When Crack Was King
When Crack Was King

Author: Donovan X. Ramsey

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2024-07-02

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 0525511814

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LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic “A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction in Black communities.”—The Washington Post “A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history . . . insightful . . . and deeply moving.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • ONE OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND VULTURE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, She Reads, Electric Lit, The Mary Sue The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality. When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers. Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.

Crack
Crack

Author: David Farber

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-10-10

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1108425275

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The crack cocaine years: from deviant globalization to the 'get money' culture of late twentieth-century America.

80's Baby
80's Baby

Author: Ty Marshall

Publisher:

Published: 2016-02-12

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9780998441917

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By the beginning of the 1980's, the Bronx had become a godforsaken slum, making it the ideal location for an epidemic. That epidemic arrived in the form of crack cocaine, which hit the streets with a savage force setting off an explosion of violent crime unlike anything ever seen before. The birth of crack brought with it more money, more guns and more gangs. The faces of which were younger, hungrier and more vicious than their predecessors.In 1986, Hassan, a student of the streets put those lessons to work, ascending above all other ghetto dons and planting his flag at the top of the drug game. After successfully merging the North and Southside, Hassan ceases control of the largest projects in The Bronx, The Edenwald Houses. With maximum power and unlimited resources he and his crew reign supreme over the crack trade. But what crack giveth, crack taketh away as jealousy, rival crews and the federal government began chipping away at his once mighty empire. Enter Rhae, a beautiful, around the way girl, raised in the same unforgiven streets. After falling in love with Hassan, she tries convincing him to leave the game behind. But old habits die hard and the allure is stronger than either of them could imagine proving to be easier said than done.

The Heavens Might Crack
The Heavens Might Crack

Author: Jason Sokol

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2018-03-20

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1541697391

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A vivid portrait of how Americans grappled with King's death and legacy in the days, weeks, and months after his assassination On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. At the time of his murder, King was a polarizing figure -- scorned by many white Americans, worshipped by some African Americans and liberal whites, and deemed irrelevant by many black youth. In The Heavens Might Crack, historian Jason Sokol traces the diverse responses, both in America and throughout the world, to King's death. Whether celebrating or mourning, most agreed that the final flicker of hope for a multiracial America had been extinguished. A deeply moving account of a country coming to terms with an act of shocking violence, The Heavens Might Crack is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand America's fraught racial past and present.

A Crack in the Sea
A Crack in the Sea

Author: H. M. Bouwman

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0399545190

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"Pip, a young boy who can speak to fish, and his sister Kinchen set off on a great adventure, joined by twins with magical powers, refugees fleeing post-war Vietnam, and some helpful sea monsters"--

The Once and Future King
The Once and Future King

Author: T. H. White

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 649

ISBN-13:

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DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Dark Alliance
Dark Alliance

Author: Gary Webb

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2011-01-04

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 1609802020

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Major Motion Picture based on Dark Alliance and starring Jeremy Renner, "Kill the Messenger," to be be released in Fall 2014 In August 1996, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb stunned the world with a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News reporting the results of his year-long investigation into the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, specifically in Los Angeles. The series, titled “Dark Alliance,” revealed that for the better part of a decade, a Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to Los Angeles street gangs and funneled millions in drug profits to the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras. Gary Webb pushed his investigation even further in his book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Drawing from then newly declassified documents, undercover DEA audio and videotapes that had never been publicly released, federal court testimony, and interviews, Webb demonstrates how our government knowingly allowed massive amounts of drugs and money to change hands at the expense of our communities. Webb’s own stranger-than-fiction experience is also woven into the book. His excoriation by the media—not because of any wrongdoing on his part, but by an insidious process of innuendo and suggestion that in effect blamed Webb for the implications of the story—had been all but predicted. Webb was warned off doing a CIA expose by a former Associated Press journalist who lost his job when, years before, he had stumbled onto the germ of the “Dark Alliance” story. And though Internal investigations by both the CIA and the Justice Department eventually vindicated Webb, he had by then been pushed out of the Mercury News and gone to work for the California State Legislature Task Force on Government Oversight. He died in 2004.

Summary of Donovan Ramsey's When Crack Was King
Summary of Donovan Ramsey's When Crack Was King

Author: Milkyway Media

Publisher: Milkyway Media

Published: 2024-02-08

Total Pages: 22

ISBN-13:

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Get the Summary of Donovan Ramsey's When Crack Was King in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "When Crack Was King" by Donovan Ramsey offers a multifaceted exploration of the crack epidemic's impact on the Black community. Through personal stories, Ramsey illustrates the profound effects of the drug on individuals and society. Elgin Swift's transformation from a troubled youth in Yonkers to a successful car salesman and investor contrasts with his PTSD and fear of poverty. Miss Woodley's journey from a three-decade crack addiction to becoming a substance abuse counselor exemplifies the potential for recovery...

Folly
Folly

Author: Laurie R. King

Publisher: Bantam

Published: 2002-05-28

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0553381512

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An acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life--or end it. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR WORST FEARS AREN’T ALL IN YOUR MIND? Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world. She has moved to an island at the far reaches of the continent to restore the house of an equally haunted figure, her mysterious great-uncle; but as her life begins to rebuild itself along with the house, his story starts to wrap around hers. Powerful forces are stirring, but Rae cannot see where her reality leaves off and his fate begins. Fifty-two years old, Rae must battle the feelings that have long tormented her--panic, melancholy, and a skin-crawling sense of watchers behind the trees. Before she came here, she believed that most of the things she feared existed only in her mind. And who can say, as disturbing incidents multiply, if any of the watchers on Folly Island might be real? Is Rae paranoid, as her family and the police believe, or is the threat real? Is the island alive with promise--or with dangers? With Folly, award-winning author LAURIE R. KING once again powerfully redefines psychological suspense on a sophisticated and harrowing new level, and proves why legions of readers and reviewers have named her a master of the genre.

The Crack Era
The Crack Era

Author: Kevin Chiles

Publisher:

Published: 2019-11

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780979171093

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The Crack Era: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Kevin Chiles chronicles one of the most treacherous periods in New York City's history. As told by a man The New York Times once described as, "The biggest drug lord in Harlem since Nicky Barnes," Chiles lays bare the harrowing exploits of the narcotics trade Uptown during the late '80s and early '90s - a world where the lust for freebase cocaine set off a veritable gold rush that turned ghetto boys into young millionaires almost overnight. "Baseheads" wreaked havoc on the black community. What's worse, upper Manhattan became the epicenter of murder and mayhem as drug related killings pushed the city's annual death toll well into the thousands. A teenager at the time, Kevin earned a rep' as a boss among bosses and, along with a handful of hustlers from his 'hood, he would directly influence the very music and fashion that ushered in the golden age of hip hop. The crack epidemic parlayed money, power, and respect for Kev but it also took his freedom as well as the lives of close friends and family. Now, this candid memoir exposes liars, dispels urban myths, and sheds light on an otherwise dark epoch that has bittersweet implications for many today. Having seen and survived it all, one of America's most iconic street figures recounts a bygone era of fast cash and high stakes hustling in Harlem.