‘Crips' Author And Former LAUSD Teacher Wants Young Generations To Remember South LA History

When 79-year-old Donald Bakeer walks into this South Los Angeles classroom, he was immediately greeted by a small group of 8-to-10-year olds.

"As-Salaam-Alaikum," the third and fourth graders say, or “peace be unto you.”

“Wa alaikum assalam,” he responds, “and upon you be peace.”

As Bakeer took his seat, the students at the private, Muslim Islah Academy sat down in a semicircle with one goal: to learn about his part in South L.A. history. Bakeer also had something to gain: He wanted to feel like he still mattered.

Recalling history

Bakeer has worn many hats in his life. He fought in the Vietnam War, participated in restaurant sit-ins against discrimination while a student at Howard University in the 1960s, and taught in public schools across South L.A. during periods of police brutality and gang wars.

After observing the violence and unrest unfold in his community, he wrote the 1987 novel Crips: The Story of the L.A. Street Gang from 1971-1985, based on his research and experiences living in the area as a teacher who would watch his students fall into gang life. Crips was later adapted into the 1992 Oliver Stone-produced movie about a father and son who get caught up in L.A.’s gang wars.

He also shook hands with some well-known stars. He met Tupac after writing the novel at the premiere of the movie South Central in 1992.

He talked to Sidney Poitier for an hour during a film event. And he was longtime friends with boxer Muhammad Ali and filmmaker John Singleton.

'Crips' author Donald Bakeer holds his daughter Anjail while his longtime friend, boxer Muhammad Ali, gives her a kiss on the cheek.

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Kenyatta Bakeer

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In 1992, the Los Angeles Times profiled Bakeer, calling him “part preacher, part teacher, part gang expert and always a father figure to the students at Washington High who they turned to when they are down, when they are feeling good and sometimes when they want to kill.”

Back in the classroom

Bakeer retired from teaching about 20 years ago and hasn’t really been back in a classroom setting since. He says he’s missed interacting with young people, so the opportunity to talk to the students at Islah inspired him.

Bakeer is one of the five “elders," or seniors, in the community who the Islah Academy has invited to speak to students about their lived experiences. It’s a way to teach kids about history — regional, national and international.

Azizah Ali, the principal of Islah Academy, said the program is part of a larger community initiative where students are mentored by elders as a part of their restorative justice discipline policy. She said that oftentimes the elders and the wisdom that they have is overlooked, but connecting elders has become a huge part of their community.

“In the last two years, so many elders in our community have passed away,” Ali said. “There’s so much history that goes with those elders that pass away. Why not interview them while they’re still alive? We want to make sure that we get those stories and that history from them while they’re still here and the history teachers connect their stories to primary sources.”

The school calls it the “Living History” program and it was Bakeer’s first time participating.

“[Before this] I kind of had my chin on my chest,” Bakeer says. “As you get older, you have these moods and you feel kind of irrelevant. You don’t really know if you still got it. So this was a good interaction for me. Plus, I got a perception of where these kids actually are.”

A changing Black Los Angeles

When Bakeer first moved to L.A. from Kansas City, Missouri in 1970, L.A. was about 18% Black. Now, the Black population hovers around 8%. At a time when Black Angelenos are leaving the region partially because of high living costs, Bakeer sees the importance of talking to young students about the region. He says it’s a way of helping them understand Black culture and Black community in South L.A., and why it’s necessary to preserve it.

He told the students about what it was like to teach in South L.A. in the past— the need to encourage young people to read so that they wouldn’t go into gangs. He highlighted the evolution of this community.

“That spirit, that South Central L.A. uniqueness is being preserved, there is a pride that keeps us going,” Bakeer says. “Though we don’t have the numbers like we used to, we still are prominent because of our culture.”

According to L.A. County data, between 1980 and 2009, there were nearly 14,000 gang homicides. In the 1980s, Bakeer researched gangs and interviewed more than 500 gang members before writing the Crips novel. He said that he became so knowledgeable about gang culture that CNN would hire him as a gang expert.

Bakeer tells the students about his protest sit-ins and how he taught in three different middle and high schools in the area for more than 30 years. He talks about his book and the screenplay and film that followed. That’s when one of the students asks a question that amazes him: “What is a gangbanger?”

“They were boys mostly who come together in packs who fight other boys,” Bakeer replies. “And they killed a lot of people. They don’t kill a lot of people like they used to.”

Bakeer says he remembers teaching at Manual Arts High School, just south of Exposition Park, and hearing about more than a dozen high school student murders a year around L.A.

Though his family lived in South Central, they moved to a gated community in Inglewood shortly after because of the violence in the streets.

“These youngsters get so much information from radio and television that they become anti-literary and it just frustrated me,” Bakeer said in the article from 1992. “I said, ‘I’m going to write a book that’s so compelling that kids who can’t read will want to read.’”

And 32 years later, he was still encouraging the students to read at the academy.

At the end of the 40-minute conversation, his daughter Kenyatta Bakeer told the students they can feel safer now because of the fight that people like her father had to experience.

Kenyatta Bakeer spoke up about why it’s so important for students to know about her dad’s part in history in South Central and in America. He lived in a time as a teacher where he saw a lot of gang violence. In another article, he said that he wrote Crips so that kids in gangs could read a book.

“They need to know the history of what Blackness looks like. So we're connecting the elders to students so we can let children know our history,” Kenyatta said. “Now they have the ability to not even worry, like he said, they can go to a restaurant and not worry about being discriminated against. The connection is knowing where you come from, so that you can know what your future is.”

She also talked about why this is so important for her father.

“I think it’s just crucial and critical for us to keep that connection with the elders,” Kenyatta said. “And in a space of making sure that our history is heard, but also that they feel heard.”

Making an impression

When thinking about his own life — the time he served in Vietnam when there were no Black officers, the times he spent protesting against racist laws in the Jim Crow era, the times he spent witnessing police brutality and gang wars in South L.A. — he remarks about the importance of sharing his story.

“I've had quite an historical life,” Bakeer says. “You know, that's a certain amount of courage that comes out of those experiences, when you vanquish them with your spirit. I do want to pass it on to the youth.”

And Bakeer’s stories do make an impression.

“It makes me feel proud because of all of the things they’ve gone through and it helps accomplish my goals,” says a student named Yusra Ghazi.

Bakeer says that he still has students that call him three decades later to keep him updated on what they are doing in their lives.

“When you teach 150 to 200 kids a day for 30 years, it’s a powerful position,” he says. “They open themselves up to you, and you could just put your experience and your knowledge into them. Most people have no idea about the bond that you build with students.”

To learn more about the "Living History" program and/or how to get involved, you can get in contact with the school.