Baddest Troop Alive

“Get whitey!” they chanted marching toward their Redwoods campsite in the dimming light of dusk, wielding clubs and rocks. They were Troop 1135, mostly African-American inner city Boy Scouts. Whitey was their scoutmaster. Was this for real? It sure looked like it. In 1968, just three years after the Watts Riot, 21-year-old UCLA student Steve Hauser started Troop 1135 in the heart of the riot area of South Central Los Angeles. What began as a ragtag mix of boys with a penchant for disruptive antics and racial distrust, evolved into a cohesive Boy Scout troop – a vehicle for fun and character development. Baddest Troop Alive is the story of inner city Boy Scouts and their young naïve white scoutmaster. Former scouts’ share thoughts about their experiences and what they did with what they learned when they grew up. It is a personal story of growth, both in the boys and in their white leader, within the larger story of the civil rights movement.