Before Crips

Professor John Quicker and Akil Batani-Khalfani, aka Bird, met in Quicker's classroom and soon developed an easy rapport. As Bird shared his knowledge of the Slausons--a legendary 1950s/1960s gang in Los Angeles that pre-dated the infamous Crips and Bloods-- Quicker recognized Bird had firsthand experiences of gang life in South LA that predated the scholarly record. Before Crips uses their collaboration toprovide a macro historical analysis of the South Los Angeles gangs from which the Crips and Bloods emerged.

The authors mine a critical archive, using interviews with surviving gang members as well as theory and a review of gang literature, to contextualize Black gang formation and address the societal aspects of gang life. They discuss (and fuss and cuss about) topics ranging from the criminal economy and conceptions of masculinity to racial and gendered politics and views of violence. This insider/outsider history illuminates not only how gangs operated but also how they formed, developed, and grew in a backdrop of racial inequality and police brutality that came to a head with the 1965 Watts Rebellion.

Providing an essential understanding of early Los Angeles gang life, Before Crips explains what has remained constant, what has changed, and the roots of the violence that persists through life in South LA today.