Larry Hoover's Federal Sentence Commuted by Trump
29 May 2025 – U.$. President Trump pardoned Larry Hoover, co-founder of the Gangster Disciples in Chicago, IL. Comrades in the pages of ULK have called for Hoover’s release, and drawn lessons from Hoover’s transformation over the years. Hoover had many supporters in the hip hop industry, most famously Ye, FKA Kanye West. Ye, also a New Afrikan from Chicago, is now a self-proclaimed Nazi, with connections to a President who surrounds himself with fascists and continues to enact policies to make the country “whiter” again.
Ye advocated strongly for Hoover in a 2018 meeting with Trump in the oval office, wearing a red MAGA hat. In 2021, Ye hosted a “Free Hoover” benefit concert with Drake, who Ye thanked for “helping to bring Hoover home.” on X.(1)
Hoover will still be serving a life sentence in the state of Illinois after being released from the Feds. So the commutation is mostly symbolic at this point. It is likely, however, that ey will enjoy greater freedoms in Illinois than ey did in the ADX Supermax, where ey has been languishing since a 1997 conviction for running a massive drug operation from within the Illinois DOC since being imprisoned in 1973.
In honor of this unusual turn of events, we are reprinting below an update/preface to the pamphlet “Let’s ‘Gang-Up’ on Oppression” by Atiba Shanna that addresses Larry Hoover’s transformation, and the criminal lumpen path in general, in context. The full pamphlet is available through our Free Political Books to Prisoners Program in exchange for political work.
Let’s “Gang-Up” On Oppression: Youth Organizations And The Struggle For Power In Oppressed Communities
Introduction
“…I cannot disassociate myself from the future that is proposed for my brother.” -Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, p. 89.
“…When [J. Edgar] Hoover initiated his counterintelligence [program], that was a form of genocide. They threatened to destroy anybody in the black community that was a leader. ANYBODY. So, they declared war on us 25-30 years ago, and that war is still going on right now. That’s why those in power are so afraid of our unification, because you can only keep a person [or a people] down for so long. Then when unification comes, all of us have the same damn enemy, and they can’t have that. But they can’t stop it.” - Minister Fontain, United In Peace, The Lumpen Times, Vol. 2, No. 13
Soon after the original version (Parts One and Two) of this piece was published in CROSSROAD in 1994, members of our Collective began discussing the possible need to revise and expand the piece. We felt that certain points could be more clearly and forcefully made, and that We should set out more of the political perspective of the Collective and of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM).
We became more determined to revise and expand the piece after Larry Hoover and members of the Gangster Disciples/Growth and Development were indicted by the U.S. in the fall of 1995. We felt that We had to make a public statement about these indictments as they relate to the themes of this piece, i.e., that the U.S. will target any sector of the Afrikan community (and other oppressed communities) which seeks to acquire power in order to develop the community in a revolutionary manner.
We think that note should first be taken of similar indictments, brought by the U.S. little more than ten years earlier, against Abdul Malik Kabah Khalifah (aka Jeff Fort) and members of the El Rukns. To us, it is significant that both sets of indictments were brought as the targeted organizations were involved in a process of political transformation, and each had engaged in actions which directly challenged U.S. interests, on local and/or international levels.
Subsequent to the original publication of this piece (and, after the indictment of Hoover and other members of Growth and Development), people throughout the U.S. and the world became more aware of the role played by the U.S. in creating the flood of drugs into Afrikan communities — in this instance, via the C.I.A., in the 1980s. The August, 1996, series run by the San Jose Mercury News was in no way an actual “revelation” to political activists and large numbers within the Afrikan and other oppressed communities. However, those articles did serve – as no other U.S. media coverage before them had – to reach a mass audience, generating anger and frustration, while also confirming for many their suspicions of the existence of genocidal policies and programs directed against Afrikan people within the U.S., orchestrated by the U.S. government.
People in Chicago didn’t need the Mercury News to tell them that the U.S. was, in the mid-80s, trying to flood Afrikan communities with crack cocaine – people in Chicago already knew this, because they knew that the El Rukns were, in the mid-1980s, struggling to enforce a policy that aimed to prevent the spread of crack cocaine within the city of Chicago, generally, and to prevent its spread within Chicago’s Afrikan communities, in particular.
That the El Rukns would have a policy to prevent the spread of crack didn’t seem unusual to anyone with a knowledge of the history of that organization. Dating back to the 1960s, the El Rukns and other street organizations in Chicago had involved themselves with the Civil Rights and the Black Power/Nationalist movements. They had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. over housing issues; they had demonstrated for jobs for construction workers. Even though on occasion they had been tricked into playing reactionary roles in certain struggles in the city (not unlike so many of the so-called “legitimate” political, religious, and business forces within the Afrikan community), they had made great strides to become part of the revolutionary nationalist thrust of our people in the 1960s and early 1970s.
By the early 1980s, Abdul Malik and the El Rukns had begun to take new initiatives in their program of progressive political transformation, and they had already seen what crack cocaine was doing to the Afrikan communities in places like New York and Los Angeles. The El Rukn policy against the entry of crack into Chicago was intended to prevent the inevitable devastation of the Afrikan community that was sure to follow its sale and use. Therefore, We believe that it was no accident that the entry and rapid spread of crack cocaine in Chicago coincided with the attack by the U.S. and Chicago authorities upon the El Rukns in the mid-1980s!
When the U.S. indicted Larry Hoover in 1995, they claimed (for public consumption) that he had been involved in the sale of drugs “for the past twenty years” – failing to remind us that the U.S. government itself had played a major role in creating both the supply and the demand for drugs in our communities! Moreover, no one thought to ask why the U.S. waited until 1994 to begin the investigation that led to the 1995 indictment!
We suggest that Larry Hoover and the other members of Growth and Development weren’t targeted and indicted for their involvement in the drug scene, but rather, that they were indicted because they were trying to get out of that scene and enter an arena that the U.S. feels that it must control at all costs: electoral politics, particularly in oppressed communities.
Everyone in the Afrikan community with eyes and ears knows that Hoover was indicted because, over the past ten years (at least) he’s led the “Gangster Disciples” in a process of transition into an organization to become known as “Growth and Development”. This new organization was inspired by a new concept, which had it well on its way in a process of political, economic, and social transformation that had begun to present a serious challenge to the power of the local political machine and its lackeys within the Afrikan community.
Let there be no mistake: We are not trying to glorify or romanticize Larry Hoover, the G.D.’s, the El Rukns, nor any street organization. What We are saying, in part, is that Hoover’s indictment did not result from the U.S. governments concern for the devastation of Afrikan communities caused by drug sales and drug use. Rather, We believe that Hoover was indicted (just as Abdul Malik before him), because of the new vision that he had acquired and which he was trying to share with other street organizations not only in Chicago, but throughout the U.S.! He was indicted because, for example, he (and others) had worked and were continuing to work to maintain a peace among street organizations, so that they could begin to redirect their energies in ways that would ensure the survival of their people, and the development of their communities.
In a 1993 “Call for Peace” directed toward all Chicago street organizations, Larry Hoover said:
“The time is NOW for a total refocusing of our efforts, away from nonproductive distractions and other elements of temptations, and focus toward those disciplines that will make us real men in our communities. We must stop the gangbanging and drive-bys. Our race is being destroyed by the killing of our own youth. We must stop hating one another because of the color jacket or hat that is worn, or the way a person wears his hat. These actions only feed the fire to destruction.
“And finally, in my sincere appeal for peace and unity: Those of us that have experienced being our brothers’ keeper — We must educate our members around us. Education brings about awareness. Awareness generates the ability to think. Our youth must know the end result of crime is shame, disgrace, and imprisonment to themselves, as well as the community. We must come to the point of outlawing those who willfully disrupt our communities and our call for peace and unity. Crime must not be accepted as the normal way of doing things. For We are all together, riding in the same boat, passengers on the river of destruction. If we don’t take heed to these few words, we’re going to drown together in the sea of destruction.”
We’re saying: it was no accident that the U.S. investigation which led to Hoover’s indictment began during the 1994 election campaign. In a “Call for Action” urging prisoner/street organization involvement in that campaign, Hoover reminded his readers that: “…Our women and children are suffering greatly at the hands of an oppressive, dominant, racist political system….As proud Black Men and Brown Men, we can no longer afford this forced luxury of non-involvement or non-participation. As men unable to physically claim our rightful place as heads of households, the question remains: How can we contribute within our limited capacities? Man to man i say to you: If We accept a partial responsibility for the plight of our own, then we must take an active role in the game of “Politics”. I challenge each of you to accept the obligation to personally guarantee that each adult member (18 and older) of your family and within your circle of friends, registers to vote and participates in the November elections. (Not less than 5 people)….”
Not only did candidates supported by Growth and Development nearly unseat incumbents, but significant numbers of people were registered and gotten to the polls; GD’s acted as poll-watchers and drew the wrath of the Chicago police: “When the young people participated in the electoral process (as election judges, poll-watchers, getting people to the polls, etc.), they had more problems from the police on election day than on any day they may have been on a corner selling crack or shooting at someone.” (Interview with Larry Hoover).
Through the efforts of the 21st Century V.O.T.E. organization, Growth and Development had begun to inspire political activism and self-esteem among sectors of the community that had heretofore seen no future for themselves arising from the electoral process. They had begun to look toward future elections with a new sense of purpose and direction. Growth and Development had led or participated in numerous marches and demonstrations in the few years preceding the U.S. indictments, challenging the policies of the local school board and the state department of education; they had challenged policies of the state department of corrections and the state parole board, particularly with regard to the vicious practice of withholding parole from “C-Number” prisoners; they had challenged the health care practices of county and city-run clinics; they had started mentoring and monitoring programs in several public schools. They had begun the development of an economic base by starting Ghetto Prisoner Clothing – which also became a target of U.S. government and city efforts of disruption (e.g., in Chicago and throughout Illinois, young people wearing the clothing were targets of police harassment; stores selling the clothing were intimidated; shipments of the clothing were sabotaged). The G.D.s had also started Save The Children Promotions which, among other things, had sponsored free Halloween parties for children living in the Cabrini Green, Henry Horner and other housing projects, for three consecutive years, held at the Chicago Amphitheater. It also sponsored rap concerts and other events, which generated funds that went to support other community service projects. In the words of Larry Hoover:
“The reason I went from”G.D.” (Gangster Disciple) to “G.D.” (Growth and Development) is so that in the transition I don’t loose 70 percent of the following…. It’s definitely going to be a problem; nothing happens spontaneously – it will take time. Any organization or movement is usually pushed by 10% – when you got a key 10% to start moving in a direction and start making progress, and start getting tangible things that our people can see and feel, then they will feel better about transitions. You got to give them something other than rhetoric. We’re so used to being talked to, and tricked, that you got to show them something….All these things guys can point to and associate with themselves – something positive, something other than selling crack and drive-by shootings.
“There is no difference between us because we are in different organizations. We are all black people. When we get in front of the judge, he don’t ask if you are a GD, BD, Vice Lord or El Rukn… He don’t say”Because you’re in one organization, you’ll get 2 years, and the guys in the other organizations will get 10 years.” All of us are black, and we’ll all get 10 years. It shows that we are all one people, and if We don’t come together with each other then we are all going to perish.
“What we have to do is get together the conscientious progressive thinkers within these organizations that know that they have to make a change in order to survive… We have to put together a concerted effort by all segments of our community – clergy, business, activists, and progressive thinkers within street organizations. You have to go within these organizations in order to change them… You can’t just write-off a generation….
“It is time for black men from all over the country to realize what has happened to us as a people, and that while much of it can be attributed to outside forces we have to begin to take responsibility for ourselves. We are a power – a sleeping giant – and all we have to do is become conscious enough to rise….”
We close this introduction as We began it, standing on the words of Fanon: We cannot disassociate ourselves from the fate proposed for our brothers and sisters. We urge all members of the Afrikan community in particular, and other oppressed communities, to also take a stand on these words. Our entire community – but especially the (nationalist) activists of our community – must intervene in the struggles of the “street force” to join the entire people in the war for our independence and progressive national development.
Our Collective also takes a stand upon the New Afrikan CREED, which affirms our belief in the community and in the family… our belief in the community AS a family. The CREED affirms our belief in collective struggle, and in fashioning victory in concert with our brothers and sisters – whom We must love as We love ourselves; with whom We must be patient and uplifting – and work to bring into the community and into the Movement – on pain of disgrace and banishment.
An attack upon “gangs” in our communities by the U.S. is an attack upon us all – and We must intervene. We must protect our brothers and sisters, and We must encourage and assist them in their continued pursuit of new values, new ideas, attitudes and behaviors that are more conducive to our collective survival and development.
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