Folk Nation
Folk Nation

Folk Nation

In April 1978, Black Gangster Disciple leader Larry Hoover organized a work stoppage among prisoners.  The reason for the stoppage was prisoners being served rotten food and overall being treated poorly.  Most prisoners agreed with Larry Hoover even his rivals were on board.  This protest caused Larry to organize a coalition between gangs in order to participate in this revolt.  Larry got together with his allies and enemies and organized the Folk and People alliances.  His allies would become Folk and his enemies would become People.  During the work stoppage Folk and People were allies behind bars, after the revolt they went back to their rivalries, however, these coalitions allowed for negotiations between the rival groups to ease and control gang wars behind bars.

The organizations that joined Folk in 1978 were Black Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Simon City Royals, Insane Popes, Spanish Cobras, Maniac Latin Disciples, Imperial Gangsters, Latin Eagles, Satan Disciples, Ambrose, Two Six and Ashland Vikings.

In the year 1980, Imperial Gangster leader Ronnie “Mad Dog” Carrasquillo and Maniac Latin Disciple Victor “King Vic” Gomez drew up the “Spanish Gangster Disciple” concepts in prison which governed all the Hispanic Folk alliance gangs that were considered “Latin Folks.”  This governing was approved and oversaw by Larry Hoover and it effectively took more organizations into the Folk alliance as they joined SGD.  The main new organizations joining Folk in prison were: Harrison Gents, Milwaukee Kings, Latin Lovers, Latin Stylers, Orquestra Albany and Two Two Boys.

In the year 1981, the Folk and People nations opened their doors to allowing more gangs to join.  The big push started in that year when Michael “Mickey Bull” Johnson of the Black Disciples and Richard “Cold Black” Dordies of the Black Gangster Disciples were released from prison that year.  Both men preached of the difference between Black Disciple and Black Gangster Disciple and divided the public housing projects.  They also gave the streets Folk knowledge and all gangs that joined Folk, Hispanic, white and black all now knew they were Folks.

In the year 1983, Folk and People nation bylaws were enforced on the streets and symbols and fashion trends were made official.  The Folk nation represented the right handed side while the People nation represented the left handed side.  The alliances became very strong in the mid-1980s but by the late 1980s the alliances were hard to control.  By 1988-1992 the Folk and People nation bylaws could no longer be enforced on the streets as the drug trade went wild.  The alliances still exist but no longer guarantee peace.

In the later 1980s Folk on Folk violence between gangs began to play out as Two Two Boys and Ambrose both went to war with Two Six; the Satan Disciples and Ambrose went to war and Two Six and Satan Disciples also went into a violent war.

In the early 1990s relations worsened between Folks and most shocking was the war between Black Disciples and Black Gangster Disciples that caused the Black Gangster Disciples to become known as “Gangster Disciples.”  Relations between Folks became increasingly divided by the mid 1990s into the late 90s as north side gangs began to war with each other, like the infamous wars of the Insanes and the Maniacs.