Flying over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy
()
About this ebook
Set during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Flying over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy is the story of one boy's struggle with race, poverty, and identity in a city -- and a country -- grappling with the same issues. Tommy's classmates at the exclusive Collegiate School for Boys, which he attends on scholarship, dare not venture above the city's Mason-Dixon Line of 96th Street into the unknown territory of muggers, gangs, and junkies. Tommy, however, slowly makes new friends on the local basketball courts and at church, and discovers a different East Harlem, one where an exuberant human spirit hides within the oppressive projects and drab tenements, fighting to break through the cracked sidewalks. Webber interweaves the nation's growing Civil Rights movement -- from watching on television the forced integration of Little Rock's Central High School to participating in the famous 1963 March on Washington -- with the subtler, more immediate changes he observes in the lives of his friends and neighbors.
In simple yet compelling prose, lit by the candor and innocence of childhood, Webber brings to life his East Harlem: children playing under gushing fire hydrants; the piraguas man and his pushcart of rainbow-colored icies; Fourth of July barbecues on rooftops; heated games of 5-2 on the public school courts; streets teeming with ugliness, anger, and despair, but also alive with color, community, and hope.
Thomas L. Webber
Thomas L. Webber is the founder and Superintendent/Executive Director of Edwin Gould Academy, a coeducational, residential treatment school for adolescents in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. He is considered an expert on the needs of so-called troubled youth and on the future of education in inner cities. A graduate of Harvard College with a Ph.D. in education from Columbia University, Webber is the author of Deep Like the Rivers, the acclaimed book on how African-Americans preserved and nurtured their values under slavery. Webber served for seven years as an elected member of Community School Board 4 in East Harlem, the neighborhood where he and his wife raised their family, the neighborhood they continue to call home.
Related to Flying over 96th Street
Related ebooks
Street-Gang and Tribal-Warrior Autobiographies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrung Out: A Novella Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhetto Brother: How I Found Peace in the South Bronx Street Gang Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFamily Tradition: Three Generations of Hank Williams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soul Cries: In Black & White and Shades of Gray Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Revolution: My Life in the Black Panther Party Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwelve Years a Slave: A True Story of Betrayal, Kidnap and Slavery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRival Street Gangs Versus the Accused: A Novella Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Gangster: And Other Tales of New York Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dreams Are Unfinished Thoughts: When a Fan Befriends a Drug-Addicted Rock Star Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Flowers for Brother Mudd: One Woman’S Path from Jim Crow to Career Diplomat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrison Truth: The Story of the San Quentin News Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Lewis: Courage in Action Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoldiering through Empire: Race and the Making of the Decolonizing Pacific Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Chance To Be A Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrips And Bloods: High Risk and Big Dreams: Part 1 of 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHouston: City Streets Homeless Kids Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPuerto Rico City - A Novel (English Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Big House: On Tick Bite Rd Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEskimo Star: From the Tundra to Tinseltown, the Ray Mala Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of an Iyeska Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Night in Mississippi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans: Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Out in L.A.: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1983 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFematales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShowdown in Desire: The Black Panthers Take a Stand in New Orleans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Geographies of African American Short Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Undertaker: A Memoir of the First Woman Funeral Director in the Core of Brooklyn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGrowing Up White Trash Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Biographies For You
The Woman Who Could Not Forget Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incest: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1932–1934 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love," The Unexpurgated Diary (1931–1932) of Anaïs Nin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Molly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Very Best of Maya Angelou: The Voice of Inspiration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Real Lolita: A Lost Girl, an Unthinkable Crime, and a Scandalous Masterpiece Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Distance Between Us: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln Lawyer: A Mysterious Profile Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Teacher Man: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Baldwin: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons & Love Affairs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and Harper Lee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writers and Their Notebooks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Precious Days: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Govt Cheese a memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Confessions of a Bookseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shakespeare: The World as Stage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Flying over 96th Street
0 ratings0 reviews