| Origins | Settled c. 1835 and annexed c. 1914 |
|---|---|
| Area | Far Southwest Side |
| Boundaries | 107th Street to 111th Street on the north, 119th Street on the south, Halsted Street to South Ashland Avenue on the east, South California Avenue to the railroad tracks near Sacramento Avenue to the tracks near Mount Hope Cemetery on the west |
| Gangs founded | Lynchmen Sercaun Gangsters, |
| Gangs headquartered | Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Black P Stones, Conservative Vice Lords, Traveling Vice Lords, Mickey Cobras, |
This page was updated 3/19/26
Horse Thief Hallow
What is now Morgan Park was first settled by Pottawatomie native Americans until they ceded this land to the United States government in 1832. The land remained vacant government land until John Blackstone purchased 300 acres of land in the year 1839 and the area was called “Ridge.” The land became ideal for horse thieves to hide after their horse thieving capers as they encamped along Blue Island Ridge which was along present day Longwood Drive from 96th Street to 119th Street, this gave the area the nickname “Horse Thief Hallow.” Because of this thievery, the first recorded homicide happened in the area (https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events/68ac999cc296c9a1776e5457).
Thomas Morgan
In the year 1844, John Blackstone sold the land which included a cattle and sheep ranch to Thomas Morgan and his last name would eventually become the reason for the name of the neighborhood. Morgan may have owned what would become Morgan Park but his farm/home (named Upwood) was located at 91st & Longwood which is the present day Dan Ryan Woods. Morgan died in 1851 leaving the land to his wife and nine children but once his wife Anna Maria died the land went to the nine children in 1868. The heirs of Thomas Morgan began selling the land until they were approached in 1869 by Frederick H. Winston, the President of the BILBC which was a legal council for several railroads. The BILBC intended to build a community that resembled an English village all west of present day Longwood Drive. This new community was called “Morgan Park” which encompassed not only the present day Washington Heights neighborhood and present day Morgan Park west of Longwood Drive. The Blue Island Land and Building Company was acquired to begin building this town in 1869 which would be a smoke free and alcohol free community. The new town was named after Thomas Morgan. In the year 1882, the community of Morgan Park was officially incorporated. In the year 1890, Beverly and Washington Heights were annexed into the city of Chicago and split from Morgan Park; Morgan Park was annexed into chicago in 1914 (https://www.beverlyreview.net/special/good_news_2023/article_74af8bba-3b97-11ee-ac50-83eaba8dd7bc.html, https://www.chipublib.org/fa-beverly-morgan-park-collection/). Early Morgan Park was mostly Protestants of English, Irish, Swedish and German descent. Morgan Park consisted of three college level schools, making Morgan Park a much desired community with an enriched history.
The first African Americans
When I look into information about the first African American families in Morgan Park I can only find that the first to arrive came in the 1880s but there is no more specifics. African American history in Morgan Park starts in 1891 when the first African American church was built which is the Beth Eden Baptist Church at 111th & Loomis. This says to me that the first African Americans were farmers that had small farms and there was no black community until Eden Church was built in 1891. This seems likely that the first African Americans did not arrive until the later 1880s. It is said that the first African Americans in Morgan Park were former slaves or directly descended from former slaves.
According to the Chicago Commission on Race Relations report of 1921, a report about race relations among blacks and whites in Chicago following the 1919 race riots, whites and blacks in Morgan Park “maintain a friendly attitude” because “There seems to be a common understanding that Negroes must not live west of Vincennes Road, which bisects the town from northeast to southwest,” according to the report (The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot Published by University of Chicago Press, Chicago Commission on Race Relations). Between the 1880s and 1920 674 African Americans settled in Morgan Park and the 1921 study indicated there was a form of restrictive racial covenants that kept African Americans exclusively east of Vincennes Avenue which was a barren and rural area consisting of swamps. The French lived among African Americans east of Vincennes but only near the railroad around present day Interstate-57.
In the 1920s decade, almost 4,000 African Americans moved to Morgan Park’s east side and now east Morgan Park would begin transforming from a small rural farmland with under 700 residents to a small rural town with over 4,000-5,000 people. I could not find much about east Morgan Park before the 1960s so I had to rely on the stories of old timers from Morgan Park that all have told strikingly similar stories about the development of east Morgan Park. Take it or leave it if you will but these stories are the best thing to the truth and facts one can get because most of the history is lost. According to old timers, the 1920s is when more African Americans came to east Morgan Park and built their homes in the present day Ada Park area with the most houses along Throop Street between 112th to 114th Street. There were also African Americans between Vincennes and Illinois Avenue (now I-57 expressway).
By the year 1930, Morgan Park was 35% African American with nearly 4,500 African Americans. Since 113th Place and Throop seemed to have had the most population it became the site of a new public Park named Loomis Street Park. In 1931, a pool was built in Loomis Street Park and by 1934, the park was renamed Ada Park.
Morgan Park schools were filling up fast by the early 30s and this brought about integrated schools; however, the schools were not ready for so many black students which led to overcrowding. In the year 1934 white students protested which consisted of 2,000 of the 2,141 white students. The students protested crowded conditions and African Americans in the school and demanded segregated classrooms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Park_High_School). This was some of the earlier signs of racial conflict in Morgan Park.
According to old timers of east Morgan Park, by the 1940s east Morgan Park was further developed and east Morgan Park now had its own doctors, lawyers, dentists, grocery stores, barbers, newspapers, beauticians, most of which were black owned businesses. The black community even had their own schools until students became high school aged and needed to attend Morgan Park High School. In the year 1945, white students again protested overcrowded conditions and African American students and the same demand came down as 1934 which was to segregate classrooms until singing legend Frank Sinatra visited the school and requested the children integrate, the method worked (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Park_High_School).
The Racine Courts
In the year 1950, the Chicago Housing Authority in cooperation with Perkins & Will, Architects and Jacobson Brothers Company, General Contractors chose a plot of open field in east Morgan Park to construct 121 low-rent dwellings for lower income families. The new project was opened in 1951 and the racial demographic reflected the overall demographics of Morgan Park as a mostly white project with a large African American population. I have seen a photograph taken by photographer Robert Natkin of black and white children playing in the courtyard in 1951 at 107th and Racine. I would love to share the pic but Getty Images slapped their watermark on it and copywrote it to death and wants you to pay a few hundred dollars for a copy! Ouch! Here is the link to see it https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-african-american-and-caucasian-children-playing-news-photo/134142543. These projects were operated by CHA through the 50s and most of the 60s until they were sold to a private tenants co-op in 1968, which was one of the first co-op projects in the United States. This was a way for project families to buy their project dwelling as they graduated higher in income but not enough to afford a house. By the time this project became a co-op all the white families had moved out.
The Blackstone Raiders
I hope you didn’t read the title of this chapter too fast and think it says “The Blackstone Rangers” because Morgan Park’s first major gang was not the notorious Blackstone Rangers. According to Richard Sale’s book “The Blackstone Rangers: A reporter’s account of time spent with the street gang on Chicago’s South Side,” Joel Hampton, a Black P Stone leader accompanied Sale during his time on the south side in 1967 while Sale explored the life of the Black P Stones. Hampton was Sale’s chaperone and when Sale’s journey was complete, Hampton wrote Sale a letter claiming Hampton was the founder and leader of the “Blackstone Raiders” in 1955 who predate the Black P Stones. Hampton not only claimed the Raiders ran Woodlawn at the time, they also ran Morgan Park. Hampton said there were many Raiders in Woodlawn and in Morgan Park until the Blackstone Rangers replaced them in Woodlawn in 1959. I don’t have anymore information about the Blackstone Raiders of Morgan Park but I know they never turned Blackstone Ranger like the Woodlawn group did because there were no major African American gangs in Morgan Park in the 1960s.
By design
Since the 1880s, the racial dividing line in Morgan Park was Vincennes but in the mid-60s a plan was underway to change Morgan Park forever. This plan was to shift boundaries and racially and socioeconomically change Morgan Park, however, that was not the direct plan…one has to look at what happened and when in time I happened to understand there was an indirect plan to change this community, and no not for the benefit of most residents.
Since the expressway system was installed in Chicago in the 1950s and earlier 1960s, the superhighways were strategically planned to be routed through impoverished, mostly African American communities in Chicago, while the parts that were routed through more affluent and/or white neighborhoods were dug right next to the railroads mostly out of the way of residential areas. In 1963, planning was underway to extend Interstate 57 to connect with the Dan Ryan Expressway in a section of I-57 known as the “Dan Ryan West Leg.” When putting in the West Leg, the plan was to build along the railroad which prevented major housing intervention and the mostly black community was allowed to uproot their houses onto wheels and be relocated to other blocks. The houses moved on wheels story comes from multiple old timer residents that remember houses being moved this way. I am not sure if the city paid for these homes to be moved or if the residents needed to pay for it from their own pockets. Residents living along Illinois Avenue were the most effected; Illinois Avenue was completely removed.
Prior to the late 60s, African Americans lived in smaller numbers between Vincennes and Marshfield, this area was a mix of French and middle class African Americans. Because there were many whites living just east of Vincennes, the spot for I-57 needed to be east of Marshfield, as east of Marshfield was a completely black community besides the majority of residents in Racine Courts. When the expressway was built it was a complete cut off between east and west Morgan Park, leaving access only by a few bridges over the expressway at 107th, Monterrey/112th, 111th, and 115th. Once the highway construction began white flight became rapid in Racine Courts and anywhere east of Vincennes. White flight intensified further west as whites began leaving between Vincennes and Longwood Drive, making Longwood Drive the new color line. Many of the whites were driven out during a late 60s block busting campaign that swept Morgan Park, Washington Heights, South Deering, Pullman, West Pullman, and Roseland in the later 60s. During this block busting wave, real estate agencies mailed flyers to homes to target certain areas in an attempt to scare white homeowners and renters into selling their homes rapidly by telling them that their neighborhood was soon to be filled with crime and become African American. To make this campaign more convincing, real estate worked with lending companies and banks to effectively red line these communities and lower property values, this gave white families no choice but to short sell their homes and lose equity or face further reductions of equity as redlining worsened over time. Police activity and patrol officers were reduced in east Morgan Park which allowed more crime to blow into east Morgan Park which further made the community look bad.
Another part of the plan was to transform much of east Morgan Park into an impoverished community by building several section 235 houses to facilitate lower income home owners; however, many of these homeowners defaulted on their mortgages and were bought by landlords who rented to section 8 residents who were very impoverished. Many of the 235 homeowners defaulted once employment dried up on the far south side in the late 60s and early 70s. The plan knew these factories were doomed and still placed section 235 in a risky area before these new homeowners could know this was coming, this was common practice in block busted Chicago communities that transitioned from white to black communities. All the areas in and around the neighborhood suddenly loose value and investment once red lining sets in.
I-57 was supposed to serve as the new racial border but once the highway was built white flight spread west as far as Longwood Avenue. According to residents that lived in Morgan Park prior to I-57 being built, African Americans always knew there was an unofficial curfew where African Americans were not allowed east of Halsted Street and couldn’t go west of Vincennes after dark, young black youths were especially bound by this unofficial curfew. If African Americans were caught too far east or west they were either beaten and harassed by white teens and sometimes adults or they were harassed or beaten by police. During these years, west of Halsted was completely white as was West Pullman and both communities were working together with Pullman to keep African Americans out of their neighborhoods.
When I-57 was installed in the late 60s Morgan Park high school became the site of heavy racial conflict, most of which never made it to the press. Most of these violent racial clashes never made the news and are not documented; therefore, my source is from the people that lived in Morgan Park in these times. I have heard from white former residents that they were terrified of crime and gangs by the late 60s and early 70s and from the African American residents I heard of racial violence towards them involving beatings and being chased by groups of white teenagers. When reading these stories on social media or hearing them in person, no one is angry, resentful or hard core conservatives or hard core liberals. These people will tell their stories in fondness then throw in a quick line about the racial issues and violence making their stories very credible. No one wants to believe an angry person throwing a fit but these people spoke with no racial agenda, they spoke about good times and threw in a short bit about these negative issues.
The Morgan Park Gangsters
In the year 1969, African American families were now moving into the area of 112th Street/Monterray to 119th Street and from Hale Avenue to Marshfield Avenue. This move was highly protested during this block busting era and conflicts at Morgan Park High School worsened. As more black youths became targeted and beaten in and around Morgan Park High School they called upon friends and family members that were part of the Supreme Gangsters/Black Gangster Disciples for assistance. The Gangsters recruited fast on these streets near the high school and called this territory “The Jungle” which was between 112th to 119th and Hale to Marshfield. The Supreme Gangsters were the first major gang in Morgan Park and their first fight was against racism as they were in The Jungle to protect the black community during this racial change, but by 1971 all the whites had left this part of Morgan Park and the fight became a battle with groups like the Black P Stones. The BGDs are now the Gangster Disciples and have always been known as the “MPGs” or “Morgan Park Gangsters.” These MPG GDs are a permanent and strong presence in Morgan Park.
The RCGs and the Lynchmen
After white residents moved out of the Racine Courts projects and the buildings became co-op, Supreme Gangsters (Black Gangster Disciples) would move into these projects and some of them even purchased some of the units. These BGDs became the “Racine Courts Gangsters” or “RCGs.” The Black Gangster Lynchmen moved into Racine Courts in 1971 and were founded in these buildings; however, the RCGs would claim these projects and the Lynchmen were just secondary to the BGDs. In the mid-80s the Lynchmen moved out of the projects leaving the RCGs to run the projects permanently.
By the early 70s, the Racine Courts experienced increased crime and have since had issues with higher crime. Much of the crime was brought in due to a reduction of law enforcement protection since I-57 was built and due to increased poverty in the area. Gangster Disciples also get into violent altercations with rival gangs and rival drug dealers moving through the area, but this is a way GDs use to protect the area from becoming much worse when undesirables take over. GDs have been so heavily rooted in the projects that if a new gang took over, the new group could threaten and harass the residents that once lived among GDs, especially since many of them are family to GDs.
In 1985 the Lynchmen would move into 2 new parts of Morgan Park and a new section in Washington Heights and one in West Pullman. Lynchmen went to Ada Park and Harold Lamb Park in Morgan Park. The Lynchmen remain strong in Lamb Park and have become a permanent part of this area. In 1985, the Lynchmen renamed to “Lynchmen Sercaun Gangsters” they are known as today or “LSGs.”
Church Street Money and Brain Dead
In the year 1985, the Black Gangster Disciple nation was officially dissolved on the streets creating “Gangster Disciples” and “Black Disciples.” Near Morgan Park High School a group of BGDs decided to go with the Black Disciples which established the Black Disciples for the first time in Morgan Park. These Black Disciples would call themselves the “1 Way Gang” or “Church Street Money” or “CSM.” These BDs took over former BGD territory from 107th to 111th and from Hale to Marshfield. This area has become a permanent BD section. When the split first happened in the mid-80s GDs and BDs were at peace until the early to mid-90s,
In the mid-80s east of I-57, outside of Racine Courts, experienced increased crime and increased poverty which made the area into gangland. The Lynchmen were the first gang to settle in the Ada Park area between 111th to 115th and Hamlet to Morgan. In the year 1995, the Lynchmen flipped to Black Disciples who became known as “Brain Dead.” The area has been run by the Brain Dead BDs since.
The far east side, the land of the five
I am not too aware on all the history of the far east side of Morgan Park east of the Major Taylor Trail between Beverly Boulevard to Halsted and from 107th to 115th. At some point this area experienced higher crime and gang activity but Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples and Lynchmen all never settled on these streets. By the 1980s the area was settled by Conservative Vice Lords, Traveling Vice Lords and Mickey Cobras but the Black P Stones may have been on these streets since the late 60s to early 70s. Black P Stones have never been as deep as GDs in Morgan Park so their historical influence may not be as deep as GDs but they have maintained a solid presence in the far east since at least the 1980s along with their People alliance allies in the same region. All of these blocks are shared territories with multiple gangs standing on one block together which is a unique arrangement. This is the land of the five point star and the land of the YMGs, C-Town, WasecaBoyz, Prince Town, Rio World, BNGs and H-Block, all sets of Vice Lords, Mickey Cobras and Black P Stones. In this area Conservative Vice Lords and Traveling Vice Lords move around together on these streets. Traveling Vice Lords also live among Black P Stones in peace and Black P Stones coincide with Mickey Cobras as well.
Not typical gang land
When moving through the east side of Morgan Park it almost becomes impossible to tell there is any crime or gangs in this area of Chicago because these mostly single family homes are among clean streets and well kept lawns. Many of the black middle-class reside in this community and most of the residents are law abiding hard working middle class people. Despite the bright side of Morgan Park, these streets can become dangerous and gangs are very strong on these streets. The gangs of Morgan Park are big money makers and many of them live in these houses and cause no trouble to the public eye. Morgan Park often scores lower on the crime rate scale and is not even close to being one of the more dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago. Morgan Park is for sure not a blighted community and has visual appeal. The worst decades in Morgan Park were the 80s, 90s and some of the 2000s but the neighborhood has quieted down greatly since then.
African American migration has shifted further over time as far as Western Avenue but gangland never moved west of Hale Avenue.
Here are main gangs that have walked these streets over time:
Lynchmen Sercaun Gangsters Established 1971-present years
107th to 111th, Hamlet to Throop (Harold Lamb Park, New Park Locs, Kush CowBoyz, Head Tap Gang) 1985-present years
111th to 115th, Hamlet to Morgan (Ada Park) 1985-1995
Racine Courts 1971-1985
Black Disciples Established 1985-present years
107th to 111th, Hale to Marshfield (CSM, Tay Tay Gang, 1 Way Gang, Marty World) 1985-present years
111th to 115th, Hamlet to Morgan (Brain Dead) early 90s-present years
Black P Stones Established 70s or 80s?-present years
112th to 115th, Vincennes to Marshfield (Prince Town, StuBlock, WB (WasecaBoyz), The Jungle, Shared with Traveling Vice Lords)
111th to 115th, Morgan to Halsted (CTown, HorseShoe, YMG “Young Money Gang” shared with Mickey Cobras)
Conservative Vice Lords 80s-present years
107th to 111th, Beverly to Halsted (Shared with Traveling Vice Lords (RioWorld 10-7, 10-8, HBlock, BNG(BarnoneGang)
Traveling Vice Lords 80s-present years
107th to 111th, Beverly to Halsted (Shared with Conservative Vice Lords (RioWorld 10-7, 10-8, HBlock, BNG(BarnoneGang)
112th to 115th, Vincennes to Marshfield (Prince Town, StuBlock, WB(WasecaBoyz), TheJungle, Shared with Black P Stones)
Gangster Disciples Established 1969-present years
107th to 111th, Racine to Aberdeen (RCGs)
112th (Monterray) to 119th, Hale to Marshfield (MPGs, Mikey World, V Block)
Mickey Cobras 80s-present years
111th to 115th, Morgan to Halsted (CTown, HorseShoe, YMG “Young Money Gang” shared with Mickey Cobras)