In the late 1960s, gang members rose up in North Lawndale and fought for the life of their community. They called themselves Conservative Vice Lords Inc. With funding from major foundations they organized youth, protested unfair housing policies and working conditions, opened small businesses, and fought for peace and racial equality.​​​

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Regarded by some as innovative grassroots organizers and others as violent criminals, the history of CVL Inc. provides a lens for understanding the potential of grassroots organizing in urban communities.​​

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This evolving, multi-site project was created by a partnership between the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and former members of the Conservative Vice Lords, led by CVL spokesman Bobby Gore and Benny Lee, founder of the National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated.​​

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This project is made possible in part by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the General Assembly; the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and with support from The College of Architecture and the Arts and In These Times.​

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