In describing her son's experiences, the author examines the plight of black parents who fear that the violence and crime of American society will endanger the lives of their children.
Benji Cooper, the son of a doctor and a lawyer, is one of very few African-American students at an elite Manhattan prep school in 1985, which is why he so looks forward to summer when he and his brother Reggie, left alone for most of the week while their parents work, can relax within the comfortable confines of the community of professional African-Americans that spend the warm months at Sag Harbor.
an eyewitness account of the kidnapping of Emmett Till
Wright, Simeon
2010
Simeon Wright, the cousin of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African-American who was beaten and killed in 1955 for whistling at a white woman, reflects on what it was like to grow up in Mississippi during the 1940s and 1950s, reveals details about the night Emmett was kidnapped, and reflects on how the crime and trial affected his family and the community.
Chronicles the 1955 murder in Money, Mississippi, of Chicago teenager, Emmett Till, by local store owner Roy Bryant and his brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, the trial and acquittal that followed, and how the incident impacted the civil rights movement.
In the African American community of East Liberty, Chris "Crest" Tolbert, left paralyzed following a recent accident, struggles to come to terms with the implications of his injuries and with the loss of his best friend in the same accident.
Romeo Braxton's decision over which college football program to accept a scholarship from is put on the back burner after his older brother, Kwame, is released from prison and his absentee mother comes back into their lives and is beaten up by thugs, forcing him to figure out who really supports him and what he wants for his future.
