Gang Leader For A Day summary

From television shows and movies, we know housing projects are rife with crime: women raped, children shot, men beaten.

But no matter how bad it gets, if you live in the projects, you don’t call the cops. Why?

Gang activity almost always means crime and violence. Yet this assumption is only part of the story, when looking at the local activities of the Chicago gang, Black Kings.

A gang can provide some semblance of order and safety on its turf. Gang members, for example, would escort elderly women on their shopping errands, to keep them safe from muggers.

As part of his research, the author developed close ties with the local leader of the Black Kings.

Yet as a result, many residents were reluctant to be honest about the negative effects the gang was having on the housing projects’ community.

Every gang has a leader. With the Black Kings, the local leader is a man known simply as JT.

JT is college-educated, smart and charismatic. He used to hold down a regular sales job in downtown Chicago, before becoming gang leader. In fact, in some ways his role resembles a regular managerial job.

One day the author jokingly mentioned to the local leader of the Black Kings that being a gang leader seemed like a pretty easy job.

JT, the leader, then told the author that he should try it out for a day. The author assumed the job was mostly driving around, showing everyone who the boss is, with the only real action occurring if a gang war happened to erupt.

The Black Kings aren’t the only strong arms in the projects. The building manager, Ms. Bailey, too has considerable influence in the community – both good and bad.

Stout and strong-willed, Ms. Bailey is the main contact between residents and the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the city bureaucracy that manages the entire housing estate.

Given the daily threats of violence and general poverty at the Robert Taylor Homes, how would you approach a research project into the lives of residents there?

Would you knock on doors, holding a clipboard, and ask residents – unemployed, poor and perhaps a member of a gang, certainly wary of who you are and why you’re there – questions such as, “How does it feel to be black, and poor?”