Bobby Gore was an American gang leader and activist from Chicago, Illinois.
Background
Gore was born in Cook County Hospital in Chicago to Frederick Gore, who worked at the Chicago stockyards 30 years, and his wife Susie Gore, a homemaker and housewife. Bobby and his sister grew up in a racially changing neighborhood by Damon Avenue. and Fillmore Avenue. Despite having polio, he played sports and grew up like the other kids in the neighborhood.
Career
Gore collaborated in the shift of the organizations criminal affiliations, in which the gang became a non-profit, pro-social community organization. Gore has two sisters, Josephine, and Jesse Mae Gore, both now deceased. Bobby then joined the Clovers, since they were hanging out in his Lawndale neighborhood.
The Clovers were basically a social athletic club and Bobby joined the baseball team
By 1958, the were formed by Edwin Marlon "Pepalo" Perry, and six others who were in the Saint Charles, Illinois Youth Center. At this time Gore joined them, leaving The Clovers.
The CVL would eventually have 26 branches and 10,000 members. Around the same time, to support himself Gore alternated jobs at Swift & Company and Advanced Finishing Company from 1953 until he began work for CVL, Incorporated. in 1967.
The West Chicago neighborhood of Lawndale, where the Vice Lords are from, was considered one of the most dangerous ghettos in the country at the time.
Gore came from a complex background, being involved in the Vice Lords and living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, but dreamed of a community that was more involved where the youth had a better chance at success, and sought to turn the Vice Lords into a positive organization. During Gore"s tenure, the Vice Lords attempted to change their focus. The CVL even marched with Martin Luther King, Junior.
Under the leadership of Gore, they adopted values of non-violence, equality and community cooperation.
In 1969, Gore was convicted of murder and sent to prison for 10 years. At the time, news stories appeared showing that while Gore was attempting to rebuild the CVL into a peaceful and positive organization, certain elements within the gang continued engaging in criminal activity.
After Gore went to prison, the gang openly reverted to its violent nature. Gore’s community work continued after his release in 1979.
He refused an offer back into CVL, as he disagreed with the gang"s violence and involvement in dealing drugs, believing that this destroys the community and the values he stood foreign
He had lived in south suburban Lynwood, Illinois for the last 23 years of his life.