a history of Gang Culture in the African American community

History: African American gangs had began forming in the inner cities of California. Gangs were not territorial at the time they were more or less loose associations, unorganised and rarely violent.
these early gangs mainly consisted of people in families and neighbourhood friends  who involved themselves rarely in violet or major crimes , these gangs were specifically made to portray an intimidating persona to provide an easy means of obtaining money.
From 1955 to 1963, African American gangs increased with greater amounts of members and operated mainly in south central Los Angeles and Compton. This was partly due to more African American youths banding together to protect themselves from rival gangs.
not until the late 1960s the Crips and Bloods the two most prevalent African American gangs, were formed. The Crips began forming in southeast Los Angeles, they terrorised local neighbourhoods and schools by assaults and armed robberies. They were then considered to be the most Ruthless and Violent gang in america.
Other African American gangs formed at about the same time to protect themselves from the Crips. One of these gangs was the Bloods, which were formed in Piru Street area in Compton, California this side of the city which became what the residents of Los Angeles know as 'Bompton' ; because of this some Bloods gangs are referred to as Piru gangs. The Bloods, which were outnumbered at the time by the Crips  became the second most savage African American gang in the Los Angeles area.

Both the Crips and Bloods eventually divided smaller gangs during the 1970s. They kept the Crips' and Bloods' ‘Piru’ names, spread throughout Los Angeles, at this time gangs started claiming certain neighbourhoods and cities as their territories. Such as the bloods had their own place on of the city known as 'bompton' which became the blood side of Compton.

By 1980, there was an estimate of about 15,000 Crips and Bloods gang members in and around the Los Angeles area. The gangs ranged in size from a few gang members to several hundred and had very little organised leadership. The typical age of a gang member varied from 14- to 24-years-old. Due to the influence given to young black Americans by gang members in order to live a safer protected life.

To join any of these gangs initiation was to fight other gang members in order to prove yourself to the leader that you were tough enough to be in their gang, other forms of initiation would be committing crimes in neighbourhood or having to killing a rival gang member or any type of opposition.

Bloods and Crips stayed territorial. Motivated to protect their neighbourhoods from rival gang members, they established unique trademarks such as colours, monikers, graffiti, and gang signs. The colour blue was reserved by the Crips as a symbol of gang iconography; red became the colour of the Bloods. Monikers-such as ‘’Smoke’, ‘Cop killer', these names were given to the members based upon their clout or personality as gang members. Graffiti identified the gang and hand signs displayed symbols-usually letters represented to the name of their gang. Gang members would usually Flex their gang signs at other members to taunt or start a fight. They took no caution in displaying their colours when defending them against rival gangs. They were willing to die for the gang, especially in defence of their colours and neighbourhood. It was not until the early 1980s that the era of drive-by shootings began. Gang members were brought into a life where they were taught that the colours they represented, also represented them as special so they would anything to protect what they were taught to believe in.

Bloods and Crips became involved in a variety of neighbourhood crimes and began the selling of new drugs such as PCP, Acid and Cannabis. The issue of gang involvement in narcotics trafficking was generally considered to be a very minor moment in gang history but by 1983 Crack was introduced into the black community and it became a main narcotic in the drug operations, gangs were selling crack to boost their income in order to protect themselves and their community. Crack had supplemented cocaine as the most popular class A drug of choice in the black community. The popularity of crack cocaine back then was due to its low value and major effect on the users.

gang members during the 1980s had started moving over to other United States cities, mostly reasons that resulted in the spread of crack sales and a new wave of violence. This spread of crack sales can be traced back to the gang members' family ties in these cities and to the lure of quick profits. These reasons lead to gang members of the bloods and Crips gangs moving into other cities such as New York and Detroit.

Considerable diversity is displayed by Crips and Bloods gangs and their members in narcotics trafficking, which allows for different levels of involvement from narcotic selling by children to the more important roles of directing the dealing of drugs. In the past, an individual's age, physical structure, and arrest record were often principal factors in determining gang formation money derived from drug sales soon became the main factor which resembled power and authority.

Crips and Bloods have established criminal networks throughout the united states and have capitalized on their ability to move and sell crack cocaine in order to become the most fearless gangs in America.