NCJ Number
208854
Date Published
1997
Length
203 pages
Annotation
This book presents the lives of two boys who live on the South Side of Chicago near the Ida B. Wells housing development.
Abstract
Our America offers a unique look at life in the inner city of Chicago from the perspective of two teenage boys, one who lives in the Ida B. Wells housing development and another who lives around the corner from it. Armed with tape recorders, these two boys spent about a year recording their everyday lives and interviewing the people with whom they routinely interact. They tell their stories of life in their neighborhood and often liken it to living in Vietnam during the war. LeAlan, one of the boys, talks about one of his classmates who stopped going to school in order to sell drugs. When LeAlan questioned his classmate about dropping out of school, the boy responded that school did not teach him anything and he would be dead soon anyway because someone would shoot him over drugs. Another of LeAlan’s interviews is conducted with a 17-year-old mother who dropped out of school to raise her baby. She spoke of at least 25 of her friends who had been killed in and around the Ida B. Wells housing development. The book also contains interviews and commentary regarding the murder of 5-year-old Eric Morse, who was dropped out of a window at the housing development by two boys, ages 10 and 11 years. LeAlan leaves the reader with the contention that there are two America’s: one in the ghetto and one outside of the ghetto. In order to create one America, it is important that we learn about one another. In signing off, LeAlan remarks, “I hope I survive. I hope I survive. I hope I survive.” Biographies