Vice Lords
| Founded | 1958 |
|---|---|
| Founding location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Territory | Chicago, Illinois |
| Ethnicity | African American |
| Membership | Approx. 30,000–35,000 |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, fraud, money laundering, murder |
| Allies | People Nation |
| Rivals | Folk Nation |
The Almighty Vice Lord Nation (Vice Lords for short, abbreviated AVLN) is the second largest and one of the oldest street gangs in Chicago, Illinois. Their total membership is estimated to be between 30,000 and 35,000. They are also one of the founding members of the People Nation multi-gang alliance.
In 1962, the Vice Lords gang was founded by several African American youths originally from the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. These youths met while incarcerated in the Illinois State Training School for Boys in St. Charles (also known as the St. Charles Juvenile Correctional Facility). At the time, they were led by founding member Edward "Pepalo" Perry. The name "vice" was chosen when a gang founder looked up the term in the dictionary and found the meaning as "having a tight hold".
As the original Vice Lords group were released from incarceration, they quickly began to recruit other youths from their neighborhood and began engaging in conflicts with other "clubs" from various Chicago neighborhoods. By 1964, they had grown significantly and law enforcement named them as a primary target for their various illegal activities, including robbery, theft, assaults, battery, intimidation, and extortion. They were noted for their violent behavior
In an attempt at softening their public image, a leader of one of the original 8 Vice Lord sets changed the gang's name to "Conservative Vice Lords", which today serves as the foundation of the entire Vice Lord Nation. They developed new logos and advertised themselves as a community outreach group. They went as far as to petition for a community outreach chapter named "Conservative Vice Lord Incorporated". This attempt was successful enough that the group began to receive a large amount of positive publicity from various politicians and community leaders. CVL, Inc. established a number of recreational areas for neighborhood children which were then used as meeting houses after they had closed for the day.
In 1970, two Vice Lord leaders, Alfonso Alfred and Bobby Gore, applied for a $275,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation approved the grant.This particular era of the CVL is documented in the 1970 film, Lord Thing, by Chicago filmmaker DeWitt Beall. Those featured in the film include Bobby Gore, Kenneth "Goat" Parks, Eddy "Pepilo" Perry, Don McIlvaine, Leonard Sengali and William Franklin.
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