Fourth Grade
Worksheets
The Gang's All Here!
An old song begins with the phrase, "Hail, hail, the gang's all here!" In this song, "the gang" meant a group of friends. Having everyone together meant happy times. Today's gangs are not happy groups. Today's gangs cause trouble in many ways. Gangs hurt their members. They hurt their communities.
The common definition of a gang has changed. One definition of the word "gang" is this: "a group of persons working to unlawful or antisocial ends."
Gangs have been around for a long time in the United States. Some have been traced back to the days following the American Revolution. In the 1800s, rough-rider Billy the Kid and the James Gang roamed the Wild West. Irish immigrants formed gangs in the early 19th century in New York City. Some of these gangs had crazy names, such as the WhyOs, the Dead Rabbits, and the Plug Uglies. By the 1920s and 1930s, many young immigrants formed violent street gangs. The city of Chicago alone had over 1,300 dangerous gangs.
