The Conservative Vice Lords have roots that date back to the early 1950s on the west side of Chicago.  They were not known as Vice Lords back then but just as an athletic club called the 14th street Clovers.  Members of the crew got into some trouble and found themselves incarcerated in the St. Charles reformatory for boys.  Inside the reformatory the boys came together and formed a bond that consisted of boys from the Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s west side.  One of the goals was to unite Northside, Westside, and South side Lawndale boys.  The unity was called the Vice Lords.  The gang was founded by Edward Pepilow Perry, the year was 1957.  The organization’s first chief was Alfonso Alfred.  In 1958 many of the boys were released from the reformatory and went back to their homes in the Lawndale neighborhood.  They took Vice Lord to the streets, and they congregated on the corner of 16th and Lawndale, their first hood (the conservative part of their name did not arise till later years, so they were just known as Vice Lords at first).  Right away the Vice Lords were off to a really bad start.  They became a very violent street gang that mugged, robbed, murdered, and beat people severely, they were also known for stealing hub caps off cars.  They engaged in violent battles with rival gangs all throughout the late 50s and early 60s.  The Lawndale neighborhood was sadly stricken with extreme poverty and hopelessness.  Young Vice Lords were in it for survival as many gangs were back in those days; this made VLs act out violently.  The frustration with their situation built within them which caused them to act out and become labeled the most violent gang in Chicago in the mid-1960s, as they terrorized their neighborhood and caused people to fear them, and it made many want to join them, they soon swelled to a whopping 8,000 members.  The turn around for the Vice lords began one hot July night in the year 1964 when the leaders of 8 out of 26 groups of VLs met and decided that the way that they were going wasn’t good for their future.  On that night they decided to become Conservative, thus Conservative Vice Lord (CVL) was born. 

During the mid-60s the CVLs had to struggle with negativity in their neighborhood and their own members engaging in criminal activities while in the mean time leaders were trying to begin a positive new move.  Taking the gang to a new positive direction didn’t become successful until the year 1967.  In 1967 CVL changed their ways drastically, steering toward of positive approach that was to better their neighborhood and the youths in it.  Bobby Gore was appointed spokesman (not chief) of CVL because he had a vision of repairing CVL and the Lawndale neighborhood.  Bobby Gore was a VL since 1958 so he was an original member; before he was VL he was a Clover gang member (Clover-African American athletic gang from the west side that used to battle the Egyptian Cobras now known as Mickey Cobras).  Gore created CVL incorporated with the help of David Dawley.  David Dawley was the first white vice lord.  Dawley had one goal and that was to help CVL and Lawndale improve, and he was sincere in his work.  David Dawley was a full-fledged member of CVL and had protection and love from all CVLs because of the positive things that he did for CVLs and the thousands of dollars that Dawley was able to help CVL obtain from the government.  In 1967 CVL did not want to be known as a gang anymore as they opened up several establishments and worked with corporations and other groups that would help CVL to better their community. 

In 1968 CVL leaders went to Washington D.C. and were able to obtain government grants in order to open up legit businesses, social clubs, hang outs, educational programs etc.  CVL also opened an exchange program with New York City.  CVL opened such establishments as: Teen Town-a hangout for young teenagers to congregate instead of getting in trouble, a pool hall, the African Lion, two Tastee Freeze parlors, Simone Cosmetic-which sold cosmetics for African Americans and was funded by Sammy Davis jr., the West Side Paper stock Co-which was created to encourage recycling, many times they would collect paper from schools and the classrooms that brought the most paper would get a free lunch, CVL INC. worked with tenant rights action groups to prevent slum lords from ripping people off, there were two houses of Lords established that were for teen hang ins that was designed to keep kids off street corners or not be arrested for foolish reasons by Police that just wanted to arrest them for no good reasons, these houses of Lords were designed for teens to come in and do their homework after school there was even tutoring available for them, CVL INC. established management training programs to help teach management training to youths, there was also the Malcolm X GED program for people in the neighborhood that wanted their GED.  These groups and others were designed to help impoverished Lawndale residents to better themselves and get jobs or have a safe haven.  CVL INC. also assisted in the cleanup of dirty and dilapidated areas and making better living conditions for residents of Lawndale.  CVL Inc paid several employees with government funded monies, thus giving impoverished African American jobs, legit jobs.  CVL Inc. and CVLs did a lot of good in the Lawndale neighborhood, a neighborhood that they were once destroying.  The goodness of CVL would soon fall into turmoil.  In the fall of 1969, David Dawley returned to the east coast; However, he sent CVL thousands of dollars in grant money.  But on the negative side, Dawley was gone which meant one less positive leader for CVL.  Then Bobby Gore was arrested on November 14th, 1969 for the murder of 23 year old Thomas Williams which occurred on the corner of Ogden and Holmen.  Bobby Gore did not commit the murder; however, the jury thought he did and he was convicted on march 10, 1970 and sentenced to 25-40 years in prison.  The CVL president Alfonso Alford died of a stroke in February, 1969.  Edward Perry resigned as a leader so did Bobby Gore. 

By late 1970 to 1971 funding to CVL Inc. halted and the CVL businesses and clubs were closed down.  In 1971 the Vice lords began their road back into a criminal organization as positive leaders that they once turned to were either dead or locked up or retired.  In 1971 Vice Lords split into factions, or separate gangs.  Each faction had/has a separate leader.  Willie Johnson AKA Minister Rico took over as leader of CVL and the Vice Lord nation.  When Willie Johnson took over VL he made the VLN open to ALL races to join the VLN (of course some factions did not want other races in) but the main concept was for all races to join.  This is how CVL and other VL factions have taken in other races over the years; however, other races joining VLN did not grow to large numbers till about the late 80s even though the racial boundary was diminished.