Death of David Barksdale and Disciple takeover
In 1974, after Barksdale died of kidney failure stemming from injuries incurred in a 1970 assassination attempt, Hoover took over the reins of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation. In honor of King David he renounced the title of King but deemed himself the leader of the organization. His second in Command Ike Taylor then proclaimed Larry Hoover chairman of the gang in honor of his own relationship to slain Black Panther leader Fred Hampton . At the time, the Disciples had control of Chicago's South Side turf. Under Hoover's rule, the Black Gangster Disciple Nation took over a majority of the Chicago drug trade. In 1978, while incarcerated, Hoover formed the Folks Nation, which added all gangs in his personal likeliness and interest to relate to the BGDN such as the Maniac Latin Disciples, Ambrose, the Two-Two Boys, Gangster Two-Six, Simon City Royals, North Side Insane Popes, La Raza Nation, Spanish Cobras, Imperial Gangsters, Harrison Gents, and the Latin Eagles. The Folks Nation maintained their ground from within prison property to drug-ruffled streets.
While Hoover was incarcerated, he ran the gang's illicit drug trade both in prison and on the streets, starting from Chicago's West Side and later extending throughout the United States. Similarly, certain parts of the affiliated Folks Nation alliance began to expand to parts of the United States Midwest. As of 2022, the Gangster Disciples has confirmed expansions to Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Memphis and Hoover's birthplace of Jackson.
The Folks Nation, including that of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation, also personified a rivalry with the People Nation, which included other gangs such as the Almighty Black P. Stone Nation (run by Jeff Fort, who today shares the same prison facility as Hoover and is also a Mississippi-born native), Almighty Vice Lord Nation, Latin Kings, Mickey Cobras, South Side Almighty Insane Popes (the South Side faction were rivals with the Simon City Royals, Satan Disciples and Two Six’s, causing them to splinter themselves from the North Side faction), Almighty Saints and the Four Corner Hustlers. The Gangster Disciples also engaged in a city rivalry with a South Memphis crew, the Love Murdering Gangsters (formerly LMG Mafia).
From Gangster Disciple to Growth & Development
In 1978 Larry Hoover was shipped to Pontiac after successfully organizing a prison protest against the subhuman conditions in stateville. When he arrived at Pontiac he found the conditions were even worse than stateville and within months there was a rebellion at Pontiac, causing Larry Hoover, Ike Taylor, Benny Lee from the vice lords and 14 other gang leader to be charged with the murder of 3 correctional officers and to be placed on death row. While attorney Chokwe Lumumba helped them fight their case, Larry & Ike vowed that they would come up with something for their organization to avoid ever being in this position again. When they were acquitted of all charges in May 1981, they were sent back to stateville and by September of that same year they released “the new concept of organization” which changed the Black Gangster Disciple structure from loosely affiliated Gangstee & Disciple sets/crews with different laws, and gang structures into one standardized formation with 1 common structure and literature. Between 1982 and 1989 Larry Hoover encouraged peace between the BGDs and BDs and tried to get them back into the BGD fold(all would be for naught come 1991). in 1987 Hoover claimed to have renounced his violent criminal past as well as Gangster Disciples as a criminal gang and became an urban political celebrity in Chicago. His good behavior earned him a spot at a minimum security facility in Vienna where he had unprecedented freedom for a convict of his stature. In 1993 Hoover proclaimed that the GD initials had changed to mean "Growth & Development." This change was revealed to the world at a massive picnic in Kankakee Illinois. He had planned on abandoning the drug trade entirely as he had amassed more than enough capital to go legit. He had also planned to formally end the war between the Folks & The People by combining the stars into a 7 instead of a 6 or a 5. Jeff Fort was reportedly on board with this idea.
As of July 2022, Hoover confirms that he no longer affiliates with the Gangster Disciples and wants "no part" of the gang "whatsoever". He also claims that he was "no longer the Larry Hoover people sometimes talk about, or he who is written about in the papers, or the crime figure described by the government." Many believed it was a ruse for his plan to have his sentence reduced or either way appealed.
