Jeff Fort

Fort was the second of ten children born to John Fort {{citation needed|date=March 2020}} and Annie Fort (née Bacon; d. 2010)[https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-bn-xpm-2010-08-11-28516361-story.html Family of ex-gang leader "Jeff Fort sues PBS"], chicagotribune.com, August 11, 2010; retrieved March 12, 2020.[https://www.courthousenews.com/family-says-pbs-crew-intruded-on-funeral "Family Says PBS Crew Intruded on Funeral"], August 13, 2010; retrieved March 12, 2020. in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He moved with his family to the Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago's South Side in 1955. He dropped out of Hyde Park High School after the ninth grade.

Fort spent time at Cook County temporary juvenile detention center and at the Illinois State Training School for Boys in St. Charles, where he met Eugene "Bull" Hairston.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Around 1959, Fort and Hairston formed the Blackstone Rangers gang at St. Charles Juvenile Detention Center. The Blackstone Rangers originated as a small youth gang along Blackstone Avenue in the Woodlawn area, assembled to defend themselves against other gangs in the South Side. Hairston was the gang's leader with Fort as second in command. The Rangers fought rival gangs, especially the Devil's Disciples.{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Donnie|title=Gangland|chapter=Black Peace Stone Nation|publisher=Holy Fire Publishing|year=2004|isbn=0-9761112-4-1|pages=71–72}} During the early 1960s, Fort earned the nickname "Angel" for his ability to solve disputes and form alliances between the Rangers and other gangs.

By the mid 1960s, Fort assembled a coalition of 21 gangs with about 5,000 members. He organized the coalition under a governing body called the "Main 21", composed of 21 gang leaders or "generals". As the Ranger organization grew, it became involved in community and political activism. The gang also received support from a Presbyterian minister, Rev. John Fry, who advised Hairston and Fort how to manage their organization.

In 1967, under Rev. Fry's guidance, Fort obtained a charter from the State of Illinois to form a political organization, Grassroots Independent Voters of Illinois. Fort's organization applied for and received a US$1 million federal grant from the now-defunct Office of Economic Opportunity to fund a program to teach job skills to gang members. The Rangers also received grants and loans from private foundations.{{cite book|last=Jacobs|first=James B.|title=Grassroots Independent Voters of Illinois|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1978|isbn=0-226-38977-4|pages=140–42|url=https://archive.org/details/statevillepenite00jac_ar4/page/140|access-date=July 15, 2020}}

Unlike many gangs, the Blackstone Rangers were not considered outsiders but had been largely accepted by Chicago society, with Jeff Fort even receiving an invitation from President Richard Nixon, following the 1968 election, to attend the 1969 inaugural ball. Fort declined this invitation, sending his "top man" Mickey Cogwell and one of his "generals" in his stead.Timmerman, Kenneth. Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson (2002).

After Hairston was imprisoned in 1966, Fort assumed command of the Rangers. By 1968, he renamed it to the Almighty Black P. Stone Nation or Black P. Stones. The Stones engaged in robberies, extortion, and forced recruitment while also acting to keep order in the South Side. The Stones also gained control of vice in the South Side, demanding protection payments from prostitution operations and drug dealers.

In 1969 the jobs program came under investigation amid accusations that grant money was diverted to criminal activities. Fort was subpoenaed to testify before a Senate committee. Fort introduced himself at the committee hearings and walked out; for this, he was convicted of contempt of Congress.{{cite news|last=McPherson|first=James A.|title=Chicago's Blackstone Rangers (II)|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/196906/blackstone-rangers|work=Atlantic Monthly|date=June 1969|access-date=2008-02-10}}

In 1972, Fort and two others were convicted of misusing federal funds and Fort was sentenced to five years in prison. Fort served two years at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth and was paroled in 1976. During his time at Leavenworth, Fort converted to Islam and assumed the name Prince Malik.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

After his release from prison in 1976, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and joined the Moorish Science Temple. Fort then renamed the Black P. Stones to the El Rukn Tribe of the Moorish Science Temple, El Rukn being Arabic for "the pillar". In 1978, Fort returned to Chicago. In a coup, he replaced the Stones' 21 generals with five close allies and renamed the Black P. Stone Nation to El Rukn. In early–1977, Fort purchased The Oakwood, an old vacant movie theater located at 3947 South Drexel Ave., as their headquarters, naming it The Fort.[http://www.uic.edu/orgs/kbc/ganghistory/UrbanCrisis/Blackstone/Temple.html The Blackstone Rangers], uic.edu; accessed July 15, 2020.[https://books.google.com/books?id=QCtjCgAAQBAJ&dq=jeff+fort+wife+diane&pg=PA167 "The Almighty Black P Stone Nation"], books.google.com; accessed July 15, 2020.

Law enforcement speculated the motive for the conversion was to take advantage of restrictions on law enforcement surveillance over religious organizations. During the 1970s, the gang trafficked in cocaine and heroin.

In 1983, Fort was convicted of drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution at Bastrop, Texas. Fort continued to lead El Rukn through daily telephone calls from prison. He ordered members of El Rukn to meet with Libyan officials. The gang agreed to commit terrorist acts in the U.S. in exchange for US$2.5 million.{{cite news|last=Schmidt|first=William E.|title= Chicago Journal; U.S. Squares Off Against Tough Gang|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDB1131F936A35752C1A961948260|work=The New York Times|date=1987-11-05|access-date=2007-12-29}}{{cite news|author=Don Terry|title=In Chicago Courtroom, Nation's First Super Gang Fights for Life|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4D9173CF93AA25756C0A967958260|work=The New York Times|date=1991-05-19|access-date=2007-12-28}}

In 1987, Fort was tried and convicted for conspiring with Libya to perform acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of a foreign government. He was sentenced to 80 years' imprisonment, consecutive to his drug trafficking sentence, and transferred to USP Marion (the federal prison in Marion, Illinois).{{cite news|last=Rossi|first=Rosalind|title=How the Law Won War With El Rukns|work=Chicago Sun-Times|date=1992-08-24|quote=Jeff Fort, serving 155 years at the federal prison in Downstate Marion}} In 1988, Fort was convicted of ordering the 1981 murder of a rival gang leader. He was sentenced to 75 years in prison, to be served consecutively with his conspiracy sentence.{{cite news |title=GANG CHIEF GUILTY IN RIVAL'S SLAYING|work=The New York Times|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DA1030F933A15753C1A96E948260|date=1988-10-20|access-date=2007-12-21}}{{cite news|last=Rossi|first=Rosalind|title=75 more years for Fort 4 other Rukns draw stiff terms|work=Chicago Sun-Times|date=1988-11-15|page=3}}

Fort was transferred to the newly opened ADX Florence supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, in 2006 and remains there as of 2025, being under a no-human-contact order since his arrival.{{cite news|title=Crime Elite Moving To Rockies 'Alcatraz'|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=1994-12-27}}

Fort's daughter, Ameena Matthews, became an anti-violence activist (or "violence interrupter") in Chicago with the Al Hafeez Initiative. Matthews was featured in the 2011 documentary film The Interrupters.{{cite web | last=Khan | first=Azmat | title=Meet The Interrupters | website=FRONTLINE | date=2012-02-14 | url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/meet-the-interrupters/ | access-date=2020-03-01}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |author=United States |title=Organized crime : 25 years after Valachi : hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, second session, April 11, 15, 21, 22, 29, 1988. |publisher=U.S G.P.O. |pages=1157 |year=1988 |oclc=19099088}}
• {{cite book |author=United States |title=Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993 |pages=1071 |publisher=U.S. G.P.O. |location=Washington, D.C. |year=1992| oclc=27189912}}
• {{cite book |last=Useem |first=Bert |author2=Peter Kimball |title=States of Siege: U.S. Prison Riots, 1971-1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-19-505711-2 |pages=64–65}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.ngcrc.com/bpsn2003.html |title=GANG PROFILE UPDATE: The Black P. Stone Nation (BPSN) |author=George W. Knox |publisher=National Gang Crime Research Center |access-date=2008-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118031045/http://www.ngcrc.com/bpsn2003.html |archive-date=2008-01-18 |url-status=dead }}

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Category:Living people

Category:1947 births

Category:African-American Muslims

Category:African-American gangsters

Category:Almighty Black P. Stone Nation

Category:Gang members

Category:People from Aberdeen, Mississippi

Category:American people imprisoned on terrorism charges

Category:American drug traffickers

Category:Inmates of ADX Florence

Category:Gangsters from Chicago

Category:People convicted on terrorism charges

Category:Converts to Islam

Category:Members of the Moorish Science Temple of America

Category:21st-century African-American people

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:Muslims from Mississippi