Little Rock

Gang culture has plagued inner city neighborhoods for decades.. leaving parents to bury sons, fatherless children, or young mothers.. that are left to prepare daughters to meet their father on the visiting floor of a prison.. We often only focus on the sizeable effects of gang culture.. the things that we can see, like the murals on the walls of buildings, of those killed in the street.. buildings that we walk by daily, which become a constant reminder, that "this could be you" or the things that we can touch, like buck'50s on the faces of adolescents.

Gang culture is layered.. with reason, pride, purpose, and some say, stupidity. Layers that get lost in the outcome. Like those layers.. people, neighborhoods, and cities also get lost. Cities like Little Rock Arkansas... In the early 90's Little Rock became a stop for gang culture, specifically the Bloods and the Crips as its ideology made its way east from LA.

I first heard of Little Rock Arkansas in 2006 or 7.. when HBO re-aired a 1994 documentary called Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock. The documentary was crazy.. It was in real time. At a time when the killing rate was at highest in the city. The documentary detailed every aspect of gang culture within the small city of less than two thousand people.

Below, are photos from that era in Little Rock. It sheds some light has to how ingulfed the city was in gangs. Also, are a couple videos from the Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock.. More are available on YouTube.