The Chambers Brothers were a criminal organization heavily involved in the distribution of

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...

in the city of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, during the 1980s. The brothers consisted of: B.J., Larry, Willie and Otis Chambers. They also had three other sisters and a set of twin brothers. One of the twins, Fredrick, became known for being a top notch military drill sergeant in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The siblings moved to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, while the four brothers became notorious nationally when the

Detroit Police Department The Detroit Police Department (DPD) is a municipal police force based in and responsible for the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1865, it has nearly 2,500 officers, making it the largest law enforcement organization in Michigan. Histo ...

confiscated video tapes of the brothers counting their laundry baskets full of money, and flaunting their excessive wealth. Their mother died in 2003.

Cultural effects

In the novel ''Warpath'' by Jeffry Scott Hansen, the street gang the Six-Mile Syndicate is based loosely on the Chambers Brothers gang. In the 1991 film ''

New Jack City ''New Jack City'' is a 1991 American action crime film based upon an original story and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, and directed by Mario Van Peebles in his feature film directorial debut. Released in the United Stat ...

'', the character Nino Brown and his associates were largely based on the Chambers Brothers. As in the movie, the Chambers Brothers were also known for taking over an apartment complex known as the Broadmoor on E. Grand Blvd and Ferry St. on the lower east side in

(name was changed to "The Carter" in the film), which was used to house the gang’s drug-selling operations.

References

External links

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

's '' American Gangster'' first aired on January 9, 2007.''American Gangster'': The Chambers Brothers
*''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine article from 1988 describing the gang
"I'm going to Detroit!"
*''Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest for the American Dream in the Age of Crack'', Adler, William M. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers Brothers Former gangs in Detroit African-American history in Detroit African-American gangsters American gangsters African-American organized crime groups