In Sept of 1967 one of the largest street gangs in Chicago, (the Vice Lords) incorporated their gang into something numerous other gangs have been attempting to do for years on top of years. They incorporated The Conservative Vice Lords into a registered 501c3, pledging to change not just their image, but their concept and their demonstration altogether, rearranging everything about them, despite society classifying us as delinquents, thugs and common hoodlums.
Through the help of David Dawley, the brothers applied for, and received, a $15,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, which was matched with an equal amount from the corporate members of Operation Bootstrap. This was followed by $25,000 from the Field Foundation, $130,000 from the Ford Foundation, $36,000 from the Department of Labor, and $60,000 from philanthropist W. Clement Stone. These groups saw partnership with the Vice Lords as a way to reach those most desperately in need. As Bobby Gore, the appointed spokesperson, put it, “We are of the same community and on the same level as community people. The average man in the street can’t articulate to people wearing ties.”
With these funds, Dawley and CVL, Inc. turned the north side of the 3700 block of W. 16th St., which had previously been a strip of dilapidated, mostly abandoned buildings, into a thriving business and community center. Between the fall of 1967 and 1969, the gang opened:
Teen Town, an ice cream parlor catering to youth, opened with the help of Ald. Collins and Operation Bootstrap, at 3700 W. 16th.
2. The African Lion, an afro-centric clothing shop, at 3702 W. 16th. Behind the African Lion, a garden was planted underneath a large mural depicting black history in the United States.
3. The House of Lords, a recreation center for teens with ping-pong, jukeboxes, books, and card tables, at 3724 W. 16th (a second House of Lords was later opened at 3414 W. 15th).
4. Art and Soul, a free, open-door facility for community members to paint and engage with art, opened in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission, and the University of Illinois – Circle Campus (now known as University of Illinois – Chicago), at 3742 W. 16th.
5. Tastee Freez franchises, one at 18th St. and Pulaski Rd., and the other at California Ave. and Flournoy St. In Vice Lords headquarters at 3720 W. 16th, the gang used Department of Labor funds to start a management training institute to develop business skill.
6. They also planned an Avon-like cosmetics line called “Simone,” with color tones made especially for black women, and marketed the product in conjunction with entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., although it seems that Simone never actually got off the ground.
During the summer of 1968, the Catholic School Board awarded CVL, Inc. 100 neighborhood youth jobs to clean and beautify public areas. The gang also organized a tenants’ rights pressure group which assisted neighborhood residents in negotiations with landlords. There were also July 4th and Christmas dinners open to the public at gang headquarters.
With the help of CVL, Inc., the crime rate in Lawndale actually fell in 1969, while it rose substantially throughout most of the rest of the city. Thus, in 1968, the future seemed practically unlimited for the former violent gang members and their community; however, a number of factors led to the decline and fall of CVL, Inc., eventually returning it to its former status as a tough street gang. Yet by 1969 Big Al was incarcerated, Bobby was incarcerated, and many other CVL Inc leaders were either in prison, on drugs, or retired. Thus somewhat forcing Dawley to separate from the Lords as their violent intra-gang battles over successionship and the reduced operating income from the government and philanthropists, the gang’s once-proud set of businesses on 16th street slowly closed during 1970 and 1971. During the 1970s, the Vice Lords returned to their past as a notoriously violent street gang. Their position of dominance on the streets of Lawndale positioned them perfectly for the rise of cocaine and crack, and various Vice Lord members controlled many drug tips throughout the west side.
As the 1980s rolled in, so did crack cocaine. The 60s were the Civil Rights years and the 70s were the Black Liberation years. We consider the 70s as "Liberation Years" because as our Black Leaders struggled to educate and free us, COINTELPRO was at its height and they killed and incarcerated our best leaders. Which left our people divided and oppressed, so as the drugs landed they only generated greed, jealousy and a thrust for power and control. And all of this eventually changed things completely by placing the power into the hands of a new breed of leaders.
Today our organization/nation is in shambles, to the point that death or prison is inevitable for any leaders who dare to openly declare leadership of something so violent and corrupt. Which gave birth to The Almighty Nation Of Lordism to provide a legal platform for any and all dedicated and devoted believers of the mission in which Bobby Gore had with CVL Inc.
NOTE:
Our mission is to re-educate the people by deprogramming the leadership of the falsehoods being forced upon us by the oppressors. We teach the history of self and vow to never stray from the vision we all know will manifest a greater tomorrow, all while never denying our identity, our beliefs, our mission or our goals in their entirety.