Former Vice Lords Chiefs Now Going a Round for the Kids
This cadre of Lawndale men — young and old — watch over not just Penn Elementary but also nearby Dvorak and Lathrop elementary schools.
They track down truant kids, talk to their families, intervene when fights break out and recruit young men from across the neighborhood into the boxing program, which has swollen to more than 80 kids.
Fitzpatrick and Brown believe it’s up to them — and that no one is more qualified — to reshape this wrecked neighborhood.
They recognize few outside Lawndale are going to trust them, knowing their history. And they’ve done little to this point in their lives to deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Brown, seated in a 16th Street barber shop he co-owns, just blocks from Penn Elementary, brushed off any skepticism.
“I don’t care what anybody thinks,” he said, flashing a glint of the defiance that made him a leader. “I know what I’m doing now.”
Article Submission: Bobby Ward
Article Appeared@http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ct-sun-vice-lords-school-20100507,0,7963314.story
Article Appeared in The Black Truth News Volume 3 Issue 3 March 2012