John C. Quicker Collection

Dr. John Quicker was born in 1943 in New York to John, a police sergeant, and Helen, who worked as an information operator for a phone company. Experiences of growing up in a working class neighborhood on Long Island such as working odd jobs from the age of 8 and getting into trouble with other neighborhood kids, would inform his research as a sociologist into delinquency and gangs throughout his life. Dr. Quicker knew early on that he wanted to attend college as a way of accessing white collar opportunities. Early experiences with law enforcement informed his decision to leave New York for his undergraduate experience and ultimately led him to the University of Colorado, Boulder. There, Dr. Quicker obtained both undergraduate and doctorate degrees in sociology. Professors in the department such as Howard Higman and Delbert Elliott made significant impacts on Quicker's work, both as a researcher and an instructor. This period of Dr. Quicker's life in Boulder also coincided with major social upheavals occurring in broader American life, such as the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. These experiences informed his work as a sociologist as they embodied both a culture's capacity for change and its resistance to such change.

Invited by founding faculty member of the Sociology Department, Herman Loether, Dr. Quicker arrived at California State Unviersity Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) in 1970. With the school very much in its infancy, Dr. Quicker quickly made his mark on the department, introducing such popular courses as Criminology, and Delinquency, as well as eventually serving as department chair for a two-year period during which he guided the department through a campus-wide transition from a quarter to semester-based calendar.

Quicker would go on to introduce the popular Gangs and Adolescent Subcultures course to the department, informed by research he conducted for the city of Los Angeles regarding Chicana gangs. One of the earliest serious academic investigations into female gangs, this research would significantly impact the rest of Dr. Quicker's professional life, much of which has been dedicated to researching gangs, particularly in Southern California. This research was enabled, in part, by Dr. Quicker's connections with his students. Having learned from his mentors at Boulder, Dr. Quicker strove to treat his students, many of whom were in their 30s with well-established lives, as equals. This approach to teaching enabled him to connect with his student Akil S. Batani-Khalfani, also known as "Bird," with whom Dr. Quicker would go on to partner in researching and writing the 2022 book Before Crips: Fussin', Cussin', and Discussin' among South Los Angeles Juvenile Gangs.

This collection contains Dr. Quicker's research on gangs, accumulated over decades, as well as related interests in social rebellions, CSUDH, and political commentary.