A Nation of Lords: The Autobiography of the Vice Lords (2024)

David Dawley shares his observer-participant fieldwork within the notorious Vice Lords gang in Chicago. Having the privilege to be one of the only white honorary Vice Lords, Dawley lived in Lawndale and developed meaningful relationships with the Lords through helping them develop community programs.

Dawley sheds light on the sad reality of young black individuals being marginalized by society and looking to street gangs for support. The lack of government support in a densely populated area with severe poverty, these young individuals have nowhere else to turn to for support other than their fellow brothers and sisters. The older members realized change must come and no one else but them will make it happen,

Bobby Gore said, “Well, this is these cats that’s sick in the mind and the reason they’re sick in the mind is because whoever did the job on em’ did a damn good job, and it’s time for us to try and reverse this sh*t.

“These cats see that we ain’t got but one humbug (fight) and that’s to get our asses out of the sand and stand up like men. We been resolved to the thing that we ain’t nobody, ain’t gonna never be sh*t. But like the Reverend say: I am somebody!

“I might be in the penitentiary, but I’m somebody. I might be the worse dude in the world; I might be a stickup man, but I’m somebody. As black people, we gotta start worryin’ about what’s happening, where our real humbug (fight) is and the way to humbug with it.” (pg. 104)

Through the TransCentury Corporation, Dawley was introduced to Vice Lord leaders and together they worked tirelessly on developing community programs to support & encourage the youth of Lawndale, with the goal of ending the violence that has been forced upon them. Throughout 1968-1969, the Vice Lords with help from Dawley, developed multiple programs through grants and loans in order to turn Lawndale into a better place to live and help the young lords and ladies. This movement seems to be ignored when thinking of the Vice Lords as politicians and media alike portray this group as a blood thirsty gang that is a danger to society. Meanwhile, due to lack of government support and living in poverty, these individuals were just trying to survive in a world that has outcasted them.

Much of the positive progress and efforts of the Vice Lord leaders unfortunately did not last the test of time, as still there is stigmatization from external societal forces blocking their efforts. This is seen in the multiple letters that the Lords had sent to the city of Chicago asking for support in their development of programs going unanswered. It seems as though the city does not want to see “criminals” bettering their communities and thriving economically.

David Dawley, a white guy with connections, helped the Chicago West Side gang, the Vice Lords, get government grants for community projects. He tells the individual and group story via interviews with real O.G's when they founded the gang in the 1950s and came of age in the 1960s.

Urban gangs have been how many poor youths banded together and coped with living in the cracks of a largely-unfair society. White people, especially Irish and Jewish, formed gangs in Chicago early in the 20th century. They were followed by people of color escaping from the Jim Crow South during the mid-20th century Great Migration. They found many obstacles in the so-called promised land of the North. The book's photos show you the faces of real people and they demand respect. Dawley could never fit into the Black gang members' shoes, but as an ally he documents parts of their story that might not have otherwise been recorded in writing.

The Vice Lords, in several branches, are still a gang today, with thousands of members, often running through generations. Yes, drugs and bad deeds must be accounted for, but the gang was a family to those with broken homes; it gave youth something to belong to. The gangs look out for their incarcerated members even today. The Vice Lords' good community works were cut off by changes in government policy during the Nixon administration, before they could work out the flaws in the govt. programs. It's easy to forget the talent and potential these young people have and how much is still going to waste because of race-based economic discrimination. Lack of opportunity and hope translates into violence.

Nation of Lords an eye opening book especially for people who have never been in gangs.

A well documented intelligence operation that took place during Chicago's war on gangs. This book is proof against the false narrations that appear in media today. It is a testimony that Vice Lords morphed into a government funded organization of Conservatives, that created divisions in the Black community, under the guise of helping them. The resulting crime rate is the product of this government gang. Conservative men recruited ghetto youth at government funded recreation centers. Read this book in light of intelligence operations and it becomes clear that this is an expose on the Social Engineering of urban Black youth. An incarceration operation to obtain free labor from the children of plantation slaves. Excellent read. So much so, that I've been trying to relocate this book since 1983.

This book was quite the lightweight version of the gang situation in Chicago. It did reveal an interesting period in the 1960's during which the Conservative Vice Lords provided some neighborhood services and opened some apparently legitimate businesses. With the benefit of hindsight, this comes off as the work of a naive Ivy league kid wearing rose colored glasses. The lack of a big picture to provide context seems blatant. The book did not show the history of the city, and the larger factors that might explain why the Lawndale area (like many Chicago neighborhoods) is a breeding ground for these gangs and the crimes they are largely known for. It also did not offer any clue as to how these gangs lost their way and the area succumbed to poverty, narcotics, and violence. All in all it is bad sociology and it seems the author lost his objectivity in pursuit of some other lofty goal.

Great story, shows what a community of written-off people can accomplish when they make up their minds to change. Also shows how hard it can be, not just because of the situation they're in, but because of the additional barriers people put on them because of racism and narrow-mindedness. The story was a bit meandering, but told the story successfully.