The Savage Skulls are a mostly
Puerto Rican and
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
street gang started in the
Hunts Point area of the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
during the late 1960s, gaining popularity in the 1970s. The gang declared war on the
drug dealer
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalati ...
s operating in the Hunts Point area in the early 1970s, and was also involved in a number of running battles with rival gangs, including the Seven Immortals, Savage Nomads, and Dirty Dozen.
The gang was photographed by Jean-Pierre Laffont in 1972 and were the subject of the 1979
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
''
80 Blocks From Tiffany's.''
The leader of the gang was Felipe Mercado. Like the
Savage Nomads, gang members would appropriate
Nazi symbolism
The 20th-century German Nazi Party made extensive use of graphic symbols, especially the ''swastika'', notably in the form of the swastika flag, which became the co-national flag of Nazi Germany in 1933, and the sole national flag in 1935. A v ...
to project "how menacing and terrible they were." This included wearing ''
swastikas
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
'', wearing
Nazi helmets and having positions called "
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
" within the gang's ranks.
See also
*
Universal Zulu Nation
The Universal Zulu Nation is an international hip hop awareness group formed by and formerly led by hip hop artist Afrika Bambaataa.
The Universal Zulu Nation promotes the idea that hip-hop was created to sustain the ideals of “peace, love ...
*''
80 Blocks from Tiffany's''
*
Black Spades
The Black Spades are a mostly African-American street gang which started in the Bronx during the late 1960s and gained popularity in the 1970s. The gang began to spread from the Bronx to Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Rochelle, ...
*
Savage Nomads
*
Julio 204
JULIO 204 was a Puerto Rican resident of Inwood who wrote graffiti in his youth. He was not the first graffitist to write in New York City, even though he's usually credited as being the original New York City writer and the inspiration for Tak ...
References
{{Organized crime groups in New York City
Gangs in New York City
Street gangs
African-American gangs
Hunts Point, Bronx
1960s establishments in New York City