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When Crack Was King : A Peoples History Of A Misunderstood Era
Hardback Edition: 1
A definitive report on how crack cocaine decimated the Black community throughout the 1980s and '90s. Journalist Ramsey chronicles two devastating decades when crack use was rampant and many entities turned a blind eye to the nationwide catastrophe. The author vividly recalls his adolescence in Columbus, Ohio, with "kids who grew up like me--poor and Black in the midst of the crack epi-demic." When the epidemic finally subsided, Ramsey and many other survivors were left with "speculation and innuendo." In 2015, he began deeply researching "the facts of crack--what it was, where it came from, and how it spread." The author compassionately profiles four individuals whose lives were affected by crack: Elgin Swift, a White man who became an ambitious, self-made success story despite being raised by a neglectful addict father; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and Los Angeles sex worker who became a substance abuse counselor; Kurt Schmoke, the first Black mayor of Baltimore, who was both praised and criticized for his early plans to defuse the drug war with decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, a former Newark drug trafficker-turned-upstanding community leader. Interwoven with these intimately depicted, gritty stories is the history of Black America from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century.
Pages : 448
Publisher : Dutton
Publication date : 2023
Subjects: Non-fiction, Published in the USA, Social & Cultural History, Addiction & Therapy, Black & Asian Studies, Urban Communities, Police & Security Services