Northwestern Law Grad Was Part of Dartmouth Program to Educate Chicago Gang Members
A 1960s-era Dartmouth program to educate Chicago gang members with an aptitude for public speaking produced seven graduates, including one who went on to Northwestern Law School.
A reporter writing for Chicago Magazine tracked down details of the program after learning about it from a legal aid lawyer who was surprised to find out that a few of his clients had attended Dartmouth. Fifteen men were admitted to the program and eight dropped out.
“The program was instigated with the hope, perhaps naive, that astonishing Horatio Alger stories would spring from Chicago’s ghetto,” the Chicago Magazine story says. “It was not, by most metrics, a roaring success. … Those who got degrees never made it to the pinnacle of their professions.”
The first men enrolled in the program in 1967 were Henry Jordan and Allan “Tiny” Evans, according to the story. They attended the school on scholarships provided by Dartmouth grad Ken Montgomery, a partner at Wilson & McIlvaine who was heir to the C. W. Post cereal fortune. Jordan had been a high-ranking member of the Vice Lords, and Evans was a member of a gang later absorbed by the Vice Lords.
Jordan graduated Dartmouth, and went on to graduate from Northwestern Law School, “but his heart was not in it,” the story says. He never passed the bar. He worked at some law firms, but regarded himself as a token black, according to a friend who spoke to Chicago Magazine. He also taught art in the Cabrini Green housing project and considered that effort more rewarding. He has since suffered two strokes.
Evans worked at an accounting firm, as a used car salesman, as a case manager in a mental health program, and in a program to help gang members. Later he got a master’s degree and taught in the Chicago Public Schools. “I don’t have a lot of money, but I am rich,” he told Chicago Magazine. Most of his grandchildren are in college or have plans to attend.
