Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for 61st Street.
61st Street, AMC’s legal drama that revolves around Chicago’s notoriously corrupt criminal justice system, tackles uncomfortable truths about society—but is it based on a true story? The short answer is no, 61st Street isn’t based on a single true story or account of real events. The legal drama is entirely fictional. That said, similar to other legal and crime dramas like The Wire, Law & Order, and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, 61st Street tells a story that’s rooted in grim social realities.
61st Street‘s plot revolves around the fate of Moses Johnson, a teenager who’s headed to college on a scholarship. Moses finds himself at the wrong place and at the wrong time when he and his brother Joshua inadvertently get involved in a drug bust gone wrong, which results in the death of police officer Michael Rossi. Franklin Roberts, a public attorney at Chicago’s Cook County court, finds out about Moses’ case. Unable to bear the thought of yet another young man getting eaten alive by Chicago’s criminal justice system, Roberts decides to represent Moses in court.
61st Street may not be based on a single true story, but its plot hits very close to home for the Black communities in the city of Chicago. Unlike the popular police procedural series Chicago P.D., which focuses on the virtues of the city’s police department, 61st Street is a head-first dive into the systemic injustice, racism, police brutality, and gang culture that pervades the city in present times. This can be observed in how 61st Street main antagonist Lieutenant Brannigan, who proudly displays a Blue Lives Matter flag in his office, also utilizes racially-motivated police brutality and is willing to bend the truth to control the narrative in favor of the cops. Meanwhile, the unfortunate experiences of Moses Johnson and his family are evocative of the plight of Black communities being unjustly targeted by a misguided police force and America’s rigged criminal justice system.
61st Street also deeply tackles the fact that Chicago is the most gang-affiliated city in the U.S. 61st Street’s gangs are based on real organizations, much like the other fictional gangs and syndicates in modern television. Today, Chicago is home to an estimated 150,000 gang members, divided across 50 to 70 gangs and 700 gang factions currently active in the city. The name of 61st Street‘s Nation gang is based on the Almighty Black P. Stone Nation, an active street gang that was founded in the ’50s, has historic ties to the Black nationalist movement and international governments, and is considered by Chicago law enforcement to be one of the city’s most powerful and sophisticated street gangs.
Meanwhile, 61st Street‘s the Faction could take its name from how Chicago’s main gangs eventually split or develop into other groups, suggesting that the Faction could have been once part of the Nation. 61st Street is entirely fictional, but it’s also based on the real problems faced by Chicago’s Black communities today. This is what makes 61st Street a great addition to the recent slew of series and movies focused on racial representation and diversity. Apart from telling a compelling story, 61st Street aims to spark crucial and timely conversations about systemic injustice in America.
61st Street releases new episodes Sundays on AMC and AMC+.
