In Chicago in mid-twentieth century amid the haze and smoke of urban
renewal and the sounds of the wrecking balls and bulldozers, there lived
two men, both street-savvy, one Black, one Irish, one young, one old and
both leaders of their clans. Each ruled with an iron fist. Each embodied
the fighting spirit of the turbulent 1960s. One was David Barksdale, the
Black Disciples leader, a Black youth club that would give birth to
America's largest street gang; the other was Richard J. Daley, the
legendary Mayor of the City of Chicago. He was one of the
longest-serving, most prominent mayors in American history and the last
of the big-city "bosses." Although the two never met, at least not
face-to-face, their fates were linked by a time of change, an era of
protest, which was a decisive moment of transformational power that was
on the verge of a violent uprising in America's second-largest city.
This is a book that is as lively as its subject. A braided narrative of
two larger than life people, it has the boldness to combine two oddly
related 1960s stories into a single narrative that is both intimate and
epic. One captures the unlikely story of a Negro boy whose
share-cropping family migrated from rural Mississippi to Chicago, where
he started a street gang that became the largest in America. The book's
other path follows America's last big city "boss," whose persona is
legendary and bigger than life. While historians, political pundits, and
those who knew him speak of "Hizzonor" as being a proud, Irish-Catholic
who was the long-time godfather of the Chicago Democratic Party and
Mayor who saved Chicago from becoming another Detroit or Cleveland, they
also acknowledge that he was a fierce segregationist. He had a
contentious relationship with civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Richard Daley also played a significant role in the
history of the United States Democratic Party. Williams an
internationally recognized gang expert and interventionist, eloquently
tells the story of these men, their clans, and their on-going struggle
for power, status, and legacy. However unheard of and unimaginable, some
of the incidents may seem, this is not a work of fiction. Everything
written comes from archival documents, official reports, focus groups,
in-depth interviews, or first-hand accounts. The action takes place
mostly in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. Still, there are some
occasions where the action takes place in Bronzeville, the Woodlawn
community, on the West Side of the City and downtown.
