Topic: Personal Stories
GANGS OF HARVEY: 1980
When I was young I knew a little about gangs from living on Chicago's Southside. But when I was 7 my family moved to the Chicago suburb of Harvey. It was a nice town, and I didn't think anymore about gangs. That is, until 1980.
I was in 8th Grade at Lowell-Longfellow Elementary School in 1980. One night I walked to Sister B's Candy Store a couple of blocks from my house. As soon as I came out of the store, a group of boys started running at me. I... ran, and made it about half a block away on Myrtle, before they cornered me in a fenced yard. There were four of them. The first one ran at me and I threw him down, but three more jumped me. They got me down and started hitting me in the arms, legs and chest. Then they pulled out a knife! I thought I was about to get stabbed, but the boy with the knife grabbed my hair. I had big poofy, curly hair back then. A curly afro, but not after that night. He cut big clumps out. After I'd been partially scalped, they left.
A few nights later me, Parrish Walker and Tony Jones walked to a store across the street from our school. On the way we passed about 30 boys on the basketball courts. We got to the store, shopped for candy, and left the same way we came.
When we got back to the basketball courts all of those boys came at us! Parrish went one way, Tony went another, and I went a third. I was never a long distance runner so I got caught -- AGAIN!!! Luckily it was by someone I knew. They looked at my head, said "we already got you," and they let me go home.
A group caught Parrish on a dirt mound in back of the school. They beat him so hard that the dirt went through his overalls --and other clothes-- and covered his body! Another group caught Tony in front of the school. He pulled out a knife of his own, but they jumped him and took it. Then they hit him in the mouth and busted his lip! By the end of the night Parrish was dirty, Tony was bloody, and I was just as scalped.
That was only the beginning in Harvey. That Summer we started to see the city change. We also started to hear stories of worse gangs that hung out near the high school we'd soon be attending. In a few short months we'd see. for ourselves..
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Updated: Tuesday, 6 September 2016 6:32 PM CDT
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