Founded | 1958 |
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Named after | Black Stone Avenue |
Founding location | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
Territory | Chicago and Los Angeles |
Ethnicity | predominantly African American |
Membership | 30,000–42,000, (Nationwide) |
Criminal activities | Extortion, Drug Trafficking, Murder |
Allies | Vice Lords, People Nation |
Rivals | Folk Nation, Gangster Disciples |
Notable members |
Jeff Fort Eugene "Bull" Hairston |
The Black P. Stone Nation a.k.a. BPSN is a Chicago-based street gang estimated to have more than 30,000 members. The gang was originally formed in the late 1950s as the Blackstone Rangers. In later years, an Islamic faction of the gang emerged, naming themselves the "El Rukn tribe of the Moorish Science Temple of America" (or simply El Rukn, Arabic for “the foundation”). The group's founder is Jeff Fort.
Considered by law enforcement authorities to be Chicago's most powerful and sophisticated street gang, the BPSN finances itself through a wide array of criminal activities and is part of the large Chicago gang alliance known as the People Nation. Under Fort's command, the BPSN assumed an increasingly revolutionary outlook as it became associated with the black nationalism movement, eventually attracting the attention of the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who introduced them to Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and Nicaragua's Sandinistas. In 1986 four of its members were indicted for conspiring to commit terrorist acts in the United States for the Libyan Government. The verdict marked the first time American citizens had been found guilty of planning terrorist acts for a foreign government in return for money.
The BPSN originated, and is based, on the South Side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood. As of today, the gang has a growing presence in the Northwest Indiana communities of Gary, Merrillville, Crown Point, and Portage and around the united states in places like Nashville, West Tennessee and is still growing.