Gang Deconstruction

Postwar Growth and Change: 1940–1990
Gangs reemerged in the Northeast in cities such as New York during the 1950s and
1960s with rising Latino immigration and a rising population of blacks from the American
South. Although New York built large, urban high-rise public housing in the 1940s, much
of the public housing was built in low-rise form and in outer areas during the 1950s and
1960s; the effect of this was to mitigate much of the gang-on-gang violence that other
American cities suffered in that period. Although spared gang warfare, New York saw
gangs nonetheless form among the youth of the Latino and black population. By the end
of the 1960s, two-thirds of gangs in the city were black or Puerto Rican.
The reemergence of Midwestern gangs also occurred after the rapid increase in the
black population of northern American cities. During the 1910s and 1920s, the Great
Migration of more than one million blacks to these cities created large, extremely poor
populations, creating an atmosphere conducive to gang formation. The significant and
rapid migration created a large population of delinquent black youth, forming a pool of
potential gang members, while black youth athletic groups fueled rivalries that also
encouraged gang formation. A final factor encouraging gang formation was the Chicago
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