The author tells about his one-year experiment teaching gang members from South Central Los Angeles in a one-room schoolhouse in 1982; and shares his experiences with gangs on the Salt River Reservation, Arizona, where the community takes a very different response to the problem of gang violence.
Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the notorious L.A. gang the Crips, recounts his involvement with the gang, his experiences in prison, and his efforts to discourage others from following in his violent path.
Chronicles a year spent in the ghettos of South Central Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Milwaukee, following girl gangs, tracing the lives of several key gang members, and looking at the issues that drove them into a life of violence.
what gangs taught me about violence, drugs, love, and redemption
Leap, Jorja
2012
When the author began studying Los Angeles gang violence in 2002, a child or teenager was killed by gunfire every three hours and homicide was the leading cause of death for African American males between the ages of fifteen and thiry-four. Not much has changed today. Going beyond the statistics, she got to know murderers, drug dealers, victims and grieving mothers as she seached for answers to stop the violence.
Tommy, Brad, Andy, and Shane struggle to find their way in their senior year of high school, and despite their differing backgrounds, they forge an unlikely friendship.
Crips and Bloods tell the story of America's youth in the crossfire
Jah, Yusuf
1995
Former members of Los Angeles gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, talk about the reconciliation that took place after the 1992 riots and the need to continue to work together to improve the lives of the African-American people.
Background information on the history of gangs in America precedes first-person accounts by four gang members from different backgrounds and with differing ideas about the role of gangs in their lives.
A memoir in which Dashaun Mooris describes his experiences as a member of the Bloods gang in Phoenix, explaining how and why he got involved with the gang, the violence that derailed his chance at playing professional football, and how his time in prison changed his perspective on life.
