Gang Leader for a Day’ (Summary)

by Sudhir Venkatesh

“I woke up at about 7:30 A.M. in a crack den, Apartment 1603 in Building Number 2301 of the Robert Taylor Homes.”

Sudhir, the main subject, and author, was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. In his first few weeks, he received an offer for a research position from a well-known scholar who was in search of better understanding how young blacks were affected by specific neighborhood factors. Sudhir accepted the position, and instead of researching historical documents while being cooped up in the library, like his fellow students, he cemented himself right in the middle of the gang, attempting to learn what really happens behind closed doors, or in this case, on the streets.

Where were the real stories? What was happening right now? He quickly learned of the Robert Taylor Homes, which according to his research, was one of the worst communities in the nation — ridden with drug lords, gang wars, and prostitution. But, hidden behind the walls and in the stairwells, was a story of a community working together to stay alive.

Sudhir found his way into the lobby of the Robert Taylor Homes, where the flow of traffic was like a New York deli, people coming inside, grabbing bags, exchanging money, and heading out faster than they came in. As he approached the elevator, he felt heavy eyes locked onto each step. He hadn’t come for the crack, he was on a different mission. He ventured up the stairwell and approached each door with caution. Sudhir’s palms began to sweat, and his hands started to shake. He stumbled upon an apartment door that was open; some guys tossed vulgarities at him but after realizing Sudhir’s lack of aggression, invited him in. These men were a part of the Black Kings, one of the top gangs in Chicago. JT, one of the leaders, stopped by the open apartment, and to his surprise, noticed Sudhir. Before punishing him, JT wanted to know his purpose, who he was with, why had he come? Sudhir’s tie-dye shirt and ponytail wasn’t enough to convince JT of his peaceful intentions. However, after the guys finished grilling Sudhir with questions, and the beer was flowing, JT began to warm up to the Indian-looking kid. He mentioned to Sudhir that he would never learn asking dumb-ass questions, like, “How does it feel to be black and poor?” — “Very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good.” If he wanted to learn about the underground gang life, and African Americans, he needed to hang out to actually understand the intricacies of the Black Kings. After spending the night in the crack house, he awoke at 7:30 AM and returned to his home.

A few days later, Sudhir returned to the Robert Taylor homes, only this time, he brought beer. The gang members, including JT, noticed him approaching, this time howling with laughter — was this kid serious? He was. He came to ‘hang out’.

The friendship of Sudhir and JT begins.

Sudhir finds himself witness to drive-bys, prostitution, crack deals gone wrong, cops facilitating drug trades, and beatings of internal gang members. But, he also managed to see how gang members look out for each other, the never-ending effort of the Moms in the apartment, and the unique hustle that each tenant possessed. Instead of suffocating on their collective path to demise, they had hope as their oxygen, which kept them fighting for another day, that, and crack cocaine.

“After nearly three years of hanging out with J.T., I began talking to several of my professors about my dissertation topic. As it happened, they weren’t as enthusiastic as I was about an in-depth study of the Black Kings crack gang and its compelling leader. They were more interested in the standard sociological issues in the community: entrenched poverty, domestic violence, the prevalence of guns, residents’ charged relations with the government — and, to a lesser extent, how the community dealt with the gang.”

One day, Sudhir asks JT what was so hard about being a gang leader. The silence was piercing, and after a short conversation, mixed with laughter, JT enlists Sudhir to be the gang leader for a day.

“One day,” he said. “Take it or leave it. That’s all I’m saying. One day.”

JT had a strict schedule, that of a CEO: meetings, strategy sessions, planning, and finance talks. But, unlike a CEO, he had another job, the most frightening of all. He had to reward the best drug dealers. Punish the tenants who didn’t abide by his rules, which included paying rent on a building he didn’t own. Then, taxing them on their drug deals. Sudhir quickly realized this was no easy task, certainly not as easy as he once thought. Some decisions were easy to make, like, who would clean up the mess after last night’s party. But some decisions weren’t as natural, like, who deserved to sell drugs on the busiest corner in Chicago. Recently, there had been a gang fight. The members of the Black Kings were being punished for crossing the line, JT had a decision to make, but Sudhir was the leader on this day, so he called the shots. His ruling? The squatters who caused the fight were banned for one week, allowing for another group of Black Kings to sell drugs on that particular corner. Some of the gang members were impressed by Sudhir’s decision-making, commending him for a job well done.

At the end of Sudhir’s day, he was exhausted and vowed never to question the difficulty of JT’s job again. The hierarchy of the gang was fascinating. I was shocked to hear how close the structure mimicked almost every business in America. First you had your squatters, the interns of the gang. Then, you had your officers, the ones who presided over the interns. You also had your ‘captains’ and ‘lieutenants’, and finally, above them, was the ‘board of directors’. Sound familiar?

Although Sudhir was never a gang leader again, he learned what it was like to be one, and how important JT’s role was. Later on, JT invited Sudhir to a regional Black Kings meeting; these were the creme de la creme of gang leaders, and after JT’s promotion, he regularly attended. At these meetings, they discussed the crack inventory, the areas of need, and how to execute their larger vision, which was to establish these drug businesses in more areas, outside of Chicago. The board of directors promoted JT because of his success at the Robert Taylor Homes. The leaders were beginning to realize the possibility of a dwindling drug market in Chicago and were looking for new territory.

Throughout the book, Sudhir and JT bonded, not necessarily out of friendship, but out of a need for each other. Sudhir needed JT to learn about the inner-workings of the gang. And for JT, well, he thought Sudhir was writing his biography. And, although Sudhir learned a lot about one of the most compelling gang leaders in Chicago, he later tells us that he wasn’t there for all those years just to report JT’s life.

Sudhir spent close to a decade documenting everything he could about the gang, their role in society, and the effects it had on the surrounding communities.

Towards the end of the book, Bill Clinton passed a bill to tear down the Robert Taylor Homes, with plans to renovate the dilapidated building. When complete, the idea was to bring back half of the tenants. Everyone knew what this meant: they were fucked. Thousands and thousands of people would be without a home, and likely never to have a permanent home again. Clinton kept half of his promise; they renovated the building, but it was now open to middle-class families and the tenants vacated.

As the book comes to an end, so does Sudhir’s encounters with the Black Kings.

“It was a late Sunday morning in November 1998, and I was waiting outside J.T.’s building one last time. About a half dozen Robert Taylor buildings had already been torn down, and his was due for demolition within a year. Nearby businesses had started to close, too. The whole place was beginning to feel like a ghost town. I had changed as well. Gone were the tie-dyed shirts and the ponytail, replaced by the kind of clothes befitting an edgy young Ivy League professor. And also a leather briefcase.”

Sudhir would spend the majority of the next decade keeping track of the Robert Taylor Homes’ former tenants. His research would finally come in handy, when he met the economist, Steven Levitt. They posted several articles based on Sudhir’s research, specifically involving the finances of a gang (that Sudhir had acquired, from a Black Kings member).

And, if you’re wondering, Sudhir claims at the end of the book that he still sees JT from time to time ☺

JT always said,

“you’re either with me, or you’re with someone else.”

I’d like to think that Sudhir saved JT’s life, and throughout his journey, he realized he was with JT the entire time.

‘Gang Leader For A Day’ was my favorite book so far. I couldn’t put it down, and clearly, by my abnormally long summary, I enjoyed it. Out of all the books, I’d highly suggest this one, it’s a free pass to be in a gang without getting trouble, you should take it.

Favorite Quotes

• “I saw something out of the corner of my eye that stopped me cold: a small garden bursting with bright orange, red, and purple geraniums. In this vast stretch of concrete and patchy lawn, littered with broken bottles, used condoms, and empty crack vials, here was an oasis. I laughed to myself. Why hadn’t I ever noticed it before? I’d been so caught up with gangs, political chicanery, and the life of poverty that I had missed something so beautiful right there in front of me. What else had I missed because of my incessant drive to hustle?”
• *in reference to JT* “But he was obviously a huge part of my life. For all the ways in which I had become a rogue sociologist, breaking conventions and flouting the rules, perhaps the most unconventional thing I ever did was embrace the idea that I could learn so much, absorb so many lessons, and gain so many experiences at the side of a man who was so far removed from my academic world. I can still hear J.T.’s voice when I’m on the streets far away from Chicago, somewhere in the unruly Paris suburbs or the ghettos of New York, hanging around and listening to people’s stories.”
• “you’re either with me, or you’re with someone else.”

Should you read this book? Absolutely.