I just watched a History Channel special this past weekend called “Gangland: Stone to the Bone” about the Blackstone Rangers. It’s all about how the gang life began in Chicago, and chronicles the life and history of the founding member, Jeff Fort.
And just today, Congressman Bobby Rush from Illinois came on TV and warned against the implications of NOT seating a black man in the Illinois Senate seat, which was vacated by Barack Obama. Shortly thereafter, the talk of Rush being a member of the Black Panther Party starting ringing some bells to me, and it drew me back to the History Channel special I had just watched. So, I decided to do a little research.
But what is the connection with the Black Panther Party, the Blackstone P Rangers (a.k.a. El Rukn), Jeff Foot and Bobby Rush? Let’s take a look at a few interesting documents, shall we?
Excerpts from Zoominfo on Jeff Fort:
On about December 18, 1968, Jeff Fort and other Blackstone Rangers were involved in a serious confrontation with members of the Black Panther Party.
During that day twelve members of the BPP and five known members of the Blackstone Rangers were arrested on Chicago’s South Side.49 A report indicates that the Panthers and Rangers were arrested following the shooting of one of the Panthers by a Ranger.49a
That evening, according to an FBI informant, around 10:30 p.m., approximately thirty Panthers went to the Blackstone Rangers’ headquarters at 6400 South Kimbark in Chicago. Upon their arrival Jeff Fort invited Fred Hampton, Bobby Rush and the other BPP members to come upstairs and meet with him and the Ranger leadership.
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Source stated that Fort then gave orders, via walkie-talkie, whereupon two men marched through the door carrying pump shotguns.

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Source related that Fort took off his jacket and was wearing a .45 caliber revolver shoulder holster with gun and had a small caliber weapon in his belt.
Source advised that nothing was decided at the meeting about the two groups actually joining forces, however, a decision was made to meet again on Christmas Day. Source stated Fort did relate that the Rangers were behind the Panthers but were not to be considered members. Fort wanted the Panthers to join the Rangers and Hampton wanted the opposite, stating that if the Rangers joined the Panthers, then together they would be able to absorb all the other Chicago gangs.
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Source advised that Fort also gave Hampton and Rush one of the above .45 caliber machine guns to “try out.”
Later from the same site:
Jeff Fort snookered politicians, used $1 million in federal War on Poverty grants to buy drugs and weapons and ran one of Chicago’s biggest crime operations.
[...]
Jeff Fort was a founder of the Blackstone Rangers, which he renamed the Black P Stone Nation in the late ’60s.
In 1987, Fort, an illiterate migrant from Mississippi, was sent away for 80 years for plotting with Libyan officials to carry out terrorist bombings against the United States for $2.5 million.He did all this while in prison on a drug conviction.
The money was for the El Rukns street gang, which the charismatic leader founded and ran for years, both from prison and the South Side.In 1988, he was given an additional 75 years for ordering the “systematic liquidation” of passersby on 43rd Street.
Ironically, Jeff Fort was lifted up on the shoulders of a Hyde Park clergyman and other 1960s liberals.The Rev. John Fry, in the belief that Fort could be a force for good, gave him space in his First Presbyterian Church to operate and testified on his behalf before a Senate subcommittee in 1968.He also helped Fort obtain almost $1 million in federal War on Poverty grants.
Now from the FBI’s Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party:
David Hilliard and Elbert “Big Man” Howard of National Headquarters and Bob Rush of Chicago BPP Chapter are likely future targets… .
Hilliard’s key position at National Headquarters makes him an outstanding target.
Howard and Rush are also key Panther functionaries; and since it was necessary for them to affirm their loyalty to Newton in “