South Deering

Origins	Settled in 1845 and annexed c. 1889
Area	Far Southeast Side
Boundaries	95th Street on the north, 130th Street on the south, Calumet River to Burley Avenue on the east, South Stoney Island Avenue to Bishop Ford Expressway on the west
Gangs founded	King Cobras,
Gangs headquartered	Latin Counts, Gangster Disciples,

This area was first discovered by European settlers in the year 1845. after 1845 there was not much settlement as the area was just roads for travelers to pass through.  It was not until 1875 that this area would build up once Joseph H. Brown Iron and Steel Company and Calumet Canal and Dock Company built their factories here and soon immigrants of Irish, Welsh and English descent flocked here looking for work and settled near the factories in an area they called “Irondale.”

Later in the 19^th century Swedish and German immigrants moved to this neighborhood and annexation was achieved in the year 1889, making this area an official part of the city of Chicago.  In 1902 the area would blossom even more when International Harvester built a brand-new factory here, Gold Medal Flour Company, Illinois Slag and Ballast Company and Federal Furnace Company all opened in South Deering, right after this the neighborhood was officially named “South Deering” as Croatian, Serbian, and Polish immigrants flocked to South Deering.  The term “Slag Valley” began to surface in reference to the many piles of steel waste in the area in between 95^th Street to 103^rd Street and Baltimore Avenue to Manistee Avenue.

When the United States became involved in World War I there soon became many more job slots opened, this is when the oldest wave of Mexican immigrants came to Chicago, and some settled in South Deering.

This neighborhood thrived very well in the 1920s decade and even the 1930s proved to be a decent decade even though the Great Depression era put the United States in economic despair.  Chicago was facing a housing crisis and also a poverty crisis in the 1930s decades and some families struggled to get by this brought about the need for public housing that was put together by the Chicago Housing Authority in 1937.  In 1938 the CHA decided to put projects in the South Deering community called the Trumbull Park Homes that was to be located between 105^th to 109^th Streets and Bensley to Oglesby Avenues.  These projects were built for white only residents as African Americans did not live in South Deering in these days and Mexican immigrants were forced to leave the country because of repatriation.  Despite repatriation many Mexican families earned their keeps and remained in South Deering and South Chicago.

Starting in 1947 and continuing through 1949 Swift Properties Inc began constructing the Jeffery Manor houses that was meant for returning World War II veterans that came to work in the many factories.  The Jeffery Manor homes were built in between 95^th Street to 100th Street and between Torrance Avenue on the east and the railroad tracks on the west.

South Deering preferred to remain a white community, African Americans were allowed to work in the factories, but the neighborhood preferred they lived elsewhere but in 1948 restrictive covenants were deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme court and this allowed African Americans to move into all-white neighborhoods despite objections.  It was not until 1953 that African Americans tried to settle in this community when CHA allowed a African American family to move into the Trumbull projects by accident.

Betty Howard went into the CHA office for an interview and CHA staff mistook her for a white woman because she was light skinned; now Betty and Donald Howard moved into the projects with their family in the summer of that year at 10630 Bensely Avenue (106^th and Bensley).  In August of 1953 the white community in and around the projects threw rocks, shot fireworks at the family, called them names, and even attacked them trying to force them to move out.  The police came to subdue angry whites and the police had to protect the Howards daily.  Residents also tried to petition again and again to move the Howards out, but this failed, in fact, it started a massive debate that African American families should have the right to move into these buildings.  The CHA also came down on the residents in the buildings that were attacking the Howards by sending out evictions so the violence would stop, after these evictions the CHA was able to move in 10 more black families to the projects in place of the white protestors.  The violence would continue all through 1954 and the Howard family was evicted by CHA because Betty Howard was not truthful about being unemployed when she filled out the application.  The director of CHA Elizabeth Wood was fired in 1954 because she fought to integrate African American families into these projects.

The projects and the neighborhood continued as a mostly white area as African Americans only made up less than 1% of the population of South Deering by 1960.  By 1963 African American families were fully allowed to live in the Trumbull Park projects; however, the projects would not yet become majority African American yet.  It would take throughout the rest of the 1960s for the projects to convert from majority white to majority African American.  This white flight pattern was slow because these white families were too impoverished to move but they would soon experience upward mobility and fled the area.  By the 1960s, whites in public housing became increasingly scarce.  The Trumbull Park projects were one of the last ones to still have white residents living in public housing in Chicago by the mid-late 60s.

In the year 1967 African Americans began moving into the Jeffrey Manor homes.  The Jeffrey Manor homes were built to be simple and affordable and by 1967 many white families residing in these homes were upset over African Americans becoming the majority north of 95^th Street in neighboring Calumet Heights community.  These homes became ideal for African American middle-class families looking for first time home buying and renting.  By the later 1960s Calumet Heights now had the Black Gangster Disciples along 93^rd Street which brought African American gang conflict along 95^th Street.  All these factors caused some panic, but this panic was heavily enhanced when predatory block busting real estate incited to the panic as they even mailed flyers to Jeffrey Manor residents informing them their neighborhood was going to turn African American soon.  Even though employment was plentiful in the area at the end of the 60s into the earlier 1970s white residents immediately ceased moving into Jeffrey Manor and the Trumbull projects as of 1967. Almost all new residents in these areas were African American.

In the year 1969, arriving African Americans faced unequal treatment, police harassment and some harassment from angry residents.  This caused the Black Gangster Disciples to advance south of 95^th Street and move into the Trumbull projects and into Jeffrey Manor.  This began a major legacy of the Gangster Disciples of the Trumbull projects and Jeffrey Manor that became major sections up to present years.

In the early 1970s Hispanic residents began to move into the Trumbull Park projects.  In the year 1972, the first significant Hispanic gang to form in the streets of South Deering was the “King Cobras” in the Trumbull Park projects at 106th and Bensley.  The King Cobras were soon joined by the “Iron Hands” as they battled the Latin Kings from the neighboring South Chicago neighborhood. Latin Kings wanted to spread into South Deering, but Cobras and Iron Hands stopped that from happening all through the 1970s.  The King Cobras were mainly from the small Mexican population in the neighborhood but they had white members as well which consisted of some of the last white families to reside in the projects in the 1970s.

The South Deering neighborhood heavily relied on employment in the factories especially Wisconsin Steel which employed 3,000 workers which was almost 20% of the neighborhood’s total population and in 1969 the plant started having some financial trouble then in 1977 the plant was sold to Envirodyne that ended up having no idea how to operate the plant causing more financial problems which led to the closing of the plant in March of 1980.

The workers loved South Deering as it was a close-knit community where everyone knew each other because they worked together, now that would be all gone, and families immediately left South Deering so fast that by the summer of 1980 the neighborhood already started to change.  Once the workers moved out the values of their homes plummeted.  In the Slag Valley area white workers evacuated rapidly as mainly Mexican families moved into their former homes and by the mid-1980s Slag Valley was majority Hispanic.  The Latin Counts moved into Slag Valley by 1983-84 and took over most of this area recruiting Hispanic youths heavily.

Both African Americans and Hispanics moved into the homes near the Trumbull Park projects sharing the community equally starting in 1980.  The Black Gangster Disciples were able to expand their influence into this area recruiting among African American youths.  Latin Counts and Spanish Vice Lords recruited Hispanic youths in this area.  Latin Counts would become a permanent and strong group in South Deering permanently.

Because the Conservative Vice Lords were outnumbered by the Black Gangster Disciples in the Trumbull Park projects the Vice Lord nation brought in a Hispanic faction of the organization to recruit among the Mexican youths in the projects which helped even the numbers against the Disciples, this group became known as Spanish Vice Lords that started in 1979 in the Trumbull Park area.  In the 1980s and 1990s the Spanish Vice Lords had a strong identity in South Deering and became one of the dominating gangs in the area until they left in later in the 1990s.

Jeffrey Manor soon became an area with lots of gang violence as Gangster Disciples fought viciously to protect this subdivision.  Many times they warred within their own factions which for a time caused the Boss Pimps to break away and become another major force to be reckoned with in this area.

The 1990s saw more violence and even more intense gang wars until South Deering was now known as one of the more violent and dangerous Chicago neighborhoods.  White flight would continue through the 1980s and 1990s as African Americans and Mexicans became the majority.

By the year 2000 over 60% of the neighborhood was African American while Mexicans made up over 30% the rest was white.  South Deering is still one of the harder neighborhoods in Chicago and has been known to have a higher murder rate.  This neighborhood continues to struggle with high unemployment and poverty since 1980. The Trumbull Park projects were renovated in recent years and still are occupied.

South Deering is the birth place of the King Cobras.

This is a list of all significant gangs that have walked these streets over time:

Boss Pimps 1988-2010s

Jeffrey Manor area by 95^th and Jeffrey

Latin Counts Established 1983-present years

105^th to 109^th, Oglesby to Torrence (Trumbull Park)

94^th to 103^rd, Houston to Manistee (South Chicago Cs, Slag Valley, Veterans Memorial Park)

King Cobras Established 1972-2005

105^th to 106^th, Bensley to Oglesby (Trumbull Park projects) Established 1972-2005

Gangster Disciples Established 1969-present years

95^th to 100th, Jeffery to Torrence (Jeffery Manor Homes) Established 1969-present years

106^th from Yates to Bensly (Trumbull Park projects) Established 1969-present years

95th to 99th, Merrion to Van Vlissengen (FBE)

103^rd to 105^th on Calhoun 2010s-present years

107th & Bensley (shared with Black Disciples) 2010s-present years

Spanish Vice Lords Established 1979-present years

104^th to 109^th, Hoxie to Torrence Established 1980-present years

105^th & Calhoun 80s

Latin Stones Established 2020s (Present years)

101^st & Commercial 2020s (Present years)

Latin Eagles Established 2020s (Present years)

97^th & Exchange Established 2020s (Present years)

Black Disciples 2010s-present years

107^th & Bensley (shared with Gangster Disciples) 2010s-present years

Conservative Vice Lords Established 1979-2000s

107^th & Bensely (Trumbull Park projects) Established 1980-2000s

Black P Stones 2010s-present years

95^th & Constance 2010s-present years