Founded | 1959 |
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Named after | Blackstone Avenue |
Founding location | Woodlawn, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Years active | 1959–present |
Territory | Primarily concentrated in Chicago, some areas of NW Indiana, Michigan, and the neighborhood of Baldwin Village in Los Angeles Rockford Illinois, very populuated on the north side of Rockford Illinois with tons of sets that claim “Black P Stone”. |
Ethnicity | Predominantly African American |
Membership | 6,000–8,000+[1] |
Activities |
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Allies | |
Rivals | |
Notable members | Jeff Fort Eugene "Bull" Hairston |
The Almighty Black P. Stone Nation (often abbreviated as BPS, BPSN, Black Peace Stones, Black P. Stones, Stones, or Moes) is an American street gang founded in Chicago. The gang was originally formed in the late 1950s as the Blackstone Rangers. The organization was co-founded by Eugene Hairston and Jeff Fort. In later years, under Fort's leadership, an Islamic faction of the gang emerged, naming themselves the "El Rukn tribe of the Moorish Science Temple of America" (or simply El Rukn, Arabic for "the pillar" or "the foundation").[2][3][4] They eventually started describing themselves as Orthodox Sunni Muslims. Jeff Fort changed their fort name from El Rukn Moorish Science Mosque, to El Rukn Sunni Masjid al-Malik.[5][6]
Considered by law enforcement authorities to be Chicago's most powerful and sophisticated street gang,[7] the BPSN finances itself through a wide array of criminal activities and is part of the large Chicago gang alliance known as the People Nation.[8] Under Fort's command, the BPSN assumed an increasingly revolutionary outlook as it became associated with the black nationalism movement, eventually attracting the attention of the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who introduced them to Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and Nicaragua's Sandinistas. In 1986 four of its members were indicted for conspiring to commit terrorist acts in the United States for the Libyan Government.[2][7] The verdict marked the first time American citizens had been found guilty of planning terrorist acts for a foreign government in return for money.[9]