Jersey City Gangs
An ex-Jersey City gang member (Wolfman) from the 1950s had this to say:
In Jersey City we lived in the Greenville section near Bayonne. The only white Clubs so called Gangs were The Romans, The Loffers, The Lords, The Impressions, and yes their was rivalry between us. The Black and Puerto Rican clubs stayed downtown and mostly to themselves in the fifties, but started to move into our neighborhoods in the late fifties, early sixties, as white flight took hold. The Alquintos, The Mopos, The Chingalings, The Bee Bopers, The Top Hats, and also had chapters in New York City. The only Projects I can remember and the most notorious were the Ducan Ave Projects and the newly built Currie Woods Projects which was built in the South Greenville section of Jersey City and caused a lot of the white flight (including my Mom & Dad) in that area. That is when I got drafted into the Army Sept 1963 and got out in Sept 1965 and lived in Old Bridge NJ before moving to CA in 1966.
Does anybody know the difference between a Gang and a Club? Does anybody remember the east side kids or the bowery boys? Everybody today (including law enforcement) has taken the word Gang and put a negative spin on it. I belonged to a club in Jersey City NJ back in the fifty's Called the Romans mostly Italian Americans and we use to hang out at triangle park as most of us lived in the neighborhood. Some guys worked or went to school some did not. We all had cool reversible Roman jackets. Most of us came from middle class blue collar families. If you would like to know more about clubs and gangs see the movie Gangs of New York this is best movie on the subject as most Gangs are born out of poverty and ethnicity including the New York City Police and Fire departments.