| Foundedin 1958by David Barksdale, Richard Strong, Dirk Acklin, and Prince Old Timer in or nearEnglewoodHyde Park |
| Folk Nation— 1978–2000 or later; |
| Black, Red, and Blue |
| Black 1958-1969; Black and blue 1969-21st century; Black, blue and red – present |
| African American |
| III |
| Active |
Included is the story of Mickey Bull and the conquest of the Robert Taylor Homes
Minister Mickey Bull. From the look of the pic it looks 1970s.
Minister Mickey Bull 1970s
The Black Disciple history is indeed a fascinating history and a great story of how young pre-teen boys got together and formed an organization that would help fight against the civil rights injustices and wild gangs around them.
Watching: Black disciples
We will start the story back in the year 1958 to the impoverished northern half of the Hyde Park neighborhood, the impoverished southern Kenwood area and in Englewood. In Hyde Park and Kenwood wealthier white greaser youths were bullying several black youths. Hyde Park had always enforced restrictive racial covenants in the earlier times but in the late 40s it was deemed unconstitutional; therefore, black families began to move into the older northern section of the Hyde Park neighborhood. By the later 50s blacks were moving into this area and southern Kenwood at a higher rate as this area became more affordable. In Englewood, black families began moving in at a very high rate in this neighborhood causing many Italian families and Italian greasers resentment and soon bullying ensued. There were also white and black gangs from outside of Englewood, Hyde Park and Kenwood that invaded and bullied these youths.
Some of the bullied youths from Kenwood, Hyde Park and Englewood got together as friends and decided to create a club that would fight against all these enemies they had. These boys were only 11-13 years old in age and they all sat down to figure out the name of this new organization. They decided to flip through the holy bible to get ideas and that’s when it dawned on them to use the name “Disciple” in their title. The boys then added on the prefix “Devil’s” to give the name an intimidating edge to it. After that was decided the Disciples were simultaneously at 49th and Dorchester in Kenwood, 53rd and Kimbark in Hyde Park and scattered throughout Englewood between 56th Street down to 67th Street.
Some founding members were Richard “Champ” Strong, David Barksdale, Mingo Shread, Prince Old Timer, Kilroy, Leonard Longstreet, Night Walker and various others. The Disciples had no central leader in their earliest days, and they kept their business out of the press. The Disciples established headquarters at the Hyde Park intersection of 53rd and Kimbark which became their very first stronghold. The Disciples created the symbols of the star of David, pitch fork and devil’s tail with devil horns when they formed in 1958.
The first arch enemy of the Disciple was the “Rebels” which was a white gang of greasers in Englewood, West Englewood and Gage Park. There were over 2,000 Rebels and they were very racist toward blacks. Disciples also fought with other black gangs in Englewood like the Egyptian Cobras that moved to the neighborhood from the west side of Chicago in 1958. Disciples also fought with the Blackstone Raiders that had settled along Garfield Boulevard, the Raiders would eventually become the Blackstone Rangers then eventually Black P Stones.
In the year 1959 Disciples made their first expansion move as they settled in the western part of the Woodlawn community west of Woodlawn Avenue as they took over about 2/3 of the Woodlawn neighborhood. The other 1/3 was all Blackstone Ranger territory who became arch rivals along with more Egyptian Cobras that had settled there as well.
As the years of 1958 to 1961 went by the Disciples became especially powerful in northern Englewood as white flight ran its course and more black families moved in created excellent recruiting opportunities. By 1961 the Devil’s Disciples were the most powerful gang in Englewood and the Italian greaser gangs were fighting that losing war against the Disciples.
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In the year 1961, 14-year-old David Barksdale took over leadership of the Devil’s Disciples and he directly oversaw the Englewood branch of the Disciples. Barksdale appointed Mingo as President of the Disciples in Hyde Park and Kenwood that became known as “East Side Disciples.” Barksdale set to work absorbing several other small gangs on the south side turning them into Disciple gangs. These gangs would still retain their original name, but all groups would all have the last name of “Disciple.” All other branches of Disciples outside of Englewood had their own President.
The Hyde Park/Kenwood chapter was at its peak around when Barksdale took over as they had members from 43rd down to 53rd between the two neighborhoods but starting in 1960 the University of Chicago backed a program to renovate southern Kenwood and northern Hyde Park by clearing out slum buildings and renovating some the older and salvageable homes. This action would increase the value of these neighborhoods and push impoverished black families out causing most of these families to move to Englewood. As the families began moving in the early 60s the Disciples grew stronger in Englewood and gradually a new headquarters was set up at 63rd and Normal in the year 1963 because many homes were razed at 53rd and Kimbark in Hyde Park and the Kimbark Shopping Plaza was built over half of Disciple headquarters.
In the same year that David Barksdale took over power of the Disciples Richard Strong and his family moved into the Cabrini Green public housing projects that was mostly ran by various small gangs and Egyptian Cobras. Strong developed quite a following in no time and recruited several black youths into the Devil’s Disciples, this is the story of how Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples first landed in Cabrini Green.
The Devil’s Disciples were the largest gang on the south side by 1965 and before, even after the Black Stone Rangers started, Rangers were not as large. The Rangers only appeared larger because they were more outspoken to media outlets.
On the date of January 6, 1966, the Disciples perceived the Rangers as a threat due to their aggressive recruitment measures. In order to counteract this threat David Barksdale had the idea to create a unity among several gangs on the south side that mutually hated the Rangers. This was to be a coalition that would absorb these gangs under one “Disciple” nation. This new coalition would become known as the “Black Disciple nation.” The coalition expanded Disciple boundaries beyond the Englewood, Hyde Park and Kenwood area and put them in further south side neighborhoods like Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn, Washington Park as they absorbed up several small black gangs in all these communities causing Disciple numbers to grow into the thousands. Every gang that absorbed into the Black Disciple nation adopted the last name of “Disciple” added onto their name. This spreading of this nation did not gain much notoriety due to Disciples keeping the activity low key, therefore, you don’t read much about it in the history books. What you will read all about is how the rival Black Peace Stone nation spread all over the place after that nation was created in May of 1966 to counteract the Black Disciple nation, again it was because Stones were more outspoken to media outlets.
With this great expansion and the recruitment of several gangs into the Disciple nation came settlement in a part of Chicago the Disciples normally were not found. Disciples turned out some small gangs on the west side of Chicago primarily in the Near West Side community in and near the Henry Horner projects area and the Medical District section and possibly in the North Lawndale area. I don’t know exactly where the Disciples were at this time in 1966 but it was described to me as “pockets” of Disciples scattered around the west side. It was also said they had an “L” shaped territory out west in the 60s but I don’t know where. These sections of Disciples were not very significant but worth mentioning because this was the beginning of BD settlement out west which we will expand upon later in this piece.
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In 1966, the Black Disciple nation became heavily active in the community opening fund raisers, legitimate businesses, enforcing school policies to keep kids in school. There are many sources on the internet that can go into great detail about all the legit things the Black Disciple Nation and the Black Gangster Disciple nation did back in the 1960s that is very easy to find; therefore, I do not need to go into extended details about it but there was some positivity that came out of all of this. Maybe some of that money went to illegal activities but a great deal of it went into helping the community. David Barksdale used his power for some good as can be seen. The Disciples were also tied to civil rights groups and fought against civil rights injustices. In that summer of 1966 Disciples even tried a peace treaty with the Rangers, this didn’t last but at least there was a large attempt.
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