Revisting Gangs in the Post-World War II North American City: A Forum

City gangs in North America have been a subject of international historical debate, as many authors have explored it. Andrew Diamond's (2009) Mean Streets: Chicago Youths and the Everyday Struggle for Empowerment in the Multiracial City, 1908-1969 represent some of the most influential and sophisticated attempts to revise and reinterpret city gangs. Mean Streets offers an even-handed account of the involvement of Chicago's black supergangs in the politics of black power and community uplift between 1966 and 1969. Will Cooley, an assistant professor of history at Walsh University, challenges several arguments in the chapters of Mean Streets through his article, 'Stones Run It'. In challenging the book's analysis for allegedly overemphasizing black community support for gangs, he refers to the statement that 'gangs were the most effective grassroots organizations capable of bringing such solidarities into existence. Diamond also charges that 'Stones Run It' merely reinforces the predominant narrative casting gangs as undisciplined criminal profiteers.