Hollywood films including The Cotton Club, Hoodlum, and most recently, American Gangster. Johnson was originally from Charleston, South … Read MoreEllsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (1906-1968)
