My high school in the South Suburbs of Cook County (Chicagoland) was about 1/3 black back in the late 60s. We knew about the BlackStone Rangers and the other black gangs "up North" in the City, but didn't think it affected us. Until the day I went to his locker with one of the guys I wrestled with and saw him pull a pistol out of his locker and put it in his gym bag. When I asked him why he had a gun, he said "Gotta have my heat or the _____ will beat my ____". Even so, we didn't hear about many shootings among the kids our age at that point; the organized violence came much later.
