Gang Members Test Capitalist Waters : Marketing: Bloods and Crips, bound by a truce, form Hands Across Watts. They hope that nonprofit corporation will lead them into the mainstream.

With a lawyer and business executives in tow, the Bloods and Crips of Watts took an unprecedented step from the fringe existence of gang life Friday, announcing the formation of a nonprofit corporation they hope will lead them into the mainstream of American life.

Speaking from a table covered with waterless carwash samples and gang truce T-shirts they hope to market throughout the city, gang members declared that they are ready to leave violence behind in exchange for a shot at the capitalist dream.

“This is our first step,” said Daude Sherills, a lifelong resident of the Jordan Downs housing project and president of the new organization. “We are going to get into the mainstream. This here is to open up the door.”

The corporation, Hands Across Watts, is starting its fund-raising efforts, aimed at reaching $100,000, with a plan to sell the carwash spray and T-shirts. But they are hoping for a burst of corporate donations to support job training, child care and recreational programs in the area.

They have attracted the attention of several companies eager not only to help the fledgling organization, but also profit from increased exposure in black communities.

During the group’s news conference Friday at the Imperial Courts housing project, a movie executive circulated among the crowd, promising to donate the proceeds from a series of benefit screenings to Hands Across Watts.

The distributors of the waterless carwash spray stood with gang members, touting the product’s ability to put people to work and generate “significant” money for the corporation.

“(Businesses) should put their money where their mouth is,” said the Rev. James Stern, secretary of the new corporation. “If you don’t help them now, you may have some problems later.” In May, Stern coordinated a controversial rapprochement proposed between Korean-American grocers and some gang members.

“We’re going to use them like they use us,” said Tony Bogard, a resident of Imperial Courts and vice president of the corporation. “The difference is that we’re going to put the money back into our community.”

The creation of the gang corporation is the latest development in the surprising evolution of the gangs since the riots two months ago.

The Bloods and the Crips emerged from the riots as a visceral new voice from the streets that commanded attention from the established city powers.

The stature of the gangs was further enhanced after the signing of the gang truce, which for the first time ended the bloody warfare between the Bloods and Crips. The truce, based on the 1949 Egypt-Israel peace accord, has largely held firm for the past two months.

Sherills is chief of staff of the Amer-I-Can Program, a self-esteem course for gang members created by former football star Jim Brown, and was a key figure in formulating the truce. He said Hands Across Watts is the logical next step in the gangs’ evolution.

Gang members have begun pushing for increased economic opportunity and political clout. The corporation will allow them to become a more legitimate focus of community action, he said.

“We are empowering people who have never been empowered before,” Sherills said.

The group is planning to start with youth recreation and job training programs. It hopes to become a larger force in the community, running businesses and marshaling the political power of the neighborhoods.

Supporters said the success of the organization will depend on the financial support of corporate America and on the commitment of gang members to embrace a new ethos for their lives.

“It’s straight economics,” Stern said. “I make money off of you, you make money off of me. It’s either join the system or get rolled over by it. That’s the American way.”